It’s a crime if Mathews goes at this stage: Atapattu

Marvan Atapattu

Former Sri Lanka captain Marvan Atapattu believes that it would be a crime to let go of Angelo Mathews at this stage of his career ahead of arguably ‘the three best years of his career.’ The elegant right-hander also claimed that Sri Lanka’s cricket revival should start from school cricket. Atapattu made these remarks in an interview with the Daily Mirror.

QAngelo Mathews seems to be one of Sri Lanka’s best batsmen, at least in Test cricket. As a coach who has worked with him, and have seen his strengths and weaknesses, do you reckon his complete focus should be on red ball cricket? 

Well, I think first of all, he has to stop bowling. He is one of the very few batsmen who could take the pressure off. I am not saying he has the greasiest technique in the world, but he has that mental ability to compensate for what he has in terms of technique. He is one of the best finishers when it comes to one day cricket. He is very level-headed, and he reads the game very well, especially when he is batting. When someone hits their early thirties, that’s when they perform at their best. So, it’s a crime, at this stage, but this is not just his responsibility, but also of the authorities. Give him some support; make him understand that the coming three years are his best years in terms of batting. I certainly don’t think he should be restricted to one format; his career stats will speak for himself. It’s a matter of giving up his bowling. I know he has been pushed to bowl because we don’t have that balance in the team.

There are various authorities who have to perform for a team to be successful. It is very unfortunate that people are only after glory; they want to get the credit and in turn forget their own responsibilities

QThere is a lot of talk about coaching at the minute. You yourself served as Sri Lanka’s coach once. What are your thoughts on this?

Coaches work around what they have been given in terms of players; the national coaches whether it is me, Chandika (Hathurusinghe) or the one they have now whoever he is. They only can do whatever they can with what’s given to them. For an example, let’s say the best coach in the world takes over a weak team like Kenya. He won’t be successful. In the same way, if the worst coach comes in and takes charge of the best team, they won’t be successful either. The coach can be supportive in certain ways, but it’s not only the coach. There are various authorities who have to perform for a team to be successful. It is very unfortunate that people are only after glory; they want to get the credit and in turn forget their own responsibilities. I was surprised to hear that one of the committee members, a former cricketer, said that it was good we went to England, and it showed that England are number one, and we are number nine. I think that, at least for people who played a bit of cricket, that sounded very bad.  Everyone has to get together and work for success, but it will take five or even ten years. 

QYour name has been used a lot to motivate young cricketers who struggle to find runs at the start of their careers. You yourself had a tough start to international cricket, and you came back strongly. That’s something everyone knows, but can you tell us how you handled the pressure of failure as a young man. In terms of batting, what adjustments did you make going back to first class cricket and coming back to international cricket?

If you asked me this question at the time I was scoring my zeroes, I would probably have got no answer. If somebody asked me at the time why I was scoring zeroes, I would have probably said, ‘I don’t know why it is happening, but somehow it is happening.’ Now at the age of 50, looking back, I can only think it was because of how I managed to motivate myself to remain in the game. I think it was just the love for the game. Playing for Sri Lanka was my ultimate goal, but then I still loved the game. That’s what motivated me to play, even after those zeroes I scored. The second thing is, after failing at international level, I went back to domestic cricket and runs started coming again. It was at this point I understood the gap between the domestic and international cricket; the standards were very high. Mainly, it was mental, and the other thing was, unknowingly, I somehow kept on concentrating on the technique. Later, with these motivators and gurus coming to the game, I heard that when you are in a difficult situation, forget about cricket, think of life, what do we do? We do the basics. Once you are pushed to a corner, the thing that comes to your mind are the basics.

QDuring your days as a player, Sri Lanka were quite dominant against India. Now, there is a huge difference between the two nations. Apart from the domestic structure that everyone points the finger at, what has been the reason for this?

I think not just India, but most of the countries. Even the West Indies. I mean, you cannot probably compare what they had in the 1980s and 1990s, but most of the countries have worked according to a plan. They have their own systems and plenty of cricketers to make up for more than one team because of this system and planning is so good, and they have reached that level. If you ask me what’s wrong with Sri Lanka, the immediate reply would be the domestic structure, yes. However, domestic cricket happens with the school-leavers. But if the school-leavers are not as good as what we used to see or in my case, what we used to play against, then what do you think is going to happen to our club cricket? You’d still see a downgraded cricketer compared to an Englishman or an Indian. This has to start from school level — I am saying Under 11, 13, 15 level — where the cricketers have to have a good knowledge about technique, and they have to have good coaches.