Sri Lankan captain Dimuth Karunaratne has suggested that the quality and quantity of domestic cricket is a reason for the struggles of his national side in recent years.

“If you take other countries, they play a lot of cricket. In India, they play IPL and their domestic structure is really, really good.

“In Sri Lanka we have one domestic season. The players have only one chance to showcase their talent and we have to identify players only from that.”

Whilst Sri Lanka could finish sixth in the World Cup providing Bangladesh lose to Pakistan, two of their eight points have come from abandoned matches. Meanwhile, they have only won one of their last thirteen ODI series involving Test-playing nations.

Sri Lanka have struggled to replace the loss of key players such as batsman Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara. Rangana Herath also played his last international match in November 2018 against England.

Coupled with Angelo Mathews being unable to replicate the form that had made him such a key player for Sri Lanka in previous years, the importance of the youngsters in the Sri Lankan setup has increased.

“When they come to the international level, there’s a huge gap. We have to close that gap.” Karunaratne sees giving Sri Lankan players more experience in high-quality competitions and alien conditions as the way to improve things.

“We have to play a lot of cricket and give chance to the players to play in IPL, Big Bash or county cricket. We have to give them permission to play in overseas tournaments to gain experience and come back.”

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