Ranjan Paranavithana, courtesy of Lakbima News
We Sri Lankans are in the habit of appreciating our cricketers when they are doing well. But we are so obsessed with victories that we forget about the future of the game. When the national team is doing well we do not search for the young talent. When the national players fail we realise that we do not have replacements. This is something different from other countries like Australia. Even when their national players are in good form and doing well they always look for the young talent and keep strengthening their second string. They have lots of initiatives for their second and third strings. It is also obvious that before they introduce a new player they have helped him achieve his top form. That way the player can easily be a match winner even in his debut match. But in our country we introduce players when they are just performing without letting them develop. We do not have a plan and for this the past cricket administrators are solely responsible. Before this, that is, three years ago we had the Cricket Academy from where we used to select players for the Sri Lanka A team.
