Time for Sri Lanka's fast bowlers to take centre stage

Having made a hash of the Pakistan A tour the Sri Lankan national selectors have surpassed expectations with their Coca Cola Cup squad, showing the vision to accept the management's argument that the balance of the side must start to reflect requirements for the 2003 World Cup.

During the next ten months Sri Lanka will participate in four triangular tournaments, two in Sri Lanka and two in Sharjah. They will therefore play at least 21 one-day matches on pitches traditionally conducive to Sri Lanka' s medley of spinners.

They could continue as before and would stand an excellent chance of winning all four tournaments. Sri Lanka have developed a one-day system in the sub continent, based upon two fast bowlers and three spinners, that is well understood, slickly implemented and successful.

Unfortunately it's a system that won't work in South Africa, a fact proved only too clearly on Sri Lanka's last tour, when they were hammered five-one. With the exception of Muttiah Muralitharan and perhaps Jayasuriya, with his low-armed darts, the Sri Lankan spinners will not repeat their run throttling heroics of the 1996 World Cup there.

The fast bowlers, however, will be able to exploit the extra pace and bounce of the hard South African wickets and a change in the regulations that will have a far reaching impact on the game, namely the introduction of one bouncer per over from September.

One-day batsmen will no longer be able to lurch onto the front foot in confident anticipation of another length ball. They can expect far more balls around chest height and the odd few around their ear holes. The pendulum, so far in favour of the batsman in recent times, will swing back towards the bowlers and the fast men will be the great beneficiaries.

The future plight of the humble spinner cannot be compared to that of the dinosaurs or dodo, but it is going to become harder trade to ply. Asia's spinners should form a pressure group and start campaigning for the World Cup's return to the sub-continent.

With the World Cup likely to be dominated by seam then it is obviously wise to experiment now, even if conditions in Sharjah and Sri Lanka don't demand it. With four fast bowlers likely to play, rather then the normal two or three, the players need to get used to a different style of cricket, to bowling changes at different times and less familiar fielding positions.

No one has to adjust more of course than the fast bowlers themselves, who have become quite accustomed to a short burst at the start, followed by an afternoon's grazing in the deep. Now, they must become experts in both the middle and later parts of the innings.

Dav Whatmore has made it clear that these fast bowlers must also be able to score runs too: "To be successful in South Africa we need to have considerable fast bowling resources and some of those bowlers must be able to bat. You only have to look at the success achieved South Africa to realise that conditions there are well suited these types of players."

This being the case the selectors are going to have to find two fast bowling all rounders, who can change the match with both bat and ball. The search will not be easy. There is a talented group of bowlers emerging from Rumesh Ratnayake's Fast Bowling Academy, but there are no genuine batsmen among them yet.

The selectors though have plumped for two exciting prospects: Suresh Perera and Dulip Liyanage. Perera has the charisma and sparkle; Liyanage is the work horse - steady and determined. Both are useful with the bat and could really stiffen up the tail. They now need a fair chance to prove that they can do the job.

Perhaps the most encouraging feature of the squad selected was that it has shown, for the moment at least, that the selectors, coaches, and senior players are all moving in the same direction and are sharing a common goal. Two weeks ago there were real fears that this wasn't going to be the case.

Even the Sports Minister has felt compelled to develop 15 'fast' practice pitches at Premadasa International Stadium, which is a useful, though perhaps hopeful, move that is eminently more preferable to this weeks unwarranted meddling in selection

It's now a question of resolve. Everyone must remain committed to the project and not break ranks at the first sniff of failure. Even if the pitches are to be harder and faster than the norm, as is being reputed now, don't expect the Waca or Wanderers. The pitches in Dambulla and Premadasa will still offer the spinners assistance and there could well be a tradeoff between short term success and long term glory. For the moment at least though Sri Lankan cricket appears to be focused on the later.