IT IS PAINFUL TO LOSE SO BADLY AT HOME: SANATH JAYASURIYA

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The former Sri Lankan opener and the current Chairman of selectors Jayasuriya stated that it is indeed very painful to get whitewashed 3-0 at home and that with a very big margin, the outcome was totally unpredictable, India had a upper hand in the test series

The third and the final test came up with a bang when team India finished things of at the 3rd day of the test and crushed the Sri Lankan team by an innings and 171 runs, which is indeed a very big margin and Jayasuriya finds it very painful to digest the happenings  

 “It is very painful for me,” Jayasuriya told Cricbuzz, whose career-best 340 (Tests) and 189 (ODIs) came against India. “Losing a home series is always tough and especially to lose in this fashion. We have done well against India at home over the years and we need to find a way out of this now.”The players are down at the moment and we need to support them and give confidence. It’s up to them then to come up with answers and more importantly how fast can they come up with those answers. The coaching staff needs to come up with plans as to how we can address this issue,” he noted.

Often Sri Lanka’s first-class cricket is blamed for not being able to prepare the players for tougher challenges. Opener Dimuth Karunaratne and fast bowling coach Chaminda Vaas both highlighted the deficiencies of first-class cricket during the current series. Sri Lanka has 24 club teams competing in the first-class tournament, which is of three days’ duration.

“No doubt there’s a big gap between club and international cricket. We address that gap during our training sessions, but that’s not the long-term solution,” Jayasuriya said.

Sri Lanka did have a highly competitive Inter-Provincial Tournament comprising five teams chosen from the club structure, but the competition was abandoned sometime back. Former greats Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene have urged to restart the Inter-Provincial competition.

“We need to promote the Provincial tournament no doubt. SLC President Thilanga Sumathipala is very keen on starting the Provincial Competition and already we have conducted an Under-23 Provincial tournament, which was highly competitive,” noted Jayasuriya.

“But the problem is once it is started, whoever who is in administration needs to continue it. Like we did with the one-day tournament where we had provincial teams competing, we need to get the ball rolling with first-class cricket as well. Personally, I will be pushing for it and I know the President is pushing for it as well. It will be a very competitive competition comprising four to five teams.”