Ford praises team, looks ahead to South Africa

The Sri Lankan cricket team - Pic by Sameera Wijesinghe

By Madushka Balasuriya

Sri Lanka Coach Graham Ford yesterday had one eye on the upcoming tour of South Africa as he heaped praise on his team’s recent performances in Zimbabwe which he feels is just reward for the effort and commitment put in by his young charges.

Sri Lanka registered a 2-0 Test series win against Zimbabwe and then went on to claim victory in the subsequent triangular series, which also included West Indies. Ford acknowledged that while the team had some difficult moments on tour - most notably a batting collapse in their only defeat on tour, against the West Indies - he was pleased with his side’s overall levels of commitment.

“I want to congratulate both squads and say how proud I am of the way they have worked amidst this rebuilding process we’re currently undertaking,” he said addressing the media at a special event organised by Sri Lanka Cricket to welcome back the team.

“Every single day they are out there working extremely hard to improve their cricket and all through the tour - and it wasn’t the easiest tour, there were a few little challenges along the way - to see how the guys worked and every single player putting in the effort to improve was really pleasing. I’m just glad to see the boys get the results that they deserved.”

With Upul Tharanga, Kusal Perera and Nuwan Kulasekera the only experienced senior members of the ODI squad, and Rangana Herath only available in the Test arena, Sri Lanka were largely dependent on a young brigade spearheaded by next generation talents such as Dhananjaya De Silva, Kusal Mendis, Jeffrey Vandersay and Asela Gunaratne. Ford felt the younger members of the team did well but believes the upcoming tour of South Africa will offer a clearer barometer of their progress.

“We’ve spoken a lot, as a group, about improving and we’ve got to improve in a lot of areas. We’ve got a huge challenge coming up as everybody knows how well South Africa have been playing. So the boys are aware that they’ve got to improve in all areas.”

One particular area of improvement Ford was keen to draw attention to was the team’s fielding, highlighting the need to build pressure on opposing batsman.

“I think fielding wise it’s still something that we can improve on, particularly in the one-day format to create more pressure. But you know, you can’t start saying that it’s just one area that you have to improve on - if you are to become a really top team you’ve got to improve in all three disciplines and I’m very happy to say when I see the boys working and the way they go about it that there will be progress and there will be improvement in those areas.”