K-un-Sangakkara

Something weird is happening to Kumar Sangakkara.

When he was given the captaincy everyone was expecting SL to turn into some kind of mini-Australians. Hard, aggressive, and a win at all costs attitude was what most of us thought King Kumar would bring to the table.

Mahela was a good captain but a lot of people, us included, were getting bored of the lack of aggression shown in his captaincy towards the latter part of his reign.

Sanga was going to change all that. He was an attacking, confident, aggressive player by nature. There weren’t too many people who doubted that he was the right man to take the SL team to the next level. A place he was already at as a player.

Two test series in and this couldn’t be further from the truth. Kumar has shown that he is prone to cracking under pressure, even getting dirty – which we have no quarrels with- but was unexpected from him.

Although it’s cool to open the bowling with a spinner, with the new ball no less, it’s pretty strange that the only man who looked like getting a wicket on day 5 didn’t get that chance.

It’s even stranger when SL had 450 runs to play with we had 2-3 players on the fence. To stop Vetorri and O’brien stealing the show ? I don’t think so.

Where was the aggression and all out attacking mind frame that he is known for ? Is the job changing the man ? Or the man changing entirely ?

Towards the end of the test, I don’t think Sangakkara believed he could get Vetorri out. Which probably meant that the rest of the team thought they couldn’t either. Vetorri played a brilliant innings but he was helped at least 40% by Sangakkara’s inexplicable negativeness on the field.

Is this the culture within the team? Sitting back and waiting for things to happen.

SL didn’t need Sangakkara to be captain to achieve that.

12 Comments

  1. I’ve already written on my blog about his bad behaviour and, like everyone else, I was surprised that NZ were allowed to go even that far! OK, Dan is quite bloody-minded and would have scored 140 even if we had Ashantha DeMel and Graeme Labrooy in our attack, but, frankly, to see O’Brien and Oram play without too much of a hitch smacks of a high level of conservativeness….let’s hope that he can display some ruthlessness tomorrow!

    September 1, 2009
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  2. Rat said:

    Well…. no doubt Sanga was giving the impression to his own bowlers that he didn’t think Vettori could be dismissed but I’m sure he had on his mind how the SSC day 5 pitched has behaved recently. Against Pak SL 391-4 in the 4th innings and Sanga experienced all of it!!

    While I agree he should have had AT LEAST one saving the single on the leg I won’t accusing him too much of being defensive.

    About his bad behavior…… Shocking!!!

    September 1, 2009
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  3. he was saving murli’s body from collapsing on field…

    September 1, 2009
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  4. Chavie said:

    with such a young and talented team, he doesn’t really need to stick to the old culture of the team. if anyone opposes his reasoning, then he should kick them out!

    and looks like we won’t be winning the ‘Spirit of the Game’ award this year… appalling behavior! 😐

    September 1, 2009
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  5. insideEdge said:

    I had high hopes for Sanga but he has been a poor captain and the only thing Aussie has been his accent. He has made many tactical mistakes, making Mahela look a master tactician. Previous to this what Sanga had going for him was aggressiveness. So far he has been a very lucky captain which isn’t a bad thing. As Napoleon said give me a lucky general over a good general.

    At T20 WC he made a lot of mistakes (anything involving Isuru Udana) and was bailed out by his bowlers – particularly Mendis bolwing at around 3 runs per over.

    Even in the Pak series he made a lot of mistakes but
    In the last test when Psycho Prasad was going mental and reversing it he should have got Thushara from the other end not Kapugedera with his first ever bowl. Hell why not get Dilshan to keep and make Prasanna bowl.

    The field placings were shockingly bad. He had Murali bowling to Jesse Ryder with no close catchers. If he had a bat pad for Vettori I’m sure there would have been a few catches for Paranavithana to drop. Imagine if Sanga ever set a field to Brian Lara – half the team would be on the boundry and the rest would be in the stands.

    September 1, 2009
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  6. insideEdge said:

    On the subject of bad behaviour how come there is no criticism for Brendon McCullum and his fake appeal against Paranavithana? Even Edward Ranjit, who normally delights in justifying the unjustifiable decisions again our players, said it was not out.

    September 1, 2009
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  7. Som said:

    I have seen captaincy doing worse to others. I’m holding my horses in Sanga’s case although.

    September 2, 2009
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  8. shine said:

    Oh damith you are mad I see.. sanga pissing everyone off…gosh I love it lol..

    btw, what bad behavior is everyone talking about? is everyone still hung up on younis-sanga spat? lol

    September 2, 2009
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  9. damiths said:

    rat>its just wrong, sanga to me meant a whole new fresh era of SL cricket, with a different mind set from the team. we can all agree he is a very intelligent man and possibly the only SL so far to play with an Australian mentality, but its just not coming through in his captaincy right now. NZ were never gonna win, he just allowed them to get close and didnt look to drive home the advantage when we had them at 5fer.

    inside>’As Napoleon said give me a lucky general over a good general.’. I like it mate.

    Som> you are a wise man.

    shine> cmon, even a devoted sanga fan such as your self must be a tad worried bout the way he led on that last day.

    September 4, 2009
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  10. gaurav said:

    Well end of the day the final result is what matters..
    Kumar sangakkara is world no1 and out of all he knows what he should be doing.after his captaincy sl has shown an increase in their test,t20 and odi standards.I’m not saying that what past captains like jayawardene have done is wrong,but it is clearly visible that the team is doing their best and they do make mistakes but it is their duty to see that they do not repeat them because after all they are PLAYING FOR SRI LANKA.

    October 16, 2009
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  11. […] we wrote about this a while back K-un-Sangakkara | Fly Slip sanga isnt really doing what i thought he would for sl cricket. i see no difference in mahela and […]

    December 7, 2009
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