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Pramodya Wickramasinghe with the AIWA Cup [More photos] |
The main story of the Aiwa Cup was the early, satisfying and encouraging success of the Sri Lankans in overcoming the tumultuous departures of stalwarts Arjuna Ranatunga and Aravinda de Silva and in responding to the prodigal return to the national coaching position of Dav Whatmore. Whilst they did require more than their fair share of fortune along the way to the triumph - only squeezing through to the Final after an extraordinary last preliminary match loss against India by virtue of a narrow net run rate advantage - theirs was a great achievement and one from which little credit could be taken after their one-sided eight wicket victory in the ultimate match against a previously rampant Australia. Essentially, the triumph was based upon the return to the form of their punishing top order batsmen (the efforts of Marvan Atapattu, Romesh Kaluwitharana and inspiring new leader, Sanath Jayasuriya, doing much to bring about a manifest lift in confidence) and the all round talents of the rapidly emerging Upul Chandana but perhaps the most impressive feature of their win was the extent to which the majority of their players contributed and teamed together.
Although the ending proved one that they will prefer to forget in a hurry, the Australians could also reflect on a generally excellent tournament. In something of another contrast to the World Cup, they made an explosive start to the event - winning each of their first four matches convincingly - before being crushed by some fine Sri Lankan bowling and a brilliant Kaluwaithara innings in the Final. At the top of the batting order, man of the series Adam Gilchrist re-affirmed his credentials as one of the world's foremost attacking one-day international batsmen; Mark Waugh also played well; and new boy Andrew Symonds - given the chance to bat at number three on a number of occasions - indicated that he may well have an exciting future ahead of him. With the ball, paceman Jason Gillespie also showed out strongly and his fire and hostility proved too much for his opponents more than once.
For the third team, however, the more things changed, the more they stayed the same. Even though they also significantly revised the configuration of their squad - restoring Sachin Tendulkar to the leadership in the absence of Mohammad Azharuddin - the Indians again struggled to convert their brilliant individual talent into collective success. Throughout this series, a sense of inhibition tended to shadow their approach and the inability of their bowlers to take wickets on a regular basis consigned them to experience just as disappointing campaign here as the one which saw them eliminated at the Super Six stage of the World Cup. It is true that all rounder Robin Singh enjoyed an excellent individual series, but with shaky top order batting and sloppy fielding in their first three games compounding their apparently omnipresent incapacity to capture opposition wickets at opportune moments, success never looked likely to come their way.
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