Sri Lanka poised to become next Test power

Last week, Rediff posed the question of whether Australia is in a one-horse race or if any of Sri Lanka, New Zealand, Pakistan, England or India can challenge their supremacy. With Australia in a class of their own and South Africa probably still occupying the next spot, the challenge is not so much to identify a candidate to match the current Australian side, who may be one of the all-time great teams, but the next rising force in Test cricket.

In the world league of Test nations, England and New Zealand are reasonable and well-led sides, India might be gradually improving and Pakistan are Pakistan. But of the middle-tier group, it is Sri Lanka that stands out as having the greatest potential to become the next Test power.

The third-youngest Test nation after Bangladesh and Zimbabwe, Sri Lanka have quietly grown in stature in recent times. The 1996 World Cup winners, ranked third on the ICC Test Championship table, are already a force at home. On the back of the incredible form of super-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan, Sri Lanka are currently riding a 9-Test winning streak, with wins over Zimbabwe, West Indies and India. Muralitharan claimed a stunning 83 wickets during that span.

With a series victory over India last August and defeat of Pakistan in the Asian Championship final in March, Sanath Jayasuriya's men have confirmed themselves as the best team in Asia. After Australia, they are also the world's most in-form Test team, yet of the contending pack they are still the most under-rated.

While Muralitharan is Sri Lanka's undisputed match-winner, they do have other significant assets. Behind Murali, Sri Lanka possess quality fast bowlers in Chaminda Vaas, Nuwan Zoysa and Dilhara Fernando, consistent and reliable batsmen like Marvan Atapattu, Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara, and the excellent leadership duo of captain Sanath Jayasuriya and coach Dav Whatmore. It's a salubrious combination, but one that did not develop by accident.

After storming to victory at the '96 World Cup, Sri Lanka declared they intended to become Test champions by the year 2000. That was a lofty ambition for the minnows and one which unsurprisingly proved impossible to fulfil. Nevertheless, it was an indication of the commitment to excellence which has seen Sri Lanka rise to prominence despite a perennially unstable cricket board.

Former captain Arjuna Ranatunga's fearlessness and belligerence is credited with facilitating Sri Lanka's rise but the role of coach Dav Whatmore should not be underestimated, either. It was Whatmore who was at the helm for Sri Lanka's historic World Cup triumph in 1996, but he was later sacked for reputed differences with the powerful Ranatunga. Sri Lanka's Daily News was reported to have said that Ranatunga and other senior players felt threatened by Whatmore's plan to prepare a younger squad, which apparently led to his ousting. Unfortunately for Sri Lanka, as it turned out they would have been better served by axing the captain rather than the coach, as a disastrous defence of their World Cup title at the '99 event saw them eliminated before the Super Six stage.

Whatmore's reappointment following that debacle coincided with Ranatunga's departure as skipper, with new captain Jayasuriya saying of Whatmore's appointment in the Daily News : "He does not mess around too much with the players, but gives them vital tips at various stages of the game and makes us mentally strong." Sri Lanka responded to the leadership changes by upsetting Australia in their first series under Jayasuriya and Whatmore later that year, and immediate improvement was evident.

Since Jayasuriya and Whatmore took over, Sri Lanka have won 16 Tests, lost 9 and drawn 7. While Sri Lanka built their reputation through one-day cricket and remain consistently strong in that form of the game, they appear to recognise that it is in the Test arena where true merit lies. Thus, Whatmore and Jayasuriya are building a team that is not only talented but tough and disciplined, critical for sustained Test achievement. So what is preventing them from receiving the wider respect they seemingly deserve?

The remaining hurdle for Sri Lanka to overcome is proving themselves away from home. Of the 9-Test winning streak, eight of the wins were at home, and while that is still meritorious, they cannot hope to receive wider respect until they register some away series wins.

On Sri Lanka's last major away tour against South Africa in 2000/'01, they were comprehensively beaten 2-0, the batting not standing up to the Proteas' fast bowlers as they were rolled by an innings inside three days of the second and third Tests. The only way to achieve increased recognition is to start winning the premiere away series, and the first opportunity is against a highly competitive England next month.

However, Sri Lanka can hardly be blamed for not having beaten better teams abroad when they have been denied regular opportunities to even meet those sides. In the past decade, Sri Lanka have been invited to Australia and West Indies for a Test series just once, the latter for only two Tests. England have been even less accommodating, deigning to host Sri Lanka for just a single 1-Test "series" in 1998, in which the hosts were embarrassingly beaten. Disgracefully, Sri Lanka's forthcoming three-Test series will be the first full Test tour of England in their 20-year history.

With the right structure in place, greater experience in foreign conditions should eventually lead to improved results, and Whatmore appears to have a vision of how to achieve them. With thoughts of the World Cup omnipresent, Whatmore believes that the development fast bowling all-rounders is the key to winning in 2003. "We would like to play an additional fast bowler in place of the seventh batsman wherever possible," Whatmore wrote on CricInfo last year. "To win in South Africa we will need greater depth in our fast bowling resources and some of those will have to make significant contributions with the bat.

"A quick look around the world will show you that the successful teams that play in South Africa, Australia and England have bowling attacks stacked full of fast bowlers who can bat or batsmen that bowl seam up. Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, and Pakistan all usually play one specialist spinner in these conditions. This is the global trend and is clearly the way to go for sustained success in more temperate environs."

The same principle applies to Test cricket, with Sri Lanka placing emphasis on playing fast bowlers like Buddika and Dilhara Fernando with the objective of preparing for overseas success, balancing the needs of the present with long-term improvement. Before last year's series against India, Whatmore wrote: "There is now the basis of a very strong Sri Lankan Test team and I don't even believe that the players themselves really understand how good they can be. With a little more self-belief I have no doubt that the building blocks for sustained success are there."

Sri Lanka's results since then have certainly supported that view. "We have always had the ability to be as good as anyone in the world, but in the past we would throw away Test matches with bad sessions and days," Whatmore said this year.

Constantly seeking long-term development, Whatmore has had Sri Lanka practice on green surfaces where the ball jags off the seam. "The objective was simple: we want the batsmen to learn how to survive in conditions where the ball is darting around. The key to this is not playing at the ball away from the body. Playing and missing is fine, but you must not follow the ball. Survival against the moving ball requires a more compact technique and the more practice the players have under those conditions the better they will become."

In line with the growing self-belief of Sri Lanka's players, Muttiah Muralitharan is confident of his team's prospects. "At home I think we are second only to Australia now, but we have to prove ourselves in England and South Africa," he told CricInfo after the series against Zimbabwe. "I think we can seriously think of winning overseas because the side is playing as a team and a number of good fast bowlers are now coming through."

After the series in England from next month, Sri Lanka are scheduled to tour South Africa in October. How they perform in these places will determine how quickly Sri Lanka become the Test force that seems their destiny.

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