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DEAR REDIFF

'Sri Lanka is the best in the world!'

V Gangadhar

As the Sri Lankan cricket stars, led by captain Arjuna Ranatunga and his deputy Aravinda de Silva, mixed freely with Bombay's street kids in a unique function organised at the Oberoi Hotel, a tall, lean, moustachioed man stood quietly near the buffet table holding a cup of coffee.

Bruce Yardley, former Australian offspinner, has been the official coach of the Sri Lankan national team since last January, having taken over from yet another Aussie, Dave Whatmore.

Under Yardley, the Sri Lankans won a triangular one-day series, beating Pakistan in the final at Sharjah, but had a disastrous tour of New Zealand, in course of which they lost both the Test and the limited-overs series.

When I met Yardley, Sri Lanka was all set to take on India in their second match of the Independence Cup tournament. Having lost to Pakistan, they had to win this match to survive in the tournament. Twentyfour hours later, led by the irresistible Sanath Jayasurya, they rolled over India, then thrashed New Zealand in Hyderabad to qualify for the final.

Yardley, even before these results underlined his words, was certain in his mind that Sri Lanka was the best one-day team in the world. And that with a bit of fine tuning, the small island could also emerge as the top Test-playing nation as well. The former Aussie Test offspinner, who is contracted to coach Sri Lanka till the 1999 World Cup, said that one of the team's goals was to emerge as the best Test unit by 2000. "This is possible if we get to play enough Test matches," he pointed out.

The coach agreed that under Whatmore, the Sri Lankans had learnt to fight back. In their earlier days, Yardley felt, they had often crashed to defeat from winning situations. "This was because of faulty temperament and lack of experience," he explained. "Today, the boys come back roaring from the jaws of defeat. Look how the team put behind it the defeat against Pakistan and reached the finals!"

Yardley, obviously, had established an excellent rapport with Ranatunga, who in turn, was worshipped by his players. "That makes my job easy," Yardley pointed out. "Every one in the team plays for Sri Lanka and not for himself. Look at Mahanama, how well he has adapted himself to batting at number seven in the one-dayers. He knows he will not get many opportunities to put up good scores, batting so low down in a team packed with strokeplayers, but he does it readily in the team's interests."

The key question -- who will succeed Ranatunga at the helm of this team -- has Yardley evasive for once. "There's plenty of time to worry about that... Arjuna, I am pretty sure, will be keen to carry on till the next World Cup, at least, and lead his team out as defending champions."

Asked about the controversy surrounding Asanka Gurusinghe's sudden exit, Yardley explained that was Gurusinghe himself who had opted to play club cricket in New Zealand and expressed a desire to settle down in Australia. "No doubt he was a good player, but then we have players to replace him," the Lankan coach points out.

As with Whatmore before him, so with Yardley -- a question that needs asking is whether the hiring of foreign coaches makes much sense. Lanka, after all, has the talents of the likes of Duleep Mendis and Roy Dias to call upon, right there at home. "You see, the thing is that Sri Lanka has not been much exposed to the international cricket scene. Dave, myself and Steve Rixon (the former Australian cricketer, now coaching New Zealand) had watched lots of international cricket being played in Australia. We pick up strategy, playing techniques and fitness lessons, and have the knowhow to use this to build up national teams.

"For instance, it was Alex Konturi, the Australian physio of the Sri Lankan team, who correctly diagnosed Aravinda de Silva's groin injury last December and put him under the care of a specialist. Today, after medication and physiotherapy, Aravinda is fully fit. That underlines the value of hiring experts, of whatever nationality," explains Yardley.

Which then begs the next question, would Yardley recommend that India too go in for a foreign coach? "You do have lots of former players with enormous international experience," was all he would say on the subject.

Yardley, in a sense, is an ideal bet to coach an Asian side -- he makes no secret of his affinity for Asian players. More so, of course, if they happen to be off-spinners. When Pakistan toured Australia a couple of years back, Yardley was one of the first to realise the potential of Saqlain Mushtaq and even predicted, at a time when Saqlain hadn't yet become a regular member of the side, that he would soon be rated the best in the world. Again, Yardley is very close to Lankan offie Muthiah Muralitharan, and backed him fully when Australian umpire Darrel Hair no balled him for throwing. "I've been following Murali's bowling ever since 1991, when I did some coaching here in Lanka, and I have never found anything the least bit suspect in his action," Yardley insists.

Since Yardley is at the helm for a while to come, the question of bench strength becomes crucial to his long range plans. "True, the Test stars are away from home most of the time. But then, their success has generated tremendous interest in the game. The Under-19 cricket programmes in Lanka are well organised, and we are on the way to build up an 'A' team made up of reserve players from the national side and promising youngsters. The Lankan bench strength is pretty good, really, and getting better all the time," said Yardley, pointing to how quickly Marvan Atappattu stepped into Gurusinghe's shoes, and how Liyanage was around to fill in when Vaas got back problems and Newton Souza too had to miss the Independence Cup.

However, Yardley is keen that Lanka develops a contingent of fast bowlers. "In England, Australia and South Africa, it is the fast bowlers who call the shots," he points out. "In that sense, Pakistan is very impressive. They have Akram and Younis, and they also have the likes of Aaquib Javed and Shahid Nazir. They also have Mohammad Zahid (who is missing from the ICup line-up through injury) who is being regarded as the fastest in the world right now."

For the Lankan coach, the summer promises lots of excitement -- beginning with the upcoming tour of the West Indies, immediately after the ICup. "It is the ultimate test for every cricket team," he points out. "I understand that the wickets over there have slowed down considerably, and that could help us. We have some excellent slow and slow-medium bowlers, and I hope the transformation to Test cricket will be smooth. True, the batsmen also need to discipline themselves, and not flash too much outside off stump."

If he sees a cloud in this silver lining, then it lies in the fact that the tour is very short. "One ODI and two Tests is too little. A three-match series, both one dayers and Tests, would have really tested our abilities to the full," he says, then shrugs, adding, "Oