12 November 2023 03:30 pm
As the postmortem begins into Sri Lanka’s disappointing Cricket World Cup campaign, Consultant Coach Mahela Jayawardene blamed the poor fitness levels of the players as a key reason for the team’s performances during the tournament.
The team returned to the island on Friday, having finished ninth out of ten teams in the Group Stage, which meant they did not qualify for the ICC Champions Trophy 2025 in Pakistan, the first time that Sri Lanka will completely miss out on an ICC event.
Elaborating on the areas that he believed would need to be worked on moving forward, Jayawardene said, “For me the biggest thing is the fitness. What I noticed over the course of a tournament like this, because of our fitness, the fatigue got into us, and the performance died down.”
“From the first game to the last game, we saw guys make a lot more mistakes. That happens with mental and physical fatigue and then the execution and the concentration lacks because of that.”
Sri Lanka were also plaugued with injuries before and during the tournament.
Spinner Wanindu Hasaranga, considered to be among the best all-rounders in the world, was completely ruled out of the World Cup with a hamstring injury, while fast bowler Dushmantha Chameera was available for only the latter part of the tournament.
Over the last two years, Sri Lanka has been unable to field its best team in major tournament, due to a litany of injuries.
During this year’s World Cup, fast bowler Lahiru Kumara and captain Dasun Shanaka picked up injuries that cut short their availability during the course of Sri Lanka’s campaign.
Not for the first time, Sri Lanka’s uncompetitive domestic cricket structure was also identified as an area that needed urgent attention.
“The domestic cricket, the skillset, the standard needs to improve,” Jayawardene stressed.
“If we talk about the future, we need to play our domestic cricket on good wickets (similar to those in other countries) so that when the teams plays overseas there is less adjustment required."