Everyone is waiting for a win: Malinga

Lasith Malinga, Sri Lanka’s captain for the fourth One-Day International against India on Thursday (August 31), spoke at length about the problems in the game in his country after the side's 168-run defeat.

What Malinga offered was that losing an array of experienced players – and not just the big names – had a big part to play in Sri Lanka’s dip in form.

Sri Lanka's record since India’s arrival on its shores is 7-0. It lost the Test series 3-0 and is down 4-0 in the five-match ODI series after the latest loss at the R Premadasa Stadium in Colombo.

“What I personally think is that our problems are because we lost a generation of players,” said Malinga. “If that generation was here, we wouldn’t have an inexperienced team like this. We had players like Chamara Silva, Thilina Kandamby, Jehan Mubarak, Malinga Bandara, Kaushal Lokuarachchi, Kaushal Weeraratne, Tharanga Paranavitana, Malinda Warnapura … those players played about ten years of domestic cricket by the time they were 29 or 30, and played internationals for two or three years, and then they were out of the international scene.

“We lost that ten-twelve years of experience from them. It’s really hard to get that experience from a fresh-out-of-school cricketer or a club cricketer. The loss of that generation is being felt in our cricket. If they had still been here – I don’t know why we lost them – we would have had the ability to field six or seven experienced players in the team. When I started playing in 2004, there were seven or eight experienced players in the team. A few years ago we lost that. Now our cricket has declined.”

Malinga put on a brave face, though. “We need to give these new guys a place and experience until 2019. We need to be patient. We need to get together as a country,” he said. “If we keep criticising everyone one by one, we will keep getting these new teams. We have to protect the players we have. The current thinking is always ‘the player who is in the team is bad, but the one outside deserves a place’.

“As a player who has played 14 years international cricket, I think the people who are in the team are there because they are better than those outside.”

At the Premadasa on Thursday, Sri Lanka lost the toss and conceded a whopping 375 runs. At the toss, Malinga had said that chasing was Sri Lanka’s strength, implying that it was a good flick of the coin to lose. But Sri Lanka was bowled out for 207 in 42.4 overs. The margin of defeat was its worst (in terms of runs) at home.

“We didn’t bowl well in this game,” offered Malinga. “With the batsmen, we only had one experienced batsman – Angelo (Mathews). Others are young players, but they need time. They are still learning. They tried their best. I feel they don’t have much confidence to play their natural game, because the last couple of matches they lost and everyone wants to get runs. They aren’t playing natural game. Everyone is waiting for a win.”

Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma were the chief architects of India’s run feast on Thursday. With the two of them slamming centuries, India realised 219 runs for the second wicket before Manish Pandey and MS Dhoni saw it to a mammoth total.

“They played really well,” said Malinga on the Rohit-Kohli partnership. “We didn’t consistently bowl a good line and length. I think on this kind of wicket, our length is very crucial. The first 30-40 runs Virat got very quickly. I feel there was a bit of grass on the wicket and bowling first, we tried to swing the ball. Then we went for a few runs. It’s a learning process for the young players. We tried to swing the ball earlier, and that’s why we went fuller. But it didn’t happen. That’s the game of cricket.”

One of the aspects that stood out during Sri Lanka’s stint with the ball was that none of its bowlers were given long spells. Rotated after only two or three overs, none of them were able to get into a rhythm and execute their plans.

Malinga defended the decision, saying the weather had a part to play. “Today was a very hot day. I feel it’s hard for everyone to concentrate on long spells in that kind of heat. That’s why we realised ‘okay, we need to bowl short spells and get maximum from the player’. Then they have good energy for two-three overs,” he said.

The big positive was that Malinga finally ended the wait for his 300th ODI wicket.

Malinga, who got rid of Kohli for 131 to get to the mark, was a picture of relief when the moment came, and later led everyone to believe that he could consider bringing the curtains down on his career.

“I’ll see where I’m at after this series, and evaluate how long I can play given the way my body is,” he said. “No matter how experienced I am, if I can’t win a match for the team and do what the team needs, there’s no point in me being here. I’ll see if I can regain that form over the next three or four months. If I can’t deliver, then I’ll happily retire.”