Right time for Mahela Jayawardene to quit as captain

Tags: Denagamage Proboth Mahela de Silva Jayawardene, Angelo Davis Mathews

Published on: Dec 18, 2012

Be it playing a stroke or making a crucial decision, timing is equally important in all aspects of cricket. In that sense, outgoing skipper Mahela Jayawardene has made his decision to step down just in the nick of time.

Be it playing a stroke or making a crucial decision, timing is equally important in all aspects of cricket. In that sense, outgoing skipper Mahela Jayawardene has made his decision to step down just in the nick of time. The veteran Lankan had taken over the job so as to allow the captain in waiting Angelo Mathews to search his way into his role. And now that it has been almost a year with Mathews acting as deputy to Mahela, he has gained enough experience to give his leadership skills a go.

Just like he did in his first stint, Sri Lanka have grown a better team under Mahela’s captaincy. Although the second time round it was an expectedly short tenure, Mahela has still done a commendable job in keeping the team together and managing to deliver the impressive results. Following a horror run under Tillakaratne Dilshan’s tenure, Jayawardene has led Lanka to a Test win against then number one England at home and also was in charge when his side won their first Test series in three years, after beating Pakistan in an extremely hard fought series. Earlier, the Lankans also performed credibly well in the tri series in Australia, reaching the finals and giving the Aussies a tough fight.

The reason why the Lankans have done exceedingly well in under Mahela’s leadership is because of his ability to lead from the front. Unlike Dilshan before him, Mahela’s batting hasn’t been affected by leadership. If anything, the additional responsibility has only made Mahela a better, more evolved batsman. This aspect of his also comes to the fore when one takes a glance at Mahela’s batting record as captain. In 36 Tests that Mahela has led the Lankans, he averages a marvellous 62.48 with 14 hundreds and a highest of 374. This is far superior to his overall Test record, which itself is highly impressive –10000 plus runs an average of over 50 with 31 hundreds.

Another rationale why Mahela has achieved a lot as skipper is because of hisinnovative leadership as well as his ability to remain calm under pressure. Unlike India’s M S Dhoni, Mahela hasn’t shied away from taking risks as captain, and while it always hasn’t worked to his team’s advantage, you can seldom hold him guilty for lack of effort on his part as leader. Further, rarely has he lost his cool out in the middle, which means more often than not he has been in control of his side and his emotions, a rarity in modern day leaders.

The task of taking over wouldn’t be easy for Mathews, for he will have to win over the respect of his co-players as captain first. For one, he would be helped by the fact that two former skippers Jayawardene and Sangakkara, are still part of the team. The seniors for sure will go out of their way to aid the new skipper. The good part for Mathews is that his first assignment as leader would be the series against Bangladesh. That should help as also the fact that they aren’t playing much cricket in 2013. Over to Mathews now.

--By A Cricket Analyst

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