Sri Lanka are the No.1 overachievers in Cricket.

[The Outsider]

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

What a post! Brilliant!:two_thumbs_up:

[Don Sharma]

Sri Lanka have definitely over achieved a lot in world cricket considering the size and population they got. Population does matter. I remember reading an interview of Sir Gary Sobers, where he was asked how WI have been such a force to reckon with in spite of their small population. Sir Gary replied that with the fewer people they got, it makes the selection even more easier.All that they had to do is walk along the beaches of the Caribbean and they would know who has got it in them to make the topmost level. This was some fifteen years back. Nowadays, a lot of the Windies youngsters choose American sports and athletics over cricket. Now, if the WI had a larger population it would mean a larger pool to choose even after the exodus of a major chunk of available talent. This is one thing that works in SL's favor,cricket is the ONLY primary sport. If some other sport receives the same popularity then I could see the Lankans hitting the Windies road pretty soon. There are some classic examples I can quote in football. There are many small European countries who did well over a period of time but couldn't sustain it over say some ten years or so,like for instance Czech Republic. IMO population does matter in any team sport.

[Desi Cartman]

Australia's population is 2% of India's Population. So why is it that Australia has a far better record than us ? The answer is, it doesnt matter how many people live in a country, what matters is how many people take the sport seriously , what is the structure for first class cricket , coaching quality & facilities at school level. If you walk around a suburb during summers in Australia , you'll find people playing proper cricket. On a decent pitch , good ground , excellent equipment , good coaching etc. Most of my mates from lanka told me that Sri lankan schools do have facilities for cricket and the club level cricket is pretty competitive

[patriot]

Australia's population is 2% of India's Population. So why is it that Australia has a far better record than us ? The answer is, it doesnt matter how many people live in a country, what matters is how many people take the sport seriously , what is the structure for first class cricket , coaching quality & facilities at school level. If you walk around a suburb during summers in Australia , you'll find people playing proper cricket. On a decent pitch , good ground , excellent equipment , good coaching etc. Most of my mates from lanka told me that Sri lankan schools do have facilities for cricket and the club level cricket is pretty competitive

They have the best cricketing system in place. They are a first world country, wth huge per capita resources and where everyone has that spacious backyard to have a decent net practice . Besides they are an iconic sporting country, where sport is a way of life , most Aussie cricketers are superb natural athletes who played more than 1 sport at school and could have easily gone of to represent Australia in something else. Genes is a factor. Sri Lanka a fellow third world country, same culturally and genetically -with the same problems as us more or less. Apprximately equal population/land area proportion as India. ( 2%) I think alot of people do take the sport seriously in India. We probably have more first class cricketers than the other cricketing countries put together.

[Don Sharma]

2% of India's population is still fairly a huge population I guess:). Btw NZ too have better facilities, infrastructure, etc why are they not able to produce the results consistently?

[Desi Cartman]

2% of India's population is still fairly a huge population I guess:). Btw NZ too have better facilities, infrastructure, etc why are they not able to produce the results consistently?

Because not many people choose to take cricket as a professional sport. Maybe the board doesn't pay domestic players well enough, also they are crazy about Rugby :wall:

[patriot]

The other thing which against Lankans..is the little money in cricket in Lanka. Lanka cricket board often seems to go broke and only recently I believe signed a deal with BCCI that bailed them out. With the hundreds of millions of dollars that BCCI rakes in we should have regional centers of cricketing excellence with facilities for our upcoming cricketers that become the benchmark in cricket - instead we have a single NCA in Bangalore. Other inept, greedy and corrupt administrators in my opinion is the biggest bane of Indian cricket.

[Don Sharma]

Because not many people choose to take cricket as a professional sport. Maybe the board doesn't pay domestic players well enough' date=' [b']also they are crazy about Rugby :wall:

Exactly!

Nowadays, a lot of the Windies youngsters choose American sports and athletics over cricket. Now, if the WI had a larger population it would mean a larger pool to choose even after the exodus of a major chunk of available talent. This is one thing that works in SL's favor,cricket is the ONLY primary sport. If some other sport receives the same popularity then I could see the Lankans hitting the Windies road pretty soon.

I used to love rugby btw. I like Lomu and Johnny Wilkinson.

[THX_1138]

Sri Lanka's achievements are not some story of considerable perseverance... their success can be attributed to three factors: 1. exploitation of the field restrictions with disposable batsmen at the top instead of geniune openers as all teams that extended test strategy to ODIs. 2. stumbling upon a tremendous spinner. a singular individual who could have been playing in any country in the world, but nonetheless, a phenomenal talent. 3. playing a lot of cricket in familiar circumstances. beyond the above three, there has hardly been any prominent reason for their success which is still hollow in my opinion. they are yet to beat south africa in south africa, or australia anywhere, and even in india, they are not much of a challenge.

[afridi6666]

.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. .

have to bring pakistan into this, they have produced better cricketers than india as well then if thats the case, sri lankas population is 54 times smaller than indias, and with indians population over 1bill that is saying something about their talent and unique set of players