Sri Lanka Cricket admits 15-year decline in men’s game

Sri Lanka Cricket has acknowledged a prolonged decline in the men’s game and says a wide-ranging overhaul covering pitches, coaching, sports medicine, umpiring and data analysis is now under way.

Sri Lanka Cricket Interim Committee Chairman Eran Wickramaratne said the deterioration had taken place over about 15 years and could not be reversed quickly.

He noted that Sri Lanka were ranked fourth in Test cricket and third in One-Day Internationals in 2011, while the team was ranked third in Twenty20 cricket in 2012. More recently, however, the rankings had fallen significantly.

“Some things can be fixed quickly. You can remove corruption and reduce wastage. But building cricketers and creating a future takes time,” Wickramaratne said.

As part of the restructuring, Sri Lanka Cricket has recruited former ICC head curator Andy Atkinson and brought curators and five stadiums under its direct supervision in an effort to improve the quality of pitches.

Wickramaratne said the emphasis in coaching was also shifting from quantity to quality. Ashley Ross has been brought in, while new coaches have been appointed at district and provincial levels. A review of the high-performance centre has also been undertaken.

Sports medicine, player welfare and mental health are being strengthened, with Alex Kountouris brought in and a psychologist added to the sports medicine programme.

Sri Lanka Cricket is also seeking to improve umpiring and match refereeing. Lyndon Hannibal has been appointed Umpire Development Manager and Ruchira Palliyaguruge as Umpire Coach.

Wickramaratne said another weakness was the lack of strong data systems at a time when international cricket was becoming increasingly data-driven.

However, he stressed that technology could only support, rather than replace, human judgement in team selection.

“AI gives you information; it doesn’t give you wisdom,” he said, adding that selectors still had to assess players and determine the best team combinations.

Wickramaratne said public expectations for better results were justified but warned that rebuilding would take time.

“When you have a decline over 15 years, you can’t reverse it in 15 weeks,” he said. “We have to put a good foundation in place.”