Disciplinary problems overshadow real issues

By Harsha Amarasinghe 

Chamika Karunaratne has been the biggest talking point in the Sri Lankan cricket community in the last couple of weeks; interestingly, the all-rounder did not even feature for Sri Lanka in this particular period.

Karunaratne was first handed a one-year suspended cricket ban for the incidents involving him in a casino, before which he had already been dropped from the national ODI squad for the Afghanistan series.

However, Karunaratne was able to win the man-of-the-match award twice against the full Australian side a few months back, which left many asking the question as to why the former Royalist was axed from a format in which he had done so well. Sports Minister Roshan Ranasinghe in fact refused to approve the ODI squad until the last minute.

Karunaratne was not picked for the ODIs, but the Abu Dhabi T10 side, Samp Army, jumped at the opportunity of signing Karunaratne for the franchise-based tournament in the United Arab Emirates, during which Karunaratne performed well for his team.

The fresh allegations were made against the 26-year-old on Friday, following a letter from chief selector Promodaya Wickramasinghe that leaked to the media and in which Karunaratne had been accused of ditching team practices through various excuses in order to see Sri Lankan women living in Australia. The letter further revealed that head coach Chris Silverwood had lost his faith in Karunaratne.

Before the Karunaratne saga, Sri Lankan cricket fans had been rocked by the incidents that involved Danushka Gunathilaka, who was accused of raping a woman based in Sydney. The 31-year-old is currently out on bail, but it’s unclear whether he’d face harsh punishment in Australia, while his career as a Sri Lankan player appears to be over.

While the disciplinary problems have taken centre stage, Sri Lanka must also take a good look at their performance as well. Sri Lanka were able to beat Australia in ODIs earlier this year, which was followed by a sensational triumph in the Asia Cup.

However, Sri Lanka failed to beat any major cricketing nation during the World Cup, losing to Australia, England, and New Zealand. Then they were only able to draw the ODI series against Afghanistan courtesy of one of the finest individual performances by Charith Asalanka.

While disciplinary issues are of course a problem, the SLC must also take a good look at how the team could beat a full-strength Australian side and fail to win a series against Afghanistan.