almost everybody online or offline is discussing whether sri lankan cricket team should substitute marvan atapattu for upul tharanga for the upcoming semi final and hopefully final. this is as it should be. such discussions and criticisms add to the enjoyment of the sport. but has it gone too far?
i am not going to repeat the arguments here, you may find some of the arguments (generally in favor of substitution) in the comments section of some of my earlier posts (here for instance) as well as in numerous other posts in the blogosphere, and elsewhere in media. in fact you may find them hard to miss even if you are not interested in cricket. (fyi my opinion is that we may have tried out marvan in last two matches but now it is too late)
as i said, all this is good and inevitable and should continue. however, what i don't like is the way some people imo are trying to influence the decision through putting pressure on the team management and selectors. some of the one sided coverage of the issue in certain sunday newspapers yesterday was especially bad. they went as far as to imply some sort of a conspiracy (by whom and why was left obscure, as is the case with such absurdities) to keep marvan out.
i am sure that tom moody, mahela, and others, who have the power to make the decision are well aware of the problem raised by tharanga not scoring runs. they should be allowed to take the best decision free of interference, in the interest of our team using all their greater knowledge. it is after all they who would be held responsible in the end. a cricket team is not a democratic political institution. nor should it be. pressure, criticism, moral value judgments ('fairness', 'injustice', 'disrespect to former captain' etc.) etc. of all sorts of commentators here and there should not enter it, either in complying with those things or in irritated reaction to them. such interference or attempted interference, imo are a greater danger to our chances of winning the world cup, than selection of either marvan or tharanga.
in conclusion everyone is free to debate the decision but no one should be allowed to interfere with it. let mahela and co. decide and bear responsibility.
let us wish our team the wisdom and strength to make the best decision to win the semi final.
i am not going to repeat the arguments here, you may find some of the arguments (generally in favor of substitution) in the comments section of some of my earlier posts (here for instance) as well as in numerous other posts in the blogosphere, and elsewhere in media. in fact you may find them hard to miss even if you are not interested in cricket. (fyi my opinion is that we may have tried out marvan in last two matches but now it is too late)
as i said, all this is good and inevitable and should continue. however, what i don't like is the way some people imo are trying to influence the decision through putting pressure on the team management and selectors. some of the one sided coverage of the issue in certain sunday newspapers yesterday was especially bad. they went as far as to imply some sort of a conspiracy (by whom and why was left obscure, as is the case with such absurdities) to keep marvan out.
i am sure that tom moody, mahela, and others, who have the power to make the decision are well aware of the problem raised by tharanga not scoring runs. they should be allowed to take the best decision free of interference, in the interest of our team using all their greater knowledge. it is after all they who would be held responsible in the end. a cricket team is not a democratic political institution. nor should it be. pressure, criticism, moral value judgments ('fairness', 'injustice', 'disrespect to former captain' etc.) etc. of all sorts of commentators here and there should not enter it, either in complying with those things or in irritated reaction to them. such interference or attempted interference, imo are a greater danger to our chances of winning the world cup, than selection of either marvan or tharanga.
in conclusion everyone is free to debate the decision but no one should be allowed to interfere with it. let mahela and co. decide and bear responsibility.
let us wish our team the wisdom and strength to make the best decision to win the semi final.
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3 comments:
Amen
Absolutely correct son. The article by Gamini Senadhira yesterday was particularly, unnecessarily nasty. I assume that's the one you were talking of.
As I said on VIC's blog....had a chat with MJ on Friday. They seem content at Tharanga's form. He's middling well and just needs to spend some time in the middle. It's very unlikely the change will be made. At least that's the impression I got.
If they were going to make it they should have done some time ago. Like in the Oz game.
It is indeed a tough deision to make.
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