Silverwood Sri Lanka’s Silver Lining

By Harsha Amarasinghe

While Sri Lanka's struggle as a nation seems endless, its cricket team is certainly putting an end to its crisis with some consistent performances.

It has been quite an incredible last week or so for the island-nation ever since that mind-blowing knock from the captain Dasun Shanaka who pulled off a miracle victory in the third T20 up in Pallekele.

Since then a number of players have contributed immensely, starting off with Wanindu Hasaranga nearly bowling Sri Lanka to victory in the first ODI on basically one leg, and then the ultimate showman Chamika Karunaratne living upto the expectations with a really energetic display of bowling, which saw them defending a below par score -- the most recent heroics of Pathum Nissanka and Kusal Mendis in chasing down a record score to break the Premadasa hoodoo.

Perhaps it's that calm nature of Chris Silverwood that may not have earned him well-deserved accolades. The former England coach is certainly not jumping up and down in the dressing room like his predecessor Mickey Arthur, but the 47-year-old has certainly taken the team to the next level. Make no mistake he inherited a pretty good team that was groomed by Arthur under heavy criticism. Many felt that Pathum Nissanka was only a red ball cricketer, but Arthur always saw the right-hander as a three format player. So, there is no doubt that he had given Sri Lanka cricket so much.

However, under Silverwood Sri Lanka looks far superior tactically. It doesn't mean by any means that Arthur had no tactics, but the players seem to execute the plans on a regular basis under Silverwood. From bouncing out David Warner to challenging Glen Maxwell to go over extra cover fielders off left arm spinner Dunith Wellalage, Sri Lanka did look like a team that was well prepared for an international cricket match.

In the second ODI when Sri Lanka persisted with Chamika Karunaratne and Dushmatha Chameera towards the end despite having spinning options, it felt like anti-cricket or a cricket crime, but they knew exactly what they were doing and Silverwood should be given the credit for that.

In terms of batting, one of the standout improvements has got to be the aggression against the fifth or the sixth bowler. Marnus Labuschagne is a reasonable bowler - he did pretty well in the Big Bash and now with the Doosra being banned every leg spinner is somewhat special, but Sri Lanka batted quite aggressively against him during that massive chase of 292 which was a key element in that victory given the fact that Aiden Markram was made to look like African Murali by the Sri Lankan batsmen last year.

Although half the squad of both the teams looked all but out with injuries in what has been a very competitive series, there is more crickets to come. Irrespective of the results Sri Lanka has made brilliant progress under Silverwood.

Illyas Suspension

Sri Lanka Rugby (SLR) President Rizly Illyas was suspended by Asia Rugby (AR) last week.

The SLR boss has had a rollercoaster of a tenure. As soon as he came to power Sri Lanka was hit with Covid and there was hardly any rugby. Former Sports Minister Namal Rajapaksa clearly disliked him and apparently as a result so was the premier rugby sponsor at the time. But then he opted to play hardball and brought in a different sponsor for the national team and out of the blue - a world class coach in Ben Gollings. He ran the league tournament without a sponsor for weeks and in the meantime made Namal Rajapaksa's final act as the Sports Minister to suspend SLR, look pretty stupid.

Now of course, Illyas has come under fire from left right and centre, so it would be interesting to see his next move because no one is finished until they are proven guilty. Prasanna Ranatunga, for instance, believes people who talk about his two-year suspended jail sentence are 'ignorant' as if the court found him not guilty -- and the right to appeal makes him perfectly fine.

However, it must be stated that dragging Illyas' family into this see-saw battle was a bit of a cheap shot and an absolute disgrace.