Asia Cup win puts smiles on Lankan faces

There’s fear and uncertainty about the future among many Sri Lankans. High inflation, scarcity of essential items and unending power cuts have brought misery and poverty to over twenty million people as the nation is facing its worst economic crisis. Sunday’s Asia Cup win against Pakistan brought some smiles back.

Cricket is something dear to all Sri Lankans but their team has not been covering themselves in glory having not won a multi-nation tournament for eight years. Worse, they have been now forced to play qualifying rounds of major ICC events. So when the Asia Cup began a fortnight ago, nobody thought that eighth ranked Dasun Shanka’s side would go onto win the title. But they surprised everyone winning five games on the trot and in the process beating world’s number one ranked India and number two ranked Pakistan (twice).

Yet, they started off the campaign horrendously losing to Afghanistan by eight wickets after being bowled out for 108. But from thereon, they were remarkable, pulling off some last over thrillers. The final though was a comprehensive win.

“It was a bit of jolt for everyone when we lost that game,” skipper Dasun Shanaka told DH. “We had really put in hard yards before coming to the UAE and that wasn’t the start we wanted. Pretty happy that the boys moved on from that and won five games in a row. You know people have gone through lot of hardships in recent times and as cricketers we are happy if we were able to give them something to cheer about,” Shanaka added.

To give an idea about how bad things are in Sri Lanka, a pound of bread that was sold at Sri Lankan Rs. 60 in March this year has shot up to Rs 300 in six months time. Fuel is rationed. While a car would get a weekly allowance of 20 liters of petrol, a motorbike gets five liters weekly. Schools and offices were shut sometime back as people couldn’t commute with the government unable to import fuel. There is also a severe shortage of medicine. As a result tourism has taken a hit plunging the economy to a crisis as tourists bring in most of the foreign exchange that the country so desperately needs. Asia Cup was supposed to be held in Colombo, but was shifted to UAE due to the crisis in Sri Lanka.

“It’s been brilliant watching these boys,” former captain Sanath Jayasuriya told DH. “Our people are so passionate about cricket and they have suffered a lot this year due to the crisis. This win will surely cheer them up. Sri Lankans will again start talking about their cricket proudly. What I liked about them most is that they played to their strengths without trying to change too many things. It’s very good to see several young players fitting into challenging roles,” he added.

Since Sri Lanka won the ICC T20 World Cup in 2014, their cricket hit new lows. Several high profile retirements was followed by multiple corruption scandals, coups to get rid of captains, constant change of coaches and total chaos. That resulted in the team suffering whitewashes in bilateral series and early exits in global events.

Two years ago, former captain Aravinda de Silva took charge as Chairman of Cricket Committee. The panel included other high profile figures like Roshan Mahanama and Kumar Sangakkara. Since then, half a dozen seniors had been overlooked for white ball cricket, Mahela Jayawardene has been appointed Consultant Coach and Dasun Shanaka has been given the assurance of a longer stint as captain and the team has been able to reverse their fortunes.

Sri Lanka have a long way to go though. This is a young team that is still developing and a real assessment of their strength will come next month when they compete in the World Cup. The challenges in Australia will be much tougher than what they experienced in Dubai. Importantly, they have got much needed momentum leading into the World Cup and a team that is playing without fear of failure.

With Kusal Perera, Dushmantha Chameera and Avishka Fernando expected to return to the side for the World Cup after injuries, Sri Lankans can at least cheer up thinking that their team has a chance to win another world title.

(Rex Clementine is a senior cricket writer in Colombo)