Marvan Atapattu believes Sri Lanka cricket has hit "rock bottom"

Sri Lanka cricket seems to be in a state of limbo after their recent shock. Rather, a series of shocks since the start of the year. First, an embarrassing defeat against Zimbabwe, and now their 9-0 decimation at the hands of India. Since then a lot has happened. The board is in turmoil and the selectors have resigned. Through all this Sri Lanka have not been able to field a quality team and have failed to cope with the transition phase.

The Men in Blue scripted history, defeating the Islanders across all three formats of the game without losing a single match. The Lankan team is undergoing a transition phase which saw now ex-skipper Angelo Mathews step down from the helm earlier in July. And the team has been looking for a turnaround in fortunes since then.

To accentuate their woes, the retirement of their former captains and the middle order duo of Jayawardene-Sangakkara has left the Lankan batting line-up gaping. Speaking on the matter exclusively with TOI, former skipper Marvan Atapattu used the phrase ‘rock bottom’ to describe the current state of affairs of cricket in his home country. The 46-year-old also pointed to the lack of structure at the school level for the drastic dip in the quality of cricket in the island nation.

Atapattu’s view on the matter

He is currently in India as the mentor of the Karnataka Premier League franchise Belagavi Panthers said, “I always believed that a good leader gets good leader gets somebody ready so that the boat runs smoothly when he leaves. If Sri Lanka has taken things for granted and thought the players will go on forever, then that’s poor planning. We have invested on certain players like Dinesh Chandimal and Lahiru Thirimanne but unfortunately, very early in their careers we were trying to compare them to the like of Jayawardene, Sangakkara, and Dilshan.”

Atapattu believes that it will take some time for the team to find its mojo back. However, he is of the idea that instead of constantly putting pressure on the players, the coaching staff should devise a clear plan with smoke screen strategies.