Sanath Jayasuriya: The 0-3 drubbing against India ‘very painful’

When Sanath Jayasuriya opened the batting for Sri Lanka, he instilled fear in the opponent camp. India have been a victim of his savage elegance. Once in Colombo, Jayasuriya belted a 340 against India, scarring them for a long time. Those were the happy days for the island nation. Sri Lanka have lost all of that. They were whitewashed 0-3 by India and it’s their second series loss to India at home in 2 years. Jayasuriya is the chairman of Sri Lanka’s selectors and he had to witness the hosts worst ever home series loss. In the final Test, Sri Lanka, responding to India’s 487 ,were shot out for 135 and 181, suffering their fifth biggest defeat in Tests. ALSO READ: Chandimal ranks India series as toughest of his career

“It is very painful for me. 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,” a hurt Jayasuriya told Cricbuzz.

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‘The big difference’

Sri Lanka’s deficiencies lie with their First-Class structure. They have 24-club team competition in 3-day contests. The gap between the First-Class and international is immense and senior players and coaches have already spoken on that.

“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 before adding to make the First-Class tournament competitive, they need to have 4 to 5 teams and the same theory has been supported by the likes of Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene as well.

After Graham Ford’s exit as the head coach, former South African wicketkeeper Nic Pothas has taken charge on an interim basis but Jayasuriya mentions that very soon a head coach will be named

“We need to pick someone who is clever and someone who has got the patience to work with the young team,” Jayasuriya said.