Dilshan to be next captain

Island.lk

by Rex Clementine

Explosive opening batsman Tillakaratne Dilshan is set to succeed Kumar Sangakkara as the next Sri Lankan cricket captain, an authoritative source at Sri Lanka Cricket told Sunday Island yesterday. The 34-year-old right-handed batsman is currently playing in the Indian Premier League and is expected to come down to Colombo during the week to meet the selectors and pick the squad for Sri Lanka’s tour of England that gets underway on the 14th of May.

"Right now, Dilshan is the only eligible candidate," the source told Sunday Island. "If you take Kumar (Sangakkara), he has quit. Mahela (Jayawardene) doesn’t want to lead the side anymore. Thilan (Samaraweera) is not too sure of a place in all three forms of the game and so is Upul (Tharanga). So the only choice is Dilshan," the source said.

The source also said that Dilshan will be only a short term captain as there were concerns whether he would be at the peak of his form by the time the next World Cup comes in 2015.

He will become the 11th full time Sri Lanka Test captain following Bandula Warnapura (1982-1983), Duleep Mendis (1983-1987), Ranjan Madugalle (1987-1989), Arjuna Ranatunga (1989-1991 and 1992-1999), Aravinda de Silva (1991-1992), Sanath Jayasuriya (1999-2003), Hashan Tillakaratne (2003-2004, Marvan Atapattu (2004-2006), Mahela Jayawardene (2006-2009) and Kumar Sangakkara (2009-2011).

Dilshan, the son of a police officer, is a product of Kalutara Vidyalaya and caught the selectors’ eye during Sri Lanka ‘A’ tour of England in 1999. The mass sackings aftermath of the 1999 World Cup saw him being promoted to the national side the same year and he caught the attention of everyone with an unbeaten 163 in just his second Test Match in Harare against Zimbabwe.

He was in and out of the side earlier on in his career and was a surprise omission for the 2003 World Cup in South Africa.

In 2009, Dilshan volunteered to open in Pakistan and his career changed completely from thereon.

He hit a century in his third game as an opener and a few months later was asked to open batting in Test cricket as well and responded scoring 92 and an unbeaten 123 in his first Test against New Zealand in Galle.

That year (2009) turned out to be an excellent year for him as he hit five hundreds in ODIs and six hundreds in Tests. Into the bargain, he was named as the Player of the Tournament in the T-20 World Cup in England, where he finished as the highest run getter of the competition with 317 runs in seven games at 52.83.

He was named vice captain to Sangakkara in 2009, but was removed last year with Sri Lanka Cricket providing no reasons.

Dilshan also had an excellent tournament in the just concluded World Cup where he was the highest run getter with 500 runs.

Sunday Island also learns that whether Angelo Mathews will recover in time for the England series remains in doubt and, in that case, the vice captaincy for the Test series in England would go to Samaraweera.