Dilmah - Cricket Network

BOUQUETS FOR AJANTHA MENDIS AND SRI LANKA CRICKET
Michael Roberts - 9th July 2008

The Asia Cup has brought forth the phenomenon known as Balapawaduge Ajantha Winslo Mendis (b.1985). He had already attracted favourable comment from West Indian observers, but his match winning performance of 6 for 13 against India in the finals and overall figures of 17 wkts at an average of 8.52 to head both lists by a country mile have now gone down among the epitaphs of cricket for cricket. As Dhoni sheepishly admitted: “Frankly, we just didn’t pick him. He bowled really well. His line and length was consistent and that’s probably what did us in.”

There is a forgotten figure however in the bouquets that are being cast around (not his team mates who have received some measure of notice, notably by Mahela Jayawardene). I refer here to Sri Lanka Cricket, that is, its structure of coaches and its body of Selectors. They have collectively and yet singularly handled Mendis’s induction into international cricket judiciously, tactically and with lethal effect when it most counted.

Sidharth Mongia provides the crucial evidence on this issue in an incisive article “Tweaking Mendis the Right Way” (which incidentally injects his own analysis into the picture at the end). He quotes Jayawardene extensively and we are told by the latter:

“We have a spinners' clinic, and a fast bowlers' academy. He [Mendis] was picked up when he was playing Division II cricket for the Army back home. When he was picked we knew he had a lot of potential. Even though he didn't have control initially, he went through the academy for about a year or so. After then we knew he was ready so we picked him for provincial cricket. It was important to have him with Murali at the same time before he [Murali] finishes.”

Note the phrase that has been highlighted: Mendis was inducted into the spinners’ academy even before his excellent performances in the Second Division of Premier League in the domestic season 2007/08. He was then introduced into the highest tier competition for ODI games, the newly-created Inter-Provincial L/O Tournament, where he played for Wayamba under Mahela Jayawardene and got 10 wkts at an average of 8.50 (second in line behind Thushara Mirando).

Note also the Royal WE. This is extremely significant. Mahela was not taking the credit-he was speaking for the SLC system. So let me elaborate further.

I was in Sri Lanka in January when the ‘rain-spattered’ finals of the Inter-Provincial L/O Tournament were played. My location was in the SLC headquarters at mid-wicket, not the best spot for evaluation, but a TV set up front provided adequate ‘cover’. When Mendis was bowling, Sidath Wettimuny got quite excited and shouted across to Arjuna Ranatunga to watch the chap on television.

From that incident I conjecture that Mendis’s potential was not widely known at the board administration level. But Jayawardene’s statement indicates that Mendis was very much within the radar of the coaches and players. At this point let me introduce two points of analytical import.

Sri Lanka’s cricket is top-heavy in the sense Colombo-centric. Good players from outstation towns gravitate to the clubs in the greater metropolitan area and those who make it rich build houses in the centre or perimeter. This limitation has a flipside of value: it is simple for coaches and players and officials to keep in touch with each other. On one occasion in 2006 when I dropped in at the SLC offices I saw Ashley Mallett in conversation with Kalpage and others for quite a while. This was not an isolated instance: on other occasions I witnessed coaches and others in conversation

Add to this Tom Moody’s role and influence on SLC procedures – as illustrated when he was interviewed for cricinfo after he announced his departure. At the outset of his regime and as a condition of appointment he had insisted on having overall supervision over the coaching structure -- rather like his position in Worcestershire I suspect. He then noticed that a large, unmanageable crop of players had been selected for the A Team and top XV during the recent past, a fact that suggested lack of continuity and little attention to team-building. In my view, Moody thereafter proceeded to introduce a culture oriented towards the cementing of reciprocal trust between players in the top squads by encouraging continuity of selection rather than chip-chop chop and change. In this my conjecture he got the message across to Ashantha de Mel and the coaches around him.

Taken together with their continuous interaction with each other and Moody’s scheme of things, I speculate that when someone at a lower-level pinpointed Ajantha Mendis as a good prospect, he was inducted into the spinners’ clinic. What is more, the spinning coaches (Kalpage and others: 2006-08) did not try to render him into a classic bowler: “We don't correct our cricketers. That's something entirely wrong if you do that. We encourage them to be as natural as possible and just guide them in the right direction. That's all we do,” said Jayawardene to Mongia.
It was at the stage during the Inter-Provincial L/O finals in January 2008 that the squad for the ODI series in the forthcoming CB Series in Australia was due to be selected. While watching these finals and with Mendis in the spotlight, one senior counsel within the SLC set-up, one who did not have selector-clout, indicated to me that it could be worthwhile “taking a punt” (his words) and choosing Mendis for the trip down under.

However, Mendis was not chosen for this tour. In retrospect I regard this was a to have been a wise decision. For one thing the Australian schedule featured hardly any spin-friendly wickets – so much so that the Selectors did not even choose a second spin bowler [quite rightly as I argued then against the chorus of protest among those attached to Malinga Bandara]. To send Mendis into the highest levels at the deepest, toughest end of the international scale was not the way to nurse him, a calm, sturdy young man though he has proven to be. So Ashantha de Mel and the Selectors reserved Mendis for the ODI squad to the West Indies in April 2008 [where one game was rain-ruined and another rain-spoilt, so that his impressive 3 for 39 in ten overs in ODI One was the only real test].

