Sri Lanka to go tough on player fitness

27 March 2015 04:17 pm

Blames lack of fitness and poor form for the early exit from the World Cup

Sri Lanka cricket coach Marvan Atapattu admitted that last year's hastily arranged five-match ODI series may have contributed towards a lack of fitness among team members and insisted that more emphasis must be placed on the fitness of the cricketers.


“We must have a minimum fitness criteria for national team selection,” Atapattu said, at a press conference held yesterday at Sri Lanka Cricket. “Going into the future, I think we must stress on this in order to minimize injuries during tours”.


Sri Lanka were forced to make several changes to their original 15-man squad for the Cricket World Cup due to injuries, a key reason for the exit of the defending runners-up at this year's quarter final.  Dinesh Chandimal, Dimuth Karunaratne, Dhammika Prasad, Jeevan Mendis and Rangana Herath had thus to be replaced during the tournament.


In 2014, the national team abandoned midway their physical training program aimed at the CWC after Sri Lankan cricket authorities agreed to a five-match ODI series against India to replace West Indies who pulled out due to a contract dispute. The move was criticized by many, including batting great Kumar Sangakkara. Sri Lanka lost the series 5-0.


“I wouldn't say it was the main reason but it was not the best thing that happened going into a World Cup,” Atapattu said referring to the five-match series in India. “But it was a collective decision, the board, the selectors and the team management took."


The Chairman of Selectors Sanath Jayasuriya endorsed Atapattu's view. He said  selectors will place serious emphasis on player fitness in future.

 

“We will have take some serious decisions with regard to player fitness. Like Marvan said, we must have a minimum fitness criteria for selection not only to the national team but also to Sri Lanka A and other teams,” he elaborated.



“We have had number of injuries during the last two months and this certainly played a bigger role in our exit. On the other had, we were one of the best fielding sides in world cricket for years and I think it’s high time we get that reputation back,” Jayasuriya stressed.


Meanwhile, Atapattu--who has suffered misfortune as the first local coach the country has had since 1999--also said that Sri Lanka should give more opportunities to youngsters to settle down in their positions.


“If you look at Chandimal, he has scored ten more runs than legendary Kumar Sangakkara has scored after 15 matches. But where is Kumar now? He is the world’s best batsman today.  I believe it’s important that we have patience with these youngsters and give them opportunities to settle down in their positions in the team,” said Atapattu.

Skipper Angelo Mathews said he was disappointed with the top order batting that led to the defeat against South Africa.

“We did well in the first six matches, but then our top order batting failed against South Africa. This is where we lost the match,” he added.