Guwahati: From leadership crisis to infighting in team to poor results to administrative mess, Sri Lanka cricket has endured all in run up to the World Cup and the former champions require no less than a miracle to emerge a worthy challenger this time.
Always a dark horse in this showpiece event, Sri Lanka have an impressive World Cup record with one title, two runner-up finish and one semifinal appearance but this time they will start as the weakest opponent. With selectors axing some big names including Dinesh Chandimal and Niroshan Dickwella, it will be Dimuth Karunaratne, who last played an ODI in the 2015 World Cup, will lead the side. Chandimal and Dickwella both led the side in different formats till early this year before handing the baton to Lasith Malinga under whom they lost 12 games on the trot. That Sri Lanka have seen nine captains in two years across the formats, speaks volumes about the leadership crisis that has struck them. There are also cracks within the team with Angelo Mathews having differences with head coach Chandika Hathurusingha.
Left with little choice, the Ashantha De Mel-led selection committee was forced to bring in Karunaratne, who had led them to a historic 2-0 Tests win in South Africa in February this year, for skipper’s role. For coach Hathurusingha however Chandimal was the preferred choice for captaincy. He had never kept Karunaratne in ODI scheme of things because of his inability to keep pace with the pace of the ODI format. So it remains to be seen how the duo would work in tandem.
Add the recent corruption charges against legendary Sanath Jayasuriya among others, and the Sri Lankan cricket is in desperate times as they never looked so unsettled and in disarray.
It has reflected in their poor performances as they have lost 55 of the 84 ODIs they played since 2015 World Cup and have not won a single bilateral series since May 2016, while their last ODI win had come way back in October last year. (PTI)
