Sack Them All!

Sri Lanka perhaps does not have the best of memories playing at the iconic Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. The pictures of Sri Lanka not being able to clinch their second 50-over World Cup 12 years ago, would forever haunt the Sri Lankan fans - that memorable M. S. Dhoni sixer off Nuwan Kulasekara, Yuvraj Singh bursting into tears of joy may have been played on the television thousands of times since then, but one of the standout memories of that final was how then Sri Lanka Captain Kumar Sangakkara would look at all Indian celebrations and still manage a smile. When Sri Lanka lost a famous World Cup Final to a worthy winner in 2011, they could walk off the Stadium with their heads held high.

Fast forward 12 years, what used to be one of the most anticipated cricket rivalries in the world, has become one famous 'David and Goliath.' On Thursday when Sri Lanka were bundled out for 55 runs in chase of 358, senior campaigner Angelo Mathews - arguably playing his last World Cup, was left in tears and one of the bravest cricketing nations, became a laughing stock at the world stage.

So, who should take the responsibility for this monumental failure?

Sports Minister Roshan Ranasinghe last week, revealed the salaries which are being paid for the coaching staff. According to him, Head Coach Chris Silverwood is being paid a monthly salary of US$ 30000, while the Consultant Coach Mahela Jayawardane collects US$ 20,000. Amid all the embarrassing batting displays of Sri Lanka, Assistant Coach Naveed Nawaz earns US$ 14,000. According to the details provided by the Minister the whole coaching staff is being paid close to 120,000 US$ monthly, and for what?!

With Jayawardane around the team now, Head Coach Silverwood looks like a mere puppet who has very little say on how Sri Lanka plays. However, his continuous blind faith in Dasun Shanaka - a batsman who maintains an ODI average of 22 after 69 ODIs is one of the main reasons why Sri Lanka find themselves in this position. Sanath Jayasuriya and Marvan Atapattu in a recent interview revealed how they, despite being superstars of their generation, feared for their places in the team. Thanks to Silverwood the players now have no fear of failure because they are quite comfortable at failure.

Mahela Jayawardene without any shadow of doubt is the best captain Sri Lanka has had tactically. But Sri Lanka looked well short of any tactics against Afghanistan in their previous game with the bat or ball. Jayawardene, despite getting paid US$ 20,000 doesn't want to be with the teams all the time with his other coaching commitments globally. Even during high profile tournaments such as the World Cup, he doesn't mind taking off for a few days which is disappointing to see from a man who played with a generation of players who had missed the birth of their children because they prioritized representing the nation.

Naveed Nawaz, the Assistant Coach for some reason turns up for almost all the media conferences of the Sri Lanka team and he has passionately defended his players in front of the media. It's interesting to see how he is going to explain the improvements Sri Lanka has made from the Asia Cup Final to World Cup clash with Sri Lanka moving from 50 all-out to 55 all-out. So much for someone who is being paid US$ 14,000 a month.

On the other hand, the Sri Lanka national selectors should also take the responsibility for this debacle. Promodya Wickramasinghe looks like a man who needs more than one spectacle because he has certainly got no vision. This selector for some reason thought it was a nice idea to let Dhananjaya de Silva - a tailormade Test cricketer, bat at number six in these flat wickets in India. It was an absolute laughable decision given that teams like India (Hardik Pandya/ Surya Kumar Yadav), South Africa (David Miller), Australia (Glenn Maxwell), New Zealand (Glenn Phillips) have their big hitters at that position to kill the game off - Dhananjaya at six, kills the team off.

The national selectors have made a series of embarrassing mistakes and are one of the main reasons for this shocking World Cup campaign.

One would wonder how cricket is being allowed to run in this manner especially in a country where cricket is not just a game but nearly a religion. Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) is not a sports organisation anymore, it's now a business. Whenever, the President Shammi Silva is questioned about something, his go-to response would be to discuss the financial gains of SLC. Before the arrival of Shammi’s was an era where the cricket board failed to pay the salaries of the national players for long periods but it's during that era Sri Lanka played in four World Cup finals - winning one, because by then the priority was the quality of cricket, and not the amount of money being generated. (Harsha Amarasinghe)