How Kepler Wessels's comments spurred the Sri Lankans

One thing is for sure. Nothing spurs a cricketer on as much as some critical observation by a fellow cricketer or a former cricketer. The desire to prove them wrong is a burning one and while some times it is counterproductive and leads to another failure, at other times it can work to concentrate the mind and energies and lifts skill level just enough to get the desired result.

That is why the reaction on achieving a milestone is one of anger than joy and if it's a batsman there is a fair bit of mouthing off and pointing the bat in the direction of where the critical observation came from. When Sri Lanka won the second Test against South Africa, it was the first time in many visits that the Lankans had won a Test match there and the Lankan skipper, Dilshan was quick to suggest that it was the criticism of Kepler Wessels, the former South African skipper, after the big loss in the first Test that had spurred them on to regroup and win.

Wessels had suggested that the Lankans did not belong to the Test category and should play more with lower ranked teams like Bangladesh etc.

Graeme Smith's continued low scores in one day cricket and then still being in the South African team had prompted Mike Procter, the former South Africa great to say that Smith's close friendship with Gary Kirsten, the South African coach, was the reason that Smith was holding his place in the Proteas limited overs side. Kirsten and Smith were teammates not only for South Africa, but also for Western Province in South Africa's domestic championship. Smith's response was to get 68 in the next one day game and follow it up with a century in the next one.

Unfortunately, South Africa lost both those matches where the Lankans played some terrific cricket and that should be a warning to the Australians and the Indians in the one-day tri-series that follows the Test series. South African pitches are quite similar to Australian pitches, so the Lankans won't have much adjustment to do once they land in Australia. They will also be under a new coach and skipper and how that changes things will be interesting to see.

The one day series between the South Africans and the Lankans had a good ending for the Lankans who chased over 300 runs in both the last two one dayers to register most impressive wins. They had earlier lost the third one dayer on the D/L method narrowly, and with it the series and it's just possible that the intensity of the South Africans may have dropped a bit after that.

They certainly tried out a few new faces by resting the tried and tested ones. The captaincy certainly did not affect A.B. de Villiers, who not only kept wickets well, but batted aggressively to get South Africans to big totals. That they were unable to defend them was due to some fine batting by the Lankans led by Sangakkara, and Dilshan and Perera played a blazing innings too.

Despite the losses in the last two ODIs the South African skipper, A.B. de Villiers with his sparkling batting in both those games is the CEAT International Cricketer of the Week.

Professional Management Group