Help clubs that have no practice facilities: Shiroman

Lankan CC players take a selfie of themselves at the SSC grounds after winning the Major Clubs Youth Under-23 final

• Lankan CC Coach Nuwan Shiroman pleads to SLC

By Sa’adi Thawfeeq

New SLC Major Youth Under-23 cricket champions Lankan CC’s Head Coach Nuwan Shiroman said that Sri Lanka Cricket should try and help clubs that have no grounds and are playing top level Tier ‘A’ domestic cricket, with practice facilities.

Shiroman’s plea comes from the experience he has gathered coaching Lankan CC for the past two years.  

“If you see in the Under-23 final, we competed with SSC, who had centre wicket training, side wickets, indoor nets, gym, swimming pool and accommodation for the players. We had none of them, no centre wicket training, no side wickets etc. We have to go to some other grounds to train, where we don’t get the proper wickets or indoor nets,” lamented Shiroman, a former first-class club cricketer with 4,949 runs (five centuries) and 56 wickets from 127 matches.

“To develop cricket, at least when a club that has no facilities gets promoted to Tier ‘A’, at least someone should provide them the training facility. I don’t say a proper ground, if we get one that is good, but for the development of cricket we should get something, if not coaches like us are struggling. One day, we are practicing at Bloomfield grounds, if that is not available we go to the Thurstan grounds. We have to carry all our cricket equipment from ground to ground and if we don’t communicate well the player doesn’t know where to go for training,” he said.

“At least, SLC should set a criterion that whoever gets promoted to the top level Tier ‘A’, they should get a ground or at least arrange a training facility for them at some place. That is how we can develop cricket slowly. You can’t develop only the national team, you have to start from the club level,” Shiroman added.

Lankan CC upset all the odds to beat SSC by 59 runs to lay their hands on the Under-23 title for the first time in their 38-year-old history. The win in the final was no flash in the pan, because they had disposed of defending champions Colts in the semi-finals.

“Our win was because we had a very strong bench, the reserve players were very strong. When they get strong, automatically the playing eleven gets stronger. What I did was, I worked out with our reserve players a lot to give a challenge to the main players. When you prepare the bottom, the top automatically gets better. When they find that no one is challenging they go with their personal agendas,” said Shiroman, who coached the Thailand National Men’s cricket team for two years – 2017 and 2018 – before joining Lankan CC.

“After coming back to Sri Lanka, I saw the talent that is available here. Sri Lankan cricketers, they are talented, but unfortunately, we are not giving the opportunity to them. We are developing individuals, not the team. We have talented players, but everyone is playing like an individual,” noted Shiroman.

“The reason for our win is team-work, everyone worked really hard to maintain the team effort. If you see our performance, there was only one hundred scored for the whole season. All the other wins came through a combined effort. If somebody gets a wicket, everyone celebrates it. In several instances, when someone takes a wicket, it is a personal achievement; not many are enjoying that. 

“Players with big names sometimes go behind money. Wherever the pay is high, they look for those clubs to play in the Premier Tier ‘A’ and Tier ‘B’, and they want to stick with the well-known clubs,” continued Shiroman.

“There are a few promising players like Dunith Wellalage from St. Joseph’s College – Colombo. He is still 18 years and playing in the Under-23 tournament; he can play for another five years. There is Yasiru Rodrigo from St. Thomas’ College – Mount Lavinia; he is also 18 and a very good bowler. 

“We should not stop these players at Sri Lanka Under-19 level; they should represent the country at some stage in the near future. That is how we can develop Sri Lanka cricket,” he opined.