Thursday 26th October, 2006 13 Favourites in disaster zone! ner in which Mahela Jayawardene’s side Well, we wouldn’t need all that calcula- months has been the reason for the inten- won those matches made many predict tion if either New Zealand or South sity levels not being so high. Sri Lanka’s that they’ll be hard to beat. But the group Africa come up with a win and against ODIs in recent times have been against games, especially against South Africa the inconsistent Pakistanis, that’s quite teams that are ranked below them and all was a disaster with the seam bowlers pro- possible. of a sudden when they play stronger oppo- viding the killer punch and knocking the nents like Pakistan and South Africa, they Sri Lankans out of the Champions Poor selections have been found wanting. Trophy. Well, almost. While a lot has been said and written Tom Moody is a fine assessor of situa- No prizes for guessing the cause for about selections during the tournament, tions and his comments will be interesting defeat of course. It was certainly one of something that has been hard to compre- to read. Moody and captain Jayawardene, the worst batting displays by Sri Lanka’s hend is why Sri Lanka have opted to play however, would do well to seek the advice top order in recent times. Sri Lanka’s bat- four seam bowlers in Indian conditions. of senior players in the side such as ting line-up is the most experienced in the It’s certainly a bizarre selection when you Jayasuriya, Muralitharan, Atapattu, world with the combined count of the top consider that someone like Malinga Sangakkara and Chaminda Vaas when six totalling 1200 ODIs. Bandara has been kept out of the side. The they prepare for games hereafter. This year’s top four run-getters in One- leg-spinner had a good series when he was Despite all these arguments, don’t for- Day Internationals are also Sri Lankans recalled for the Test matches in India last get that it’s just one bad game. Yes, they (Kumar Sangakkara, Mahela year and more recently in England when did lose to Pakistan too but on that occa- Jayawardene, Sanath Jayasuriya and Muttiah Muralitharan was unavailable, sion it was by a smaller margin. In this Upul Tharanga) and when you have such he bowled admirably. game, Sri Lanka were completely out- a formidable top order, which other teams But he’s surprisingly been left out and played. can only envy, a target of 220 shouldn’t be against a side like South Africa, who strug- Before the first round began, we were too much of a worry. But eventually, Sri gle against slow bowling, Bandara could talking about how Sri Lanka should avoid Lanka’s run chase ended up in utter trouble them. a semi-final clash with Australia. But it’s chaos. Habibul Bashar and Co. could have The selectors could argue that been a little too premature. Did we expect planned and executed things better. Jayasuriya performs the role of a second too much or did we underestimate some Jayasuriya was trapped leg before; spinner and due to that they could do with- of our opponents in the group stages? Tharanga was out fishing out side the off- out Bandara, but still the decision to play Never mind if we did, hopefully, the play- stump while Sangakkara poked tentative- four seamers and five specialist bowlers in ers and the management staff - who mat- ly at a Shaun Pollock delivery and got a all has puzzled us, especially as they opted ter the most - didn’t commit the same mis- thin edge. Andre Nel got rid of Marvan to chase in the last game. takes. Atapattu with a beauty while captain When you chase, you obviously want to The happiest man in Ahmedabad on Jayawardene tried to steal a single from have more strength in batting and Sri Tuesday must have been Mark Boucher. the non-striker’s end to backward of Lanka should have opted for the luxury of He was quoted as saying that he wanted to point where South Africa’s best fielder, an additional batsman instead of having teach a lesson or two to Sri Lanka’s press- Herschelle Gibbs, was placed. the services of an extra bowler, which they men by beating Sri Lanka. It certainly Celebration time for the South Africans as Andre Nel has just rearranged Marvan Atapattu’s stumps in Sri Lanka have squandered their did against South Africa. was an unwarrented comment. Sri Lanka’s last group game of the Champions Trophy tournament in Ahmedabad on Tuesday. chances of qualifying for the semis and With Tillekeratne Dilshan struggling Journalists don’t intend to provoke by Rex Clementine record in the tournament reads as four now things are out of their hands. If with the bat, the middle order needed players, but what Boucher has done is to wins against two defeats, three of those Pakistan beat both South Africa and New more stability and that’s why Chamara expose himself to even more grilling When the Sri Lankan cricket team took wins came in the qualifying round. Zealand, they would have three wins com- Kapugedara should have played. when South Africa tour the island next off to India for the Champions Trophy Against the stronger opponents, Sri pared to the one win each that the other time. tournament, many an expert tagged them Lanka failed to come up with solid per- teams have got. Then it comes to run rates Result of playing weaker opposition Or perhaps he’s still upset that he as one of the favourites along with formances. and even if Pakistan win both their There have been suggestions that the made a mess against Sri Lanka during Australia and hosts India. But three Leading up to Sri Lanka’s first group games, the fact that Sri Lanka lost their fact that Sri Lanka played weaker opposi- that run chase in the 2003 World Cup in weeks on, Sri Lanka almost face elimina- game against Pakistan last week, they game to South Africa by 78 runs could tions (England, Netherlands, Zimbabwe, Durban that eventually pushed the hosts tion from the competition. Although their had won ten games in row and the man- hurt them. and Bangladesh) during the last four out of the competition. Bruce Yardley recalls THE great discovery… Interview with Bruce tled now so I thought it’s about time I did the same thing as a doosra and then started (commentating) again. I quit my eventually had the natural doosra. I was- Yardley, the former Australia job as a regional cricket officer with the n’t surprised by this because I saw him spinner who is commentat- Western Australia Cricket Association, years before and he was special then. ing again but equally happy which I had for 18 months, as I’m now back where I want to be again. When did you first see Murali? speaking about the part he In 1991 I travelled to Colombo as part played in the development of You were coach of Sri Lanka from of an exchange program where I went Muttiah Muralitharan. February 1997 to June 1998, although there and a Sri Lanka went to Australia. I contracted to the 1999 World Cup. was mainly there to coach coaches but Tell us about your relationship with amongst the youngsters they had there How did you get into commentat- Muttiah Muralitharan? was a schoolboy who turned out to be ing? Every time we see each other we catch Murali, who had broken all the school I had done some in the past after retir- up and have a chat. He’s a great team man records of his time. ing from first-class cricket. I then picked and I will give you an example of it. Sri up a bit here and there. I worked on the Lanka toured Australia in 2004 when he Did you have any major dealings 1992 World Cup in Australia. I just love it. didn’t come but I got a call from him ask- with him at that stage of his career? Since I retired (in 1990) my living has ing me to help Upul Chandana out Yes. His action was very front-on then revolved around commentating, coach- because he was struggling. I had a chat and I told him he had to move to a side on ing and speaking on cricket. I had to pull with him and he took ten wickets in the action. If you bowl front on you are per- back a couple of years ago because I was second Test in Cairns. Then here in ceived to be chucking. I figured it would going through a separation and I had a Mumbai, when he found out I was here, take him six months to change his action 12-year-old daughter. But she’s pretty set- during practice he asked me to come so that his right hand finished in delivery and watch him in the nets, but I soon action down by his left hip. That’s the realised he wanted me to have a look at perfect off-spinner’s arc. It actually took Malinga Bandara because he had him three balls and immediately he spun stopped spinning it, so I helped him. the ball more than he was before. I went Are you ever critical of Murali? back to my friends in Australia and said I Yes, because we are the best of had seen a young guy in Sri Lanka who, if friends and can say what we like to given the opportunities to play Test crick- each other.