The only contending player to be left out is Ruwan Kalpage. That was expected. But it is not the end of the road for him. There is the possibility of Kalpage making it to New Zealand for the oneday internationals to be played after the Tests.
Five pacemen
For the first time since being admitted to the big league, the Lankans will be making a tour with five pacemen. When the Lankans played in NZ previously and in winning their historic Test abroad the wickets there were conducive to pace.
The selectors in giving skipper Arjuna Ranatunga a five-man pace battery are hoping that the wickets will continue to play the way they did during the previous tour.
The selectors must be congratulated for fearlessly slotting in young and promising paceman Nuwan Soysa. Still a schoolboy at Isipatana, this lad shows tremendous potential and with Ranatunga and Aravinda de Silva, the two most experienced Lankan men in the game to guide him, Soysa should come back a much improved man after the experience.
Cheer leader
When Soysa's rise is spoken about one of the men who helped him make it to the top is Nawalagedera Lionel Sri Lanka's cheer leader who has taken over from Percy Abeysekera. But Percy remains Lionel's guru.
In Kenya, Lionel spoke highly about this youngster and was confident that he would make it to NZ. And Lionel has been proved right. One hopes that Lionel would be there to encourage and cheer Soysa when he plays.
Standing well over 6 feet, Soysa has had the former Aussie great Dennis Lillee take a good look at him and Lillee it is said is amazed at the potential in the young lad.
Today not only in Test cricket but in any class of cricket a fast bowling left-armer is a rarity. Only Pakistani Wasim Akram and our own Vaas are worth talking about in this aspect. So if Soysa strikes the right pitch and continues, Sri Lanka will be well served in its endeavour to be the best test playing nation by the year 2000.
Good for Atapattu
One is also happy to see Marvan Atapattu on the tour. Here was a batsman with style who had tremendous potential to be one of the best of his kind in the game. Instead of letting him mature and pushing him into the national team very prudently, those who were running the game at that time threw him to the wolves as it were against a champion Indian team in India on a nightmare of a wicket that signalled a string of failures. His confidence was shattered but Atapattu has done well to fight all these adversities and the way he batted in Sharjah and later against the West Indies 'A' showed that he is back at his best.
With Gurusinha opting to keep out of the tour of NZ, Atapattu should make it his business to score runs in this position and grab this slot for many years to come.
Gurusinha's going
It was sad the way Asanka Gurusinha who did so much for the game went out. It was apparent for sometime that all was not well with the way he was playing the game. It was on the boil all the time and the final spill came during the tour of Sharjah.
We are not holding a brief for anyone in the Gurusinha saga. But Gurusinha instead of going the way he did, should have stuck and fought it out. If he thinks that forces have been unkind to him, then quitting should not have been his game. To bat on should have been his strategy.
Instead of trying to pin point the fault of others, Gurusinha should have first put his game right.
Right thing
The Cricket Board in fining and reprimanding him did the right thing. As cricket chief Dharmadasa said discipline must be maintained at all costs. Gurusinha erred and was given his sentence. He should have accepted it and being selected against New Zealand should have continued to play.
Top notch cricketers have, in the heat of the moment said and done things and have been fined or reprimanded and continued. But this treatment seems to be anathema to Gurusinha.
Gurusinha must remember that the game is greater than those who play it.
His name, we know will be on the honour list when the history of the game here is written!