Mickey Arthur: Sri Lanka hasn’t made it to the semi-finals, but coach Mickey Arthur praised the team’s performance at the tournament on the eve of their final match against the West Indies in Abu Dhabi.
The 2014 champion, who had to follow along the route to Super 12 this time, advanced to the first round with major clinical victories against Namibia, Ireland, and the Netherlands.
They started with a five-ticket win over Bangladesh and continued seamlessly at Super 12.
However, after losing three times in a row, he was out of the equation.
Mickey Arthur was very confident in the future of the team in T20 format.
Even if defeated, the fighting and performance of the young group players were silver-lined.
“We’ve shaken up the World Cup,” Arthur said in a press conference on Wednesday (November 3). “We’re not going to qualify this year. But Sri Lankan cricket is now in good hands. We’ve got some very good young players who just need consistency in message. They need consistency in selection. And they need to be given a platform to go and play. So I’m immensely proud of the efforts of the players, immensely proud of the efforts of the support staff who put in a massive amount of work with these players.
“I’d like to say we’ve just planted the seeds because I think in a year or two’s time those seeds will start to turn into some pretty good flowers. Sri Lankan cricket is in a healthy state with this bunch of young players.”
“For me to see how far we’ve come as a group when I watch Pathum Nissanka, Charith Asalanka, Dushmantha Chameera, Wanindu Hasranga, Maheesh Theekshana, Dasun Shanaka, Chamika Karunaratne, you can name eight or nine players, when I watch them perform, I get immensely proud because I know how much they’ve put into it,” he added.
Arthur thought the T20 was Sri Lanka’s worst format, so he believed the team “turned a corner” when he entered the World Cup.
“I said before the campaign I thought Twenty20 was our worst format. We know we’re in a building phase as a cricket nation. We’ve turned the corner. I certainly think our test team’s in a good place. I think our one-day team is getting there. It was the Twenty20 team that worried me a little bit.
Arthur also reiterated the need for sustainability for Sri Lanka. To achieve progress not only in the field but also to the next level.
In recent years, Sri Lanka’s kneeling reaction to unfavorable outcomes. Has had a profound effect on team choices, which has affected players.
Mickey Arthur believed that Sri Lankan cricket would work. In the future if the player won a fair run on the side.
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“For these young players, there’s a very bright future ahead of them. As I said so many times, we’ve just got to be consistent with them. And we’re going to get, hopefully, we’ll get some consistent performances later down the line.
Arthur said:
“I’m just striving for consistency in everything that we do. And that’s execution, messaging, and selection. And then I think that we will go a long way with the resources that we have. I’m looking for that extra little bit of depth in every department. And then we’ll start really challenging the good side. The key for me is consistency. So it’s consistency in the messaging. It’s consistency in the selection,”
Aside from these positives, perhaps the Sri Lankan World Cup campaign can best be explained with a persistent what if?’ feeling.
To summarize. Australia was the only Super 12 opponent to defeat them in the Seven Wicket victory. Sri Lanka had a chance to defeat South Africa and England.
The best player in the Sri Lanka tournament, Wanindu Hasaranga, finished 18th with South Africa 112 6-6. Sri Lanka has shown great courage to one of England’s best teams.
Hasaranga became (almost) again the protagonist when he reduced the tracking equation from 42 to 75 to 24 to 41.
However, his dismissal in the 17th over allowed England to intervene and remain undefeated.
“I guess the thing that I’ll always look back. On this World Cup at is I know we’re a young team. But we had chances. We had opportunities. Certainly to beat South Africa. And we had an opportunity to certainly beat England,” Arthur said. “And those missed opportunities. I think, are going to be the thing that holds me at the end of it when I look back.
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