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How mighty SSC have fallen like Rajapaksas
By Harsha Amarasinghe
Sinhalese Sports Club's (SSC) staggering relegation from the top division could only be compared to the incredible fall of Rajapaksas in recent times. Like Rajapaksas who dominated politics for decades, SSC were the top dog of Sri Lanka's first class cricket for such a long period until last week when it was confirmed they were relegated to Division 2.
Rajapaksas despite having plenty of very known politicians suffered defeat at the last General Election and the same could be said about SSC who probably had the strongest squad leading up to the tournament, on paper with quite a few former Sri Lanka captains such as Dimuth Karunaratne, Kusal Mendis, Dasun Shanaka as well as current white-ball captain Charith Asalanka also in the squad.
In addition to that, SSC had number of national players including Prabath Jayasuriya, Kasun Rajitha, Nuwanindu Fernando, Shevon Daniel and Promod Madushan, but Sri Lanka's biggest cricket club with a history of 125 years will now be playing Division 2 cricket next season unless of course their bosses' found some form of sketchy manoeuvre just like Rajapaksas did with Ranil Wickramasinghe for two years.
So, where did it go all wrong for SSC? Looking back at their season, one of the most shocking results was when they were handed an outright defeat by Kurunegala Youth Cricket Club. SSC bundled out for 89 on the first innings on a seaming wicket with Kurunegala medium fast bowlers sharing nine wickets among them.
It was nearly 12 years ago, SSC found themselves in a similar scenario with Saliya Saman of Badureliya Sports Club taking eight wickets to skittle out SSC for 102, but then they bounced back to win the particular game with their formidable batting order made of proper first class batsmen such as Tharanga Paranavithana, Dimuth Karunaratne, Kaushal Silva, Thilina Kandamby and Thilan Samaraweera.
After their lost to Kurunegala, SSC were handed an innings defeat by Burgher Recreation Club (BRC) and this time they were outplayed by arguably one of Sri Lanka's best left arm spinners in first class cricket - Malinda Pushpakumara who bagged 13 wickets.
SSC have always had superstars - from Arjuna Ranatunga to Mahela Jayawardene to Charith Asalanka, but the club always knew that most of these players could be called up for national duties, and so that they had seasoned campaigners ready to guide them through when national players go away for international fixtures, and in the meantime, they'd blood one or two youngsters as an investment for future.
However, all SSC had this season was 10 to 12 national players and a bunch of promising young players with very little experience. They didn't have those proper first class players such as Sajith Fernando, Anil Rideegammanagedara or Bhathiya Perera who knew how to look after their teams in the absences of national players.
SSC's embarrassing fall is a great example for all the top teams in the Division 1 that they should look after their senior first class players - they may not score double centuries or quickfire fifties or hit those big sixers, but when the going gets tough, they'll get going.
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