Another retired-hurt Sri Lanka cricketer, Tillekaratne Dilshan, has come out with a litany of woes in the aftermath of the team’s disastrous showing at the 2023 Cricket World Cup.
But his grouse is not only about the shoddy treatment meted out to him as both captain and player, but warns that home-grown expertise replaced by an invasion of foreigners is plummeting the team to a deeper abyss.
“We get down foreigners to do what we can do and should be doing”, said Dilshan in an interview with a local television channel.
His contention is that foreigners communicating with Sri Lankans on what to do in a sport that has been firmly rooted in the island for more than half a century is not paying off with the team unlike in the past now made up of players from hardcore village life.
“Our cricket culture is not suited for foreigners”, said Dilshan. “If we tell the young chaps in our own language do this, they will do it and succeed. We depend on foreigners and our cricket goes from bad to worse”.
Regarded as one of the best fielders in the world, Dilshan took umbrage at the team branded the worst fielding side at the World Cup and none being held responsible or admitting to the slump.
“What worries me is that no one has taken responsibility for the current state of affairs,” said Dilshan.
He was forced into retirement when he fell out of favour with a system that pays little or no attention to the future.
“My plan was not to retire in 2015 but after the World Cup in 2019.
“By that time Angelo Mathews would have been the captain leading a set of new players into the 2023 World Cup.
“I thought staying on (until 2019) will put me in a confrontation against certain people over my desire to groom youngsters. So I called it a day”, Dilshan recalled.
