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World Cup debacle

HEADINGLEY, LEEDS (Wednesday) - It was by a strange quirk of fate that Sri Lanka ended their unsuccessful campaign to retain the World Cup at Southampton.

It was at the Southampton docks that the luxury liner RMS Titanic began its fateful maiden voyage to America.

Although Sri Lanka beat Kenya to round off their Group 'A' matches with a win, it was not enough to guarantee them a place in the Super Six.

Sri Lanka's exit from the '99 World Cup was doomed from the time they announced the team whose composition was totally lopsided to cope with early-season English pitches. They just didn't have the bowlers quick enough to exploit the conditions which other teams made maximum use of.

Quite apart from that, Sri Lanka's batting, fielding and administration lived in the glory of three years ago. The brilliant batsmen of the last World Cup and of the Oval Test last year were past it. It looks as if the evolution of the Sri Lanka team has almost stood still since 1996. By retaining 11 players of the World Cup winning side of three years, no young legs were brought into their batting with the exception of Mahela Jayawardene. And Sri Lanka paid a heavy price for it.

Batting and fielding were Sri Lanka's forte when they won the World Cup three years ago. But here the much vaunted batting flopped to such an extent that Sri Lanka ended up conceding more runs to their opponents than scoring runs against them - 1206 runs to 1003 runs.

The comparative tables of the 1996 and 1999 World Cup performances tell the sad story in figures.

What it doesn't show are the remarks made by skipper Arjuna Ranatungaafter the thrashing they received from India at Taunton which didn't go well with the team. It only compounded the team's misery.

Players expressed their dismay privately at Ranatunga's open criticism on the three fast bowlers after the Indian match. They were also surprised when Ranatunga said that he wanted to continue playing after such a debacle.

It wasn't only the bowling that was found wanting in that game, but also the fielding and the batting. The batsmen could not even score the required 280 runs which would have brought their net run rate down and given them an outside chance of qualifying for the Super Six.

All this has led to factions in the team - pro-Ranatunga and anti-Ranatunga.

The Cricket administration has lately been consumed by greater turmoil, racked by a succession of court orders and threats of violence.

What has befallen Sri Lanka is nothing new.

Winning the World Cup competition has had a decadent effect on the three Asian nations. India who won the World Cup in 1983 and Pakistan in 1992, have gone the same way.