Women’s World Cup: SL looking for ‘big data’ edge

The Sri Lanka Women’s National Team (WNT) is hoping that their use of data analytics will help even out the odds against technically and physically superior outfits at this month’s World Cup in England, with Captain Inoka Ranaweera even stating that a semifinal berth might not be out of the question.

Sri Lanka has played in five of the 10 World Cups so far — 1997, 2000, 2005, 2009 and 2013 — during which period they managed just seven wins in 28 matches. However, since Coach Hemantha Devapriya took over last October as part of Sri Lanka Cricket’s renewed focus on women’s cricket, the team have seen drastic improvements.

In collaboration with SLC High Performance Manager Simon Willis, Devapriya conducted a full review of the team “benchmarking” themselves against the world’s top teams. What they found was that the team were unable to compete with teams like Australia and

England in “terms of size and technique, and therefore needed to identify ways to “play to our strengths”.

“We realised that we needed to improve our strike rates, especially if we wanted to consistently score over 200. We also need to work out which strokes work best in English conditions. Also in some of matches we realised that we only averaged about 40 singles in a match. We have now increased that to about 75 per game - in fact against Pakistan [in the WCQ] we took 100 singles,” explained Devapriya last evening, speaking on the eve of their departure for England where they will take part in five-day conditioning and acclimatisation camp.

“We realised that if we had stayed at our previous levels we would continue to find it difficult to compete in international matches, so we have worked extremely hard on increasing those ranges over the past 6-7 months.”

Like the men’s team before them, the WNT were also put through a pre-World Cup engaged intensive training schedule over 45 days, most recently concluding in a five-day residential camp at the recently opened SLC Centre of Excellence in Kandy, where they the participated in strenuous practice and conditioning sessions. 

Batting was overseen by Devapriya, spin bowling by Assistant Coach Oshadee Weerasingha, fast bowling by Ravindra Pushpakumara and fielding by Lanka de Silva, all of whom prepared intensive schedules based on the individual requirements of each player.

“The team have worked really hard in preparation and have been 100% committed in every way. It is really great to see how much effort and preparation has gone in, and this is not only on the field, the ladies have spent time in psychological motivation, etiquette, language, grooming and deportment sessions as well. They are as prepared as we can make them in every way. It's now up to them to go out there and perform in the middle.”

Semifinals a ‘possibility' 

Devapriya’s confidence was shared by his team, as Captain Inoka Ranaweera speaking on behalf of her team spoke of their goals for the tournament. Ranaweera retained the captaincy, despite former captain Shashikala Siriwardene returning to the squad from injury, after successfully leading the team in the World Cup qualifiers earlier this year. The return of Siriwardene adds experience to an already experienced outfit - 9 out of 15 players played in the 2013 WC - and Ranaweera believes that this gives them an edge in such a high pressure environment.

“As a team, we have a lot of experienced campaigners, and we hope to be amongst the best four teams in the tournament and make it to the semifinals,” she said before thanking the SLC Board for its “unprecedented” support.

“This is the first time we have been given this type of support from the board. We have been given the best coaches and facilities. Our coach [Hemantha Devapriya] has worked with us on areas of our batting that we didn’t even know we were weak in, and our specialist coaches have really put us through our paces.”

Her thoughts were echoed by Sri Lanka Cricket President Thilanga Sumathipala, who believes that this is the best women’s team Sri Lanka Cricket has ever sent for a World Cup.

“We are quietly confident. In fact, the confidence we have in this team is the highest it has ever been. We expect to see a different team altogether once the tournament begins.”

Sri Lanka take on New Zealand in their first game on Saturday 24 June, with Australia and India the other two teams in the group. (MB)

Squad: Inoka Ranaweera (Captain), Prasadani Weerakkodi (Vice Captain), Shashikala Sriwardena, Chamari Athapaththu, Eshani Lokusooriya, Dilani Manodara, Sripali Weerakkody, Udeshika Prabodani, Nipuni Hansika, Hasini Perera, Oshadi Ranasinghe, Harshitha Madawi, Ama Kanchana, Chamari Polgampola, Chandima Gunarathne 

Standby 

    Inoshi Fernando

    Hansima Karunaratne 

    Madushika Meththananda 

    Anushka Sanjewani 

    Sugandika Kumari