Muttiah Muralidaran reflects on Sri Lanka’s sloppy-slipshod World Cup campaign

The recently concluded ODI World Cup 2023 was quite a forgettable one for Sri Lanka. Failing to reach the knockout stages of the tournament, Sri Lanka played nine games in the group stage, where they lost seven and only managed to register two victories. 

Finishing in ninth place in the standings with four points in nine matches, Sri Lanka only finished above 10th place Netherlands. Talking of their showing in the marquee tournament, former Sri Lanka cricketer Muttiah Muralitharan came forward to highlight the below-par performance. 

It is worth noting that Sri Lanka came into the game on the back of good form; they even managed to make it to the Asia Cup 2023 final despite battling injuries. However, the form fizzled in the ODI World Cup 2023.

Muralidaran even went as far as to state that this was Sri Lanka’s worst-ever performance in World Cups. He blamed the lack of commitment from the players for the horrid showing.

“I would say that ever since we got the World Cup qualification in 1975, this is our worst performance ever. I think it’s because of the lack of commitment. I don’t know what happened in the middle, but the fact remains that they weren’t good enough,” Muralidaran told News18.

We need to understand that there shouldn’t be any personal agendas involved: Muralidaran

Furthermore, Muralidaran also gave his take on the off-the-field controversies surrounding Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC). The ICC (International Cricket Council) banned SLC from any future ICC tournaments for the time being and to help resolve the matter, Muralitharan asked for the help of President Ranil Wickremesinghe.

“We need to understand that there shouldn’t be any personal agendas involved. It’s about the future of those young prospects who want to play cricket for their country and live the life of a cricketer. Both sides need to think about these cricketers, sort out this problem amicably, and bring back the glory we had before,” Muralitharan said.