Coach Should Not Be Blamed For Poor Team Performance
Posted on January 31st, 2019
Top spin by Suni
31st Jan 2019
Team fails so the coach is to blame?
No Sir !! Not true at all. It’s the team that has failed in the face of its incapability to face real fast bowling and the lack of good captaincy.The loss of Angelo Mathews surely becomes a pivotal point here.
The performance of the team in the first Test at Brisbane was a shambles on the part of Sri Lanka and a reflection of what the team has been reduced to today regardless of who is coaching.
And it was pretty obvious that some of the team were in poor condition seen by how they ended up being injured, particularly Dushmantha Chameera and Lahiru Kumara to mention a few and gone are the days when the team was a glamour outfit feared by opponents and today seem a bunch of stragglers sans the likes of Ranatunga, de Silva, Sangakkara, Jayawardena, Muralidaran, Dilshan, Vaas et al who brought virtual glory to the team with their glittering performances.
Watching the present Sri Lankan team play at the Gabba it was pathetic and a clear case of “lambs to the slaughter” by an Australian team which had been humbled by the mighty Indians just recently but their fiery quick bowling attack and the spinners who simply ran circles round the Lankans who were well and truly humiliated.
While It may be partly true that coach Hathurusighe is ” paid much more than he deserves and perhaps has become complacent” in the eyes of the pundits it is also true that the response he got from Bangladesh was very different as the players applied themselves and performed equitably to the task.The Sri Lankans seem to be incapable of this for whatever reason and Hathurusinghe is simply not getting that response as the players flounder around and make mistakes leaving the devoted Sri Lankan fans aghast as there has never been such a debacle in recent times despite all the glorious uncertainties of the game where the only thing that seems certain here is the inevitable loss.
Hathurusinghe is an individual who knows his cricket and has given of his best to his Motherland by way of cricket and probably more where what he accomplished with Bangladesh is also a remarkable personality in many ways and should be recognized as a commendable coach where the old adage about taking the horse to water but unable to make it drink seems applicable here and its the players who have only themselves to blame as the coaches whether batting, bowling or fielding can only do so much and somewhat helpless if player responses are apathetic and willy nilly as seems to be the case here.
That he has been stripped of selection rights and has been blamed for Sri Lanka’s poor showing is an ignominy were the previous selection chairman was a joke by comparison as no one knows his players and their capabilities better than him. His selection rights should be restored and greater emphasis needs to be paid towards player conditioning, fitness and the capability to face upto skillful bowling rather than blaming the coach as what he did with Bangladesh must surely be in the offing for Sri Lanka too if they respond equitably to the task.
It’s the players who win or lose a game where the role of the coach albeit pivotal and directional without need for incarceration if the responses are positive.
Hopefully Hathurusinghe will sooner than later get the best out of a young Sri Lankan team where motivation perhaps is the key word.
January 31st, 2019 at 2:36 pm
Hope we won’t hear that Hathuru has resigned!
The whole country is in a mess. What good can you expect when the SC judges are also working against Mother Lanka’s will.
January 31st, 2019 at 4:55 pm
I watched this match at the grounds ( day one) and also one day international when Kulasekara destroyed Australians few years ago.
I agree with the writer, it is extremely unjust to blame everything on coach. There is some political game blaming him as well as one media report saying he belongs to a religious cult. All these are pure nonsense.
Let us review the following.
1. Why the Oct 25 useless political drama made Asantha De Mel becoming chief selector ?
2. Shall we recall Atapattu’s famous statement “selection panel are a bunch of muppets headed by a joker”. That joker has become chief selector yet again and new sports minister likes to keep him due to some reason. This is the man who imported soil to Sri lanka few years ago.
3. Same joker appointed Malinga as ODI and T20 captain, which destroyed team cohesion. Malinga should be out of ANY Sri Lanka team. He has no love for the country.
Let me give some other facts.
1. Roshen Silva is an excellent batsman against spin bowling and very poor against fast bowling.
2. Why didn’t they include Kusal Perera who is a good player of bouncing ball ? When lot of our top batsmen failed in Brisbane ODI last time ( same match Kulasekara destroyed Australia) it was Kusal who scored.
3. Even Sangakkara and Jayawardane failed at this venue, it is not easy to adjust to the bounce. Even Tim Paine got out 1st ball to Lakmal.
My views is Asantha De Mel shall be removed ASAP.
January 31st, 2019 at 6:37 pm
Consistency is the key. We succeeded in 1996 and 2004-2011 thanks to consistency of key players. Vaas, Murali, Sanath, Kalu, Mahela, Sanga and even relatively unfit Arjuna and Aravinda were consistent in playing matches.
Placing inconsistent players in key places destroys this in many ways. When the inconsistent player disappears we are left with a void that cannot be quickly filled. He also takes away the development opportunity of another. If the inconsistent player is the captain, then it is even more damaging. This is the real cost of the particularl inconsistent player.
Then there is commercialization. Our cricketers have managers. Their task is to earn as much as they can. Cricket scores don’t really count.
Removing Hathuru is not the answer.
Then there is the talent problem. Best sporting talent went for cricket in the 1970s to mid 1990s. But today it is not so. They go for rugby and other sport. Sponsorships for cricket is not what it used to be.
We need a radical transformation to bring back former glory.
January 31st, 2019 at 6:59 pm
If the coach can blame then captain publicly and in a most unprofessional manner, why he can not be blamed for the current sorry state of our team. Batting was always our strength. And now our most promising young batsmen are failing regularly. They have forgotten the basics of playing a proper defensive stroke and seems not to know where their off stump is. What has this super coach done so far?
January 31st, 2019 at 11:17 pm
@Sarath W
That criticism came after that captain ran out 3 key batsmen because he couldn’t run ( fitness). This captain put on too much weight. Thanks to the coach he slimmed down a bit and performed better just show off his fitness on filed and then unable to walk again for 2 months. His criticism was fitness and that was 100% correct.
Please be fair.
February 1st, 2019 at 5:48 am
Not only cricket is in mess but the whole country is in mess due to bad governance and dictatorial rule by one man called Ranil the joker and his Royal thieves. Hathurusinghe maybe a good coach but not necessary to pay him so much of money just to have a losing team in every match they play. Every time they lose,the captain comes and says he will correct the mistakes and play well in the next game but it has become a joke now because of their pathetic playing. We need to have good spinners like Murali to win matches. A spinner can always change the outcome of a match. Quicks alone cannot win matches because we don’t have world class fast bowlers like we had in the past. Stop paying high salaries to people involved in Sri Lankan cricket and use that money to uplift cricket in Sri Lanka with the assistance of true lovers of cricket without favouritsm.
February 1st, 2019 at 6:30 am
Fielding is part of cricket?
February 1st, 2019 at 7:55 pm
Very inspiring and at times pragmatic observations by the panel of comment writers. Hopefully those affected will read them and respond to some of the advice.It seems an oversight that Rangana Herath’s name was not included in the elite group of Lankan performers of yore but probably because he had to wait in the shadows until Murali’s departure but what a performer he was also. There is young blood in the country from which there could be a spring and a surge that might recussitate Sri Lankan cricket back to its old glory and hopefully sooner than later.