“I have done it all for my country. When they wanted me to keep wickets in a Test Match, I did that. When they wanted me to open in a Test Match, I did that. Then when they wanted me to go back to number six, I did that. When everyone resigned and when they asked me whether I could captain, I did that. I don't care about losing the captaincy. I have done it all for my country"
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| With little more help he could have achieved a lot |
Usually a way to measure this is measure using win loss ratio. 4 test series, goes to 4 losses (5 out of 11 loss and 1 win), 4 ODI series goes to 4 losses (13 out of 20 loss and 7 win) 3 T20's (2 loss and 1 win). Well according to these stats his tenure was not a good one. Add to that he took a team which was ranked 3rd in test rankings and ranked 2nd in ODI. He left a team which was ranked 5th in test and 4th in ODI. But actually there are another things which should be considered more than this.
Let's go back to the days after crucial day of April 2nd. Kumar Sangakkara, then capatain retired from captaincy saying it needs new hands, Trevor Bayliss, the coach left the team, Mahela Jayawardena, then vice captain stepped down. The cricket board was bankrupt. at this time there were only two options to handle the captaincy. Either Dilshan or Mathews. Mathews debuted after 2007 and he was injured in this time period Therefore Dilshan had to take the captaincy because there was no one else to give it.
Dishan was never the favourite of the selectors. Though being Jayasuriya's opening partner in Bloomfield cricket club he was always given the number 6 spot. He finally got a chance to open when Sri Lanka was unable to find an opener. When Sangakkara was in rich form he was removed from keeping duties to improve his batting, but for Dilshan when he was in top form he was nominated as wicketkeeper for few matches. Even when he was appointed captain, he was appointed only for the England tour. so the board clearly gave the indication that we have no faith in you....
Dilshan's first assignement was rebuilding the team. All previous captains had the luxury option of Murali and Vaas. The bowling attack was centered around these two and the others chipped in from here and there. For Dilshan he had to build a whole new bowling attack.
The troubles began to Dilshan when the IPL overlapped with the practice matches of the England tour. No matter how the board said about the need of the practice matches, they collapse to the pressure and changed their stance. The players were allowed to play in IPL and skip practice matches. Dilshan took the decession of money over country when the other big names Malinga, Mahela and Sanga decided to stay in IPL. He left RCB and played with the young SL team for the practice matches. Sri Lanka took a bright start as they won both practice matches.
Overall the test leg went 1-0 for England, but even the 1 was mainly due to the poor session in the first test where SL were bowled out to 82 in the last innings. Considering the 4-0 trashing India received the 1-0 scoreline was more respectable than it looks. Even at that time England was never beaten on a home test series for almost 3 years
The ODI series was bit poor, considering England's current form. But 3-2 in England is not bad at all. Even for those is there any point which can be said Dilshan did this mistake which cost us the series. His own form with the bat was worrying but that is T.M. Dilshan. It's hit or miss style, not lead by example style. Even for that he had to account with selection blunders. (In Sri Lanka usually the captain gets no saying in selection)
He was re appointed as captain of the home test against Australia. The test series went down 1-0 again, due to the spinning track in Galle and the dead tracks and poor attacks in Pallekale and Colombo. In the T20 series Sri Lanka won a T20 for the first time in home soil. The second T20 was a match where Dilshan showed his captaincy potential. He kept on attacking to assist Mendis. Usually Asian captains tend to put defensive fields as soon as situation gets difficult. Instead of that Dilshan kept on attacking. With Mendis getting a 6 wicket haul Sri Lanka pulled off a remarkable victory. The ODI leg was a failure as the batting unit failed to click together. Still 3-2 is not a bad scoreline considering Australia's performance in bilateral series
Dilshan got his 3rd re-appointment for the tours of UAE and SA. This time he the bowling unit was at it's depth with many names injured. Selectors dropped the cornerstone of Sri Lanka's batting, Thilan Samaraweera, who had an away average of over 90.00 against Pakistan. Sri Lanka performed poorly in that series with 1-0 test loss and 4-1 ODI loss and 1-0 T20 loss.
Dilshan's final assignment was the SA tour. In the second test Sri Lanka recorded their best test victory ever, their first in SA. Though the test leg ended 2-1 it showed a lot of promising signs of uphill movement of Sri Lankan cricket. Even the ODI series ended up 3-0 after the first three matches Sri Lanka bounced back to end it respectfully at 3-2.
It should also be remembered that for most of Dilshan's tenure the cricketer's were unpaid. How can we expect them to perform at this level voluntarily. Dilshan had to carry on with an under-performing Jayawardena and under-performing himself.
But at the end of his tenure he had built a winning team from youngsters, at least for now the batting looks solid.Still there was tremendous pressure from some places to go for his throat. It was clearly visible when Dilshan was given out LBW in the last ODI. He asked the non-striker before going for the review, even when the ball had hit his glove first. If he didn't do that the next morning media will be bashing him for not asking non-striker before reviewing or whatever....
There were weak points in his captaincy too, so does any captain. Dilshan is always a hot-tempered guy, but when at the top for most of the time he looked little bit self-controlled. When things don't go Lankan way Dilshan's expressions were worse. When a player looks back at their captain it should encourage him. If you look at Dilshan in such time it gives an indication of giving up the game.
Another weak point in Dilshan is over-bowling himself. It was like a desperate attempt from a player to win the match for them, but clearly as a captain Dilshan should go for better options than that. Even in batting he was not doing the way he should have done it. But putting Jayawardena there is no means of a solution.
Overall Dilshan can be considered as a lone captain in a ship who fought through rough waters and at least stopped the ship from going down. He will be remembered as same as Ponting the captain from 2007-2010. They still did the job bravely........
