Karunaratne wants more Sri Lanka players to get overseas experience
Sri Lanka captain Dimuth Karunaratne has urged his country’s cricket chiefs to help more players enter overseas Twenty20 leagues to make up for the limitations of their domestic structure.
Sri Lanka have failed to replicate their 1996 World Cup triumph in the current tournament, with the retirements of Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara leaving them short of top-class talent.
Sri Lanka, who are already out of the race to reach the semi-finals, take on India in their final group game at Headingley on Saturday.
And Karunaratne said exposing Sri Lankan talent to international tournaments like the Indian Premier League (IPL) and Australia’s Big Bash is the best way to broaden their limited-overs experience.
“In Sri Lanka we have one domestic season. The players have only one chance to showcase their talent in a particular domestic season and we can identify players only that season,” Karunaratne told reporters on Friday.
“We have to close that gap (between domestic and international cricket). We have to give a chance to the players to play in IPL, Big Bash or county cricket.
“We have to give them permission to play in overseas tournament to gain experience and come back. Those are the things I’m expecting from the cricket board after this World Cup.”
Sri Lanka’s veteran paceman Lasith Malinga has been part T20 leagues across the globe, recently winning the IPL title with Mumbai Indians.
Karunaratne’s team revived their flagging World Cup campaign by upsetting hosts England, but they soon suffered a loss to South Africa that shattered their last four hopes.
Karunaratne though has still taken out positives from the campaign as he singled out Avishka Fernando as a future star.
“Avishka Fernando is doing really good. In the last three games, he showed that he can produce some runs for Sri Lanka and he is one of the future stars,” he said.
“If you take the bowling line-up they did really well, especially (Lasith) Malinga and Nuwan Pradeep. Those are the positive points from this World Cup.”
Fernando, 21, hit his maiden international century in the team’s third win of the tournament against the West Indies on Monday, but that was not enough to make the semi-final cut.
Karunaratne, who was appointed captain just ahead of the World Cup after being out of the ODI side since the 2015 edition, said the country’s cricket bosses are keen to start building a squad for the 2023 tournament.
“After 2015 we started to build the World Cup side but unfortunately the players who came in couldn’t perform. We had to change a lot of players,” he said.
“After this World Cup we are trying to have a special plan and identify the players who can give a good performance. We are trying to make a solid 15 players for the next World Cup.”
(AFP)
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the Sri Lankan captain has not heard of Ajantha Mendis who has been discriminated by the then captain Angelo Mathews and the Chief Selector Sanath Jayasooriya who had a shoulder injury and was cured by a Sri Lankan neurosurgeon and declared himself fit a week before the selection of the 2019 world cup team took place which was unfortunate for Sri Lanka for such a person need not have had international experience much more than Malinga and what the Sri Lankan Captain does not appear to know is that with injury and with injections permitted by the ICC he kept 2 records in 20/20 one in palekele where he took 6 wickets for 18 runs against the Aussies and one year later against Zimbawe at Mahindarajapakse grounds 6 wickets for 8 go to click info and you will get confirmation of it
Good…”After this World Cup we are trying to have a special plan and identify the players who can give a good performance. We are trying to make a solid 15 players for the next World Cup.”’ It is said that ‘It s not that people fail to Plan but they Plan to Fail’. SL always plan have big plan by dwell in a fools paradise. There are accusations people betting running the SL Cricket admin, there is a rumor about a “Born-Again’ influence, favoring cricketers from certain schools, changing captains (and players too) like changing cloths, irrational absurd selections.
Sri Lankan Cricket is a mess!