Sri Lanka are the No.1 overachievers in Cricket.

[patriot]

Tiny, warn torn country of 20 million people ,size of Tamil Nadu, yet their cricketing achievements and the cricketers they have produced in their 25 odd years of cricket history, show that they punch well above their weight. We are roughly 50 times their size in population, area etc. I think our genes, culture, poverty and other issues related to developing countries are also similar. In theory , worst cast, we should have had atleast 5 teams to beat Lanka for fun. Yet last 12 years Lankans have reached 2 WC finals, won one. Won 2-3 Asian Champonships and been a highly competetive side in all forms of cricket and extremely formdable at home. I wonder what makes them tick and what we can learn from them for inspite our great performances last 7-8 years, we are still probably the biggest underachievers in cricket.

[umpire]

their away record is abysmal

[patriot]

Thats not the point, umpire. Ours has been absymal for 90 % of our cricketing history. Its about how much they have achieved overall in cricket, inspite their size.

[umpire]

why does size matter? its the passion for the game that matters. They have been decent in ODIs for long. Now they have good bowlers.

[patriot]

I think size matters, because larger size should equate to a greater talent pool. We are as passionate as any cricketing nation.

[Rajiv]

Well, doesnt smaller mean their job of selection becomes easier than ours

[King]

Agree with the OP, they sure are over achievers. They have given Sanga, Mendis, Malinga in the last decade. They have had Ranatunga, Aravinda DeSilva, Murali, Jayasuriya, Mahela and the likes in the recent past. They have produced some great cricketers since 90s. In fact they have produced greater cricketers than Pakistan and that considering their size is fantastic. They wont the world cup in 1996, made it to finals in the 2007 WC and made it to Twenty20 WC finals in the recent past. Their fans are generally timid and ridiculous thrashing of cricketers by the fans and the media alike that happens in sub continent doesn't seem to apply to Sri Lanka. Their players are very well behaved and always seems to have time for the younger ones. They don't teach cricket as per MCC rule book and rightfully produces exciting unorthodox talents. I can confirm blokes like Malinga or Mendis would have been tinkered with in most of the cricketing nations (bar Aussie perhaps) and would have ended up playing a few domestic cricket games before dwindling away in the oblivion. Sri Lankan cricketers seems to have a lot of flair. Indian batsmen have flair and play unorthodox but great cricket. Indian bowlers these days unfortunately are over coached and don't have the flair.

[patriot]

Well' date=' doesnt smaller mean their job of selection becomes easier than ours[/quote'] No, Rajiv. Its just woeful resource utilization on the part of our administrators. A massive talent pool has'nt detered China , who has infact used this to absolutely steamroll opponents in sports like Table Tennis, Badminton, Gymnastics etc...where China has an army like bench strength. Our tradional Ranji trophy powers like Mumbai, U.P, Karnataka, Delhi, Railways..etc theorotically should havea team as good as Lanka.

[Dravid]

overachievers are def. pakis... their country is dead and ****, and yet they drafted a team from the taliban, al queda, unshavers, etc.. and won 20-20 wc...

[sangrock]

Tiny, warn torn country of 20 million people ,size of Tamil Nadu, yet their cricketing achievements and the cricketers they have produced in their 25 odd years of cricket history, show that they punch well above their weight. We are roughly 50 times their size in population, area etc. I think our genes, culture, poverty and other issues related to developing countries are also similar. In theory , worst cast, we should have had atleast 5 teams to beat Lanka for fun. Yet last 12 years Lankans have reached 2 WC finals, won one. Won 2-3 Asian Champonships and been a highly competetive side in all forms of cricket and extremely formdable at home. I wonder what makes them tick and what we can learn from them for inspite our great performances last 7-8 years, we are still probably the biggest underachievers in cricket.

Its a well know fact that Sri Lanka are truely Lions at home - even the great Australia had to fight hard to win a test series here. So, I would still give the No. 1 overachiever award to New Zealand rather than SL (not withstanding current team - which will get way better after return of ICL-bound players like Bond, Tuffey, etc.). Rugby is a much bigger sport in NZ and (I think I read on cricinfo), the number of 1st class cricket players in NZ is like very low (about 100). Still, they manage to produce wonderful, fighting results in ODIs, T20s relative to the talent in the team.

[Bradman99]

For me the top three is Aus/SA/Ind.. followed by the next section SRI/Eng/NZL.. They are a competitive enough side. Produced some quality players too.

[Dhondy]

A team that has never won a Test match in Australia, SA or India? Sorry, can't agree.

