Ranatunga attacks Sri Lanka board for postponing Tests

Cricket legend Arjuna Ranatunga has slammed the governing body running the sport in Sri Lanka for killing Test cricket in favour of Twenty20 events which are mushrooming around the world.

Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) has come under much criticism for rescheduling a home Test series against South Africa because it clashed with a domestic Twenty20 tournament SLPL (Sri Lanka Premier League).

"Cancelling the Test series is a crime and I can’t understand the thinking behind the decision," said Ranatunga in an interview with The Island newspaper.

Ranatunga's brother Nishantha, who is secretary of SLC, was earlier quoted as saying they were only rescheduling the series.

"I don’t believe in this postponement talk. I won’t be surprised if sometime next year they turn up and say that the calendar is packed and hence we will not be playing the Test series at all," said Ranatunga.

The former Sri Lanka captain was surprised that senior members of the team were not raising their voice against this.

"I am surprised that senior members of the current team haven’t said a word about it. Maybe because they are in the twilight of their careers, playing two or more Test matches doesn’t make a difference to them," he said.

But Sri Lanka's only World Cup winning captain warned that the future of young players was at stake.

"I feel for the younger generation. The likes of Dinesh Chandimal, Lahiru Thirimanne and others will learn playing Test cricket and these young players have been denied a good opportunity," he said recalling the days when Sri Lanka were not given regular Test fixtures.

"I remember, in the 1980s and 1990s, we went through a period where there was hardly any cricket taking place in the country during the war years. We were craving for Test cricket, but we hardly got anything. Now we are saying no to Test cricket and it is crime," said Ranatunga who has consistently maintained that Test cricket is supreme.

Sri Lanka had to fight tooth and nail to gain regular fixtures against England as the ECB offered Sri Lanka only one off Tests for 14 years. The trend ended in 1998 after Arjuna Ranatunga’s men stunned the Englishmen at the London Oval, with a 10-wicket win to record Sri Lanka’s first Test win on English soil. Since then, all Sri Lanka’s visits to England have been for three match Test series.

He rankled IPL (Indian Premier League) founder Lalit Modi and the Board of Control for Cricket in India by voicing his disapproval when he slammed the government authorities for cancelling a Test series against England in 2009 to allow Sri Lankan players to feature in the Twenty20 extravaganza.

Although he was head of the government appointed interim body which ran the sport at the time, he was powerless to prevent this and subsequently stepped down from his position.

Ranatunga, now an opposition politician, has been outspoken in his criticism of IPL and Twenty20 cricket.

During an interview with Emirates 24|7 in Dubai he caused a storm by saying IPL was producing butchers instead of classical Test batsman like Rahul Dravid and the like.

Meanwhile, The Island also reported that Sri Lanka have either cancelled or postponed 11 Test matches they were slated to play since May last year under ICC's Future Tours Programme.

Earlier this year, a scheduled three match Test series between Sri Lanka and West Indies in 2013 in the Caribbean was put off, in order to allow the country’s national cricketers to earn their IPL millions, it said. If the West Indies Test series had taken place, it would have clashed with the IPL.

Current captain Mahela Jayawardene and former captain Kumar Sangakkara are both set to captain two IPL franchises and during the last five years.

Earlier this year, England’s tour of Sri Lanka which comprised three Tests was knocked down to two, once again to allow the IPL millionaires to play domestic cricket in India while it was agreed between SLC and ECB to reduce the 2014 Test series between the two countries in England to two Tests from the customary three Tests, once again to give players more time at the IPL.

SLC also cancelled a three-match Test series against India scheduled for early this year, in order to play a bi-lateral ODI series against the neighbouring country.

The bottom line is Sri Lanka is virtually forfeiting its chances of competing in the proposed World Test Championship where only the top four teams qualify.

Sri Lanka’s Tests next year are against lower-ranked Bangladesh and Zimbabwe. Currently, Sri Lanka are placed sixth in the ICC Test rankings.
 

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