Few tournaments have come to define a nation quite like cricket’s 1996 World Cup. That competition saw Sri Lanka rip up convention, and tear into opening bowling attacks like a hurricane bearing down on a defenceless island. The result was so breathtaking that it changed cricket for good.
“That was Sri Lanka playing like no other side has done in history,” Aravinda de Silva, a member of that side and a batter who came to exemplify Sri Lanka’s devil-may-care approach, tells i. “We had an identity, people knew the way that Sri Lankan cricketers played the game and teams wanted to emulate that.
“I don’t think we have that at the moment.”
He’s right. The sight of the likes of Mahela Jayawardene, Sanath Jayasuriya, Kumar Sangakkara and De Silva himself, would send shivers down the spine of all but the hardiest bowling attacks. They would also put bums on seats, not because of the runs they scored so much as the way they scored them.
This latest generation, though, sorely lacks the star quality that, for the best part of two decades, made Sri Lanka one of world cricket’s biggest drawcards.
De Silva also believes that the country’s batters have become too orthodox, too technical. They have, he believes, moved away from the methods that made his side so successful. See ball, hit ball.
Little wonder that he enjoys watching this England side bat so much.
“I’m enjoying the way that England are playing their cricket at the moment,” he says. “They’re playing very, very attacking cricket – whether they’re bowling or batting, England are taking a really positive approach and it’s paying off.”
It’s an approach pioneered by Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum, but Bazball is nothing new. In fact, the way England’s top order plays is almost a mirror image of the way Sri Lanka went about their business at that World Cup, 28 years ago.
Mickey Arthur was coach of the country between 2019 and 2021, and he knows only too well the kind of talent that this cricket mad nation is capable of producing – and the love of the sport that exists there.
“They’re gifted cricketers, exciting cricketers,” he tells i. “There are so many ways and techniques among Sri Lankan cricketers that would get coached out in the western world. As a coach, you need to think outside the box. You need to maintain what makes those players so special but try and make those techniques a little more solid at the same time.
“I think Sri Lanka were really a victim of their own success. They had such a settled side, with so many incredible players, that it was always going to be very difficult to move on once those guys had retired. I suppose that what we’ve seen since, has been inevitable to a certain extent.
“What the players strive for in Sri Lanka is consistency. That’s consistency in the way they’re coached, consistency in selection and consistency in the environment around them. Once you get that, then you’ll get the best out of the player.
“There are some non-negotiables in Test cricket and that’s having a technique you can trust, and having a technique that will stand up under pressure. Once you’ve got that, they can play in their own way. I always said to them that I wanted to give them the roots to grow and the wings to fly.
“The wings to fly, is all about playing with your own technique in your own way and with your own character. If you look throughout history, then you’ll struggle to find any country’s cricketers who have done this as well as Sri Lanka’s.”
Sri Lanka have found themselves grounded in recent years for a number of reasons. Producing cricketers capable of playing in the sport’s most demanding format is hard enough, but for one of world cricket’s financial minnows, they also face the additional complication of ensuring their players still want to play Test cricket at a time when such riches are on offer in franchise cricket.
“What you learn when you work in Sri Lanka is the kind of passion that everyone involved in the sport has for Test cricket,” says Arthur.
“Yes, the country has an incredible record in white-ball cricket, but the longest format is something that seen as being very, very precious. Kids in Sri Lanka still want to play Test cricket.”
That can only be good news at a time of unprecedented uncertainty over the future of the traditional format. But it doesn’t mean that Sri Lanka will pose any more of a stiffer test for England in the coming weeks.
Even without their injured captain, McCullum will hope and expect England to end this summer with a 100 per cent win record.
Taking anything for granted against Sri Lanka, though, is always ill-advised.
“Winning in England is hard,” says de Silva. “But it’s certainly not impossible.”