And then we had the Asia Cup where Murali was also in the side so that Lanka had twin strike-weapons. Mendis struck deeply where it counted against Pakistan on 29 June when he dismissed four of the first seven batsmen to end with 4 for 47.

Sri Lanka’s management then wisely hid him from the Indians in the dead league game prior to the finals. Much hot air has been expressed on this point. The conspiracy theories spouted by Pakistani commentators were so partisan and silly as to be laughable. The froth from patriotic Sri Lankan bloggers is another matter: it was plain idiocy. Their argument was that SL needed to gain a psychological advantage by beating India in this lead-up game. But this speculation can be tipped the other way. Indeed, I looked forward to Lanka losing that dead-game because my psychological reasoning suggested that it would work to our advantage. After all, I had seen Sri Lanka collapse for 60 odd all out in front of my eyes against Australia A in Adelaide in early 2003 and then watched them on television as they pulverised the top Aussie XI at Sydney a few days later – a reversal that did not surprise me because defeat can inspire.

That was/is my psych-babble theory. But, frankly, one can treat either version of psych-op as mere twaddle when you are comparing two relatively evenly-matched sides. That is, the result comes down to performance and contingency on the particular day. Contingency can come from winning of toss, weather shifts, bad umpiring, lucky wickets, et cetera.

In the finals at Karachi on 6th July the toss did not matter because each side secured what it wanted. Poor running – mostly Jayasuriya’s fault but compounded by Sangakkara taking off without his brakes on – gave India an early boost which was amplified by Ishant Sharma. But then Jayasuriya -- assisted by a responsible innings from the unsung Dilshan -- swung the innings around so that Lanka had 273 runs on the board at the end.

Given previous scores of over 300 being run down on several occasions during the Asia Cup on the batsmen-friendly Pakistani wickets, this total seemed below par to observers like me (though we now learn that the Lankans considered it adequate). But this was a total to aim for in THE FINALS, a feature that could encourage sides to develop some twitters. Not that we perceived any doubts on the Indian side at the start as Sehwag spirited India to a quick-fire start. His innings was exquisite, easily the best innings in the game (and perhaps the series) because of its sheer cricket-artistry.

But, THEN, Sehwag’s impetuosity and Ajantha Mendis’s artistry saw him undone in ball two of their confrontation – stumped by the country yard. The rest, as we know, is HISTORY. Sri Lanka triumphed easily as Mendis mesmerised the Indian batsmen to finish with outstanding figures: 6 for 13 in eight overs. Outstanding figures? Bloody Marvellous and Quite Rare, actually, my good chap.

The figures could have been better say some grumblers. Why did Mahela take him off when the last pair was in – if not, Mendis would have got seven wickets and better figures. I was surprised myself but Jayawardene was on the button. Kulasekera (who had bowled economically at the outset) neededonly two balls to remove the last man. The point here is simple: the last pair had, annoyingly, lasted a couple of overs against Mendis. The skipper obviously reckoned that pace was a sharper tool. His point, one I wholly endorse, was that country comes before person and records. Forget personal milestones and go for the finish should always be one’s principle as captain of a side.

Besides – it was umpire Taufel who denied Mendis a hat trick and seventh wicket when Sharma was lbw on first ball he faced.
Mendis did not achieve this result purely on his own of course. Apart from the training, nurturing and careful handling referred to earlier, let me conclude by stressing facets of the Asia series and its final match that are significant.

ONE: there was the pre-match preparation where Sangakkara devoted several hours over a few days practising wicket-keeping to Mendis’s bowling so as to discern the variations. Sehwag’s stumping was proof of this pudding; true Sehwag was planted and quite dead and gone, but the stumping was still slick.

TWO: there was Mahela’s captaincy. I was puzzled when Mendis was taken off after four overs when he had scythed through the top order, with Uthappa newly at the crease and the last two recognised batsmen in place. But looking back now, I reason that the skipper was pursuing a policy of shortish spells in the middle overs, with Murali and Mendis alternating. Perhaps, too, Uthappa was reckoned vulnerable to pace? In any event my mild concerns on this point were disproven by events.

On this issue of captaincy we should all take cognisance of another interesting point that emerged from Mongia’s chat with Jayawardene. The latter had this to say: “We have asked him [Mendis] to do what he is comfortable with. I have sat down with him, and have given him a few fielding set-ups where we can actually manage to cover all areas so that we don't have to make changes for his different deliveries. We have a basic set-up where the batsman also is not sure what to expect."

Sangakkara’s tale and this snippet from the skipper demonstrate that there has been careful planning in the work of the Sri Lankan team. But not everything is pre-coded. Captaincy calls for on-field improvisation. One point of genius was a when India was in its preliminary tatters at 93 for four with two new batsman at the crease. With Mendis bowling to Sharma, Jayawardene stationed two fieldsmen (one himself) in front of the batsman: at very silly point and at forward short leg. “No slip” I thought; “why not a slip as well!” No matter: the object of the exercise -- in circumstances that asked batsmen to keep the score ticking -- worked its logical magic. Sharma tried to turn the ball for a single, thereby making the cardinal error of playing across the line to fizzing balls. He was lbw. Game, set and match to Mendis and Jayawardene.

© Dilmah Cricket Network

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