By Sa’adi Thawfeeq
For the Sri Lanka cricket team having to live with international coaches for a short life span seems an endless task. Tom Moody, their fourth and last coach in the past 12 years has quit and Sri Lanka will have a new coach from September. But for the present Moody’s assistant Trevor Penney has taken over as stand-in coach for the series against Bangladesh which opens with the first of three Tests starting at the SSC grounds on Monday.
“Whether Tom is here or not we have to continue to do the hard work. Tom’s been great for us for the last two years. He’s made a decision and we have to move on. We know the brand of cricket that we’ve been playing and the commitment and the hard work that we’ve done,” said Sri Lanka captain Mahela Jayawardene looking ahead at his team’s future as they commence a series without Moody for the first time.
“Trevor is here to continue Tom’s legacy and make sure we do the same stuff. Everyone knows their roles, physically everyone is pretty fit. We will work with the new coach and try and improve ourselves to the next level. That’s our challenge and how we should look at improving ourselves,” Jayawardene told The Nation.
Jayawardene was all praise to the four coaches who had handled Sri Lanka
sides in the past – Dav Whatmore, Bruce Yardley, John Dyson and Moody.
“All five brought something different to the table. They tried to improve our standards and different areas in our game. The good thing about all four of them is that they didn’t try to change the brand of cricket we played. That was the healthy part,” said Jayawardene.
“As a team we made a lot of improvements because we had our identity all the way through those periods. Throughout they’ve tried to improve us which were great. Hats off to all the four guys who worked with us. All of them have been brilliant and I thoroughly enjoyed working with them. Every time a new coach comes you have to take it very positively and work hard with him and see where we can go,” he said.
The biggest plus factor for Sri Lanka which has worked well for them in the past two years and made them a successful unit is that the players have become leaders of their own. It is something which former captain Marvan Atapattu had tried to instill during his tenure and what Jayawardene has implemented quite successfully.
“Captaincy is about trying and controlling things out there in the middle. The guys we have in the team know their roles inside out. I want everyone to be a leader out there and know exactly what they are doing and what they are capable of doing,” said Jayawardene. “If you’re a professional team and playing at the highest level everyone should realise what they need to do out there. They should think from their feet. They’ll make mistakes and they’ll learn from that. If you give them the freedom only they will mature into good cricketers. I just have to guide them in the right direction. The most important thing is to keep the team happy.”
Jayawardene pointed out that it was one of the reasons for the team’s success. “Why we are making a lot of strides especially playing away from home is that the guys are taking that extra responsibility to perform. We are not just letting things go thinking this is not our conditions and giving up. We are fighting for everything. It is a healthy environment to have. Young guys like Lasith (Malinga), Upul (Tharanga), (Farveez) Maharoof and (Malinga) Bandara have matured into good cricketers very quickly within a period of 3-4 years. It’s all upto the individual player. To become much better cricketers they must have the willingness to learn,” Jayawardene said.
“Our targets would be to maintain the cricket we’ve been playing and try and improve on it. Our Test record has been pretty good. We performed really well away from home. We just need to continue to do that and need to dominate in Sri Lanka. Those are the challenges we have in our longer version,” Jayawardene continued.
“In the one-day version we have to maintain the consistency that we showed in the past 16 months and try and continue that. It’s not going to be easy. It’s going to be hard work. While doing that we need to focus on long term and short term plans what we consider for our future. That will be to try a few players in certain situations and give them the exposure. Sometimes things might not go our way but we have to take the bullet and see. These players need the exposure to see where they fit in our long term plans. We have to make sure we give the experienced guys the opportunity in our short term plans. There is a lot of thinking to be done and put into plan,” he said.
Sri Lanka it seems has a dilemma with openers. The selectors decided to rest veteran Sanath Jayasuriya and recalled experienced Atapattu instead. But Atapattu pulled out stating personal reasons and a decision was taken to give his place to uncapped Malinda Warnapura. Then five days before the first Test Tharanga suffers a hairline fracture on left heel at practice and is ruled out of the first two Tests which has made way for the return of Michael Vandort. The tall left-hander averages 68.20 with the bat against Bangladesh in comparison to his Test career average of 51.22 from six Tests.
Jayawardene said the absence of three experienced openers would not put extra pressure on him and his deputy Kumar Sangakkara.
“We would love to have our top players playing all the time and be very consistent with our line ups but these are things we can’t control. The guys we’ve picked are quite capable of handling any pressure like Chamara (Silva), (Tillakaratne) Dilshan, Prasanna (Jayawardene) and the two openers. They are very talented players. As senior players we have to stabilize the whole batting line up and take up responsibility. It will be there anyway,” said Jayawardene.
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Malinda Warnapura – ready for the challenge
Malinda Warnapura is a young man ready to take up any challenge. When he walks out to open the Sri Lanka innings against Bangladesh in the first cricket Test starting tomorrow at the SSC he will be taking a step towards cementing a permanent place in the national team.
So determined is this young man of 28 that when The Nation spoke to him about his impending Test debut, he showed no signs of the usual ‘butterflies in the stomach’ nervousness, but replied: “I am waiting to play and I am hoping I can make it good.”
For Warnapura the remarkable change to his career came two years ago. “I used to play a season with my club Colombo Colts and then go to England and play league cricket. I did it for five seasons thinking that this is as far as I will go in the game. But Romesh Kaluwitharana (the former Sri Lanka wicket-keeper/batsman) changed all that,” said Warnapura.
“Romesh who took over as coach of Colts said you can do better than that and one day play for your country because you have the talent and the ability. I was batting at no. 5 or 6 and he pushed me up the order to no. 3 from where I started to make a load of runs,” stated Warnapura, nephew of Sri Lanka’s first Test captain Bandula Warnapura.
The season 2005-06 was special. Warnapura enjoyed his best season with Colts accumulating the third highest aggregate with 829 runs (avg. 59.21) inclusive of three centuries and three fifties from 11 first-class matches.
He was picked for the Sri Lanka ‘A’ team’s tour of India for the Duleep trophy and showed outstanding form in the tournament hitting back to back unbeaten centuries at the famous Eden Gardens in Kolkata. His 111 not out steered the team to the final and in the final against North Zone (the eventual winners) he compiled 149 not out to finish with an aggregate of 421 runs (avg. 105.25) from three matches.
Disappointment was to follow when he was left out of the tour to New Zealand in preference to Chamara Silva. Warnapura was selected to tour West Indies with Sri Lanka ‘A’ instead, but illness for most part prevented him from producing his best.
The icing on the cake came when Bangladesh ‘A’ toured Sri Lanka in March-April this year. Warnapura began the unofficial test series with a monumental double century, the first in his career – 242 off 367 balls, an innings which clearly showed his temperament for the big occasion. He was made captain for the one-day series that followed and opening the batting in the second game hit an unbeaten 104 off 113 balls. Sri Lanka ‘A’ made a clean sweep of the series 3-0.
“Although most people think that I am good for Test cricket I know I can adapt myself to both versions of the game,” said Warnapura. He has already broken into ODIs making his debut for Sri Lanka against Pakistan at Abu Dhabi last month.
Warnapura’s strong point is his wonderful temperament which enables him to concentrate for long periods in the middle. Backed by a good technique he looks ideal Test match material.
Chandika Hathurusingha, the Sri Lanka ‘A’ team coach has had a big influence in his career. “He’s made better cricketers out of all of us because he thinks like an Australian,” said Warnapura. L.H. Sunil and Roger Wijesuriya were his coaches at St. Peter’s College where he studied.
Sri Lanka captain Mahela Jayawardene said: “I’ve played against Malinda quite a while ago in club cricket. He was a very gutty cricketer at that time as well. In the last year and a half he’s been very consistent with the bat with the ‘A’ team and scored some big runs under pressure situations especially in India in the Duleep trophy.”
“It’s good to see that he is mentally prepared to fight out tough situations. He looks pretty good in technique and has a good temperament. We feel that he is a player who definitely is part of our longer version of the game. It’s good that he’s got his opportunity when he is in form. He deserves his spot. The only thing is that he is not an out and out opener but a no. 3. I am sure he can handle this situation. It will be a very good opportunity for him,” said Jayawardene.
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Lanka as tough as Australia - Penney
Outgoing stand-in coach Trevor Penney is of the opinion that Sri Lanka are on equal terms with Australia in all aspects of the game.
Speaking to The Nation ahead of the three-Test series against Bangladesh, Penney who is handling the side following Tom Moody’s departure to Western Australia stated: “(Adam) Gilchrist was the difference at the World Cup. Otherwise I think we are pretty much level with Australia with our fielding, our bowling (which is magnificent) and our batting (which is wonderful). We’ve got some great talent.”
“The Australians are brought up tough. They are a tough team. The thing is that we are tough now. That’s the line we’ve got to keep working on, practicing hard and playing tough as we proved in England last year, in New Zealand and in the World Cup,” said Penney.
How much Sri Lanka had improved over the past two years is reflected by Sandy Gordon, the sports psychologist who has been consulted on and often since June 2005.
“We had Sandy Gordon talking to the team ahead of the Bangladesh series. He was very pleased with the guys, the way they have matured mentally. I think that’s important. We’ve had him about six times. He was complimentary about everybody. He thinks there is a massive lift in the mental side of the game,” said Penney.
As Moody’s assistant, Penney brought a lot of passion to the practices.
“Personally I don’t want any player to walk onto the field under prepared. When you play all the time you need someone to lift you up a lot. When I am training them or practicing with them I am keener than they are so I am passionate about every single thing. Fielding certainly comes out the way, the way they are fielding these days,” said Penney who is doing a full series as coach of a national team for the first time.
“Tom allowed me a free rein to do a lot of the coaching because often he will be either talking to reporters, attending selection meetings etc. He trusted me in doing all the type of coaching. When he was there he did the coaching. We both understood each other really well,” stated Penney.
The legacy that Moody brought to the team was trust.
“When I was a player he wanted a coach he could trust and he picked me. He would stick up for the players and the players knew they could trust Tom wholly. He would never lie to them. He was always straight up front yet he did it in a pleasant way. That’s what was nice of the players to always know where your coach stood. Tom was a straight shooter. He tells you straight, but in the next breath he will be helping you as well. I’ve learnt a lot from him,” said Penney.
“Some people want to stay on the fence. They don’t want to say something to a guy even if he is a senior player. It’s been important for us because we had a lot of senior players who had to be dealt with around the bush. Tom just went in straight and levelled the playing field so that all players are actually equal in our team now. What’s nice about this team is that they stepped up a standard now and they all expect it from each other,” he said.
Penney said playing away from home had improved the team’s mental toughness.
“It has been a big plus point for Sri Lanka. They are ready to take up the challenge.
Mahela as captain has been wonderful. He is so strong and he’s got the team right where he wants them. Whether senior or youngsters they all respect him. He’s level with all of them and he gives them confidence. He doesn’t accept anything. That’s out of the ordinary,” said Penney. – [ST]
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