By Sa’adi Thawfeeq
Having two coaches familiar with Sri Lankan conditions and its players is one thing, but to convert that knowledge into a winning result is not as easy task as one would believe it to be.
Minnows Canada found that out the hard way when they confronted Sri Lanka in their open fixture at the newly built Mahinda Rajapaksa International Stadium in Hambantota on Sunday and were soundly beaten by 210 runs, the seventh largest defeat in a World Cup match.

This was despite having two former Sri Lanka cricketers as coaches in their ranks – Pubudu Dassanayake (head coach) and Chandika Hathurusingha (assistant coach) to guide them. Hathurusingha discarded by Sri Lanka Cricket not so long ago joined Canada for the World Cup.
“We knew the weak and strong points and the in and out of all the Sri Lankan players, but the problem was that we didn’t have the weapons to make it happen on the ground,” said Dassanayake.
“The plans were there. Some of our guys struggled with the heat and especially players like Mahela (Jayawardene) and (Kumar) Sangakkara once they settled down, you needed really experienced bowlers,” he said. “They actually changed the game. Until the middle of the game we had the plan, but Mahela and Sanga took the game away from us.”

Nevertheless Dassanayake said that it was a great experience for his younger players to be in this situation.
“Playing against the greatest bowlers like (Muthiah) Muralitharan and (Nuwan) Kulasekara gives a lot of confidence for them. All these youngsters are highly talented. But they haven’t got exposed to this level. We know that we can’t come to a level to win against Sri Lanka. It’s a good experience for me too.”
“Canada right now is in a development stage. It’s a young team. We have five under 19 cricketers in this group. It’s the experience we want to take up from this game. Most of the players have never played in front of a crowd like this,” Dassanayake said.
Among the youngsters was Sri Lankan-born Ruvindu Gunasekera who represented Canada in the ICC Under 19 World Cup last year and also played domestic cricket in Sri Lanka representing Badureliya CC in the Premier tournament.

“Our plan is to develop the game and by 2015 or so to become a full member. Cricket is growing in Canada in a big way. Lots of South Asians are moving in there. There has been a lot of development in the last two to three years. But from now onwards we don’t know which way we have to go,” said Dassanayake.
“For us cricket is the number one game, but in Canada they are pushing for the shorter version of games like ice hockey, basketball and baseball. We were able to develop the game because of the South Asian population,” he said.

“Right now our focus is the schools. We have a lot of hurdles as we play cricket from May to September, but schools holidays are from June to September. So playing inter-school cricket is a task. But we are working on that to improve it.”
Dassanayake said the game had developed in North America but it was a big task to emulate them although they had plans in place.
“Our next aim is to build up a good team for next year’s Twenty20 World Cup. They are going to have 16 teams and we have a good chance of getting into that. We will do everything to build up a good team for the event,” said 40-year-old Dassanayake who represented Sri Lanka in 11 Tests and 16 ODIs from 1993-94 and has also represented Canada in the ICC Trophy.
The 2012 ICC Twenty20 World Cup will be hosted by Sri Lanka.