[Lurker]

I agree Sri Lanka has achieved a lot but I do not neccessarily agree to them being an International team only for 25 years. Sri Lanka has a very rich cricketing history that goes way beyond 1980s. Since 1950s there used to be MJ Gopalan trophy held every year where Tamil Nadu used to play Ceylon(modern day Lanka). A few Sri Lankan players were considered really good including Mahadeva Sathashivam whom many contemprories (including Gary Sobers) thought of as the best batsman in the world. Plus of course Sri Lanka remains the only South Asian country where Don Bradman played any cricket(be batted a couple of times and never scored 50). This is clearly very different a case to say BD who has never had any cricketer who could be remotely called world's best or amongst the world's best. Sri Lanka received their Test card a bit late, mostly because in 70s/80s getting Test card status was not so easy. Most cricketing nations were pretty happy about the existing test nations and there was no guiding interest to "spread" cricket by giving Test status left right and center. When they did receive Test status they were a fairly decent team. In fact I would argue their batting strength in 80s was not bad compared to even today's standard. Mendis, Dias, Wettimuny, Kuroopoo were very good(specially against India). Their bowling was substandard but once they worked that out they became a formidable team. They are still not a fighting Test outfit but I think it is mostly due to the fact that Sri Lankan's always had more affinity towards one-dayers. Most of their leading batsmen - Dias, De Silva, Jayasurya- were swasbucklers and very few of them were anchor batsmen. There is also the case of being the small nation success does not merit the kind of adulation that is reserved for cricketers in India. I remember reading how taken aback Murali was when played for Chennai Kings and saw the adulation that came across a Raina, a Pathan by Indian spectators. I suppose that helps Lankan cricketers have a firm head on their shoulders. xxx

[triam]

No, Rajiv. Its just woeful resource utilization on the part of our administrators. A massive talent pool has'nt detered China , who has infact used this to absolutely steamroll opponents in sports like Table Tennis, Badminton, Gymnastics etc...where China has an army like bench strength. Our tradional Ranji trophy powers like Mumbai, U.P, Karnataka, Delhi, Railways..etc theorotically should havea team as good as Lanka.

China is the absolutely wrong example, what they do for sports stars borders on torture.

[zubinpepsi]

if anything SL are overrated bunch.. can u imagine Jayawardene rated as the top batsman with an avg of 50+.. Lady Jaya boosted his avg by scoring big in his homes grounds .. whereas his overseas avg is 38... but i read in a report in cricinfo the other day.. some crap other putting jayawardene in the list of greats... and watch how SL climbs up the ranking in the coming months.. they r hosting NZ and WI in the future....im sure their batsman and bowlers will all climb up the ranking and boost their avgs.. barring Sangakara and Murali.. this team is an overrated bunch jus extradinory home track and flat track bullies..they r the best in that.. and lets not forget their minnow bashing aswell...

[gaurav92]

bermuda achieved something "huge" in the form of dwayne leverock in ICC world cup 2007 gr8 achievers

[gaurav92]

if anything SL are overrated bunch.. can u imagine Jayawardene rated as the top batsman with an avg of 50+.. Lady Jaya boosted his avg by scoring big in his homes grounds .. whereas his overseas avg is 38... but i read in a report in cricinfo the other day.. some crap other putting jayawardene in the list of greats... and watch how SL climbs up the ranking in the coming months.. they r hosting NZ and WI in the future....im sure their batsman and bowlers will all climb up the ranking and boost their avgs.. barring Sangakara and Murali.. this team is an overrated bunch jus extradinory home track and flat track bullies..they r the best in that.. and lets not forget their minnow bashing aswell...

T20 finals? If yes.....:secret: Sanga and Co. may feel bad about it...........:winky:

[Lord]

bermuda achieved something "huge" in the form of dwayne leverock in ICC world cup 2007 gr8 achievers

thats trulu huge:haha:

[patriot]

A team that has never won a Test match in Australia, SA or India? Sorry, can't agree.

And we have been great shakes in Test cricket in places like Australia and SA , right ? How many tests have we won in SA ? And after how many attempts ? For a country that started test cricket 50 years after us and has 2 % or less resources than us, their achievements are remarkable and put us at shame. They still hold a better W/L ratio in test cricket compared to us. Have reached WC finals ( 2) as many times as and won as many or more Asia Cups. They lack our superstar batting line up , with all those great 40+ averages of Sachin, Ganguly, Dravid..etc...but come big finals ...the likes of Jayasuriya( who has single handedly held us to ransom infinite times), Murali and Vaas have toyed with our team very often - bowling us out for our lowest every ODI total ( 54 ? in a flat deck Sharjah) ..and plundering the highest ( 900+) innings score in test cricket.\ For a team that plays 80 % of its cricket in and around Colombo ( which itself is smaller, than atleast 10 metropolitan cities of India that are also major cricket hubs) ....their achivements are truely remarkable. Rather than living in denial about this, I wish we could match how their maximize the utlization of their relatively sparse resources. Forget the leading Ranji sides, are our zonal sides even good enough to represent India ? I seriously doubt. Which is a shame becuase each of them apart from East zone has more first class cricketers than other cricketing nations.

[CricketGirl]

Sri Lanka by far are an amazing team they do play with alot of passion!! their bowlers are incredible!! malinga, murali need i say much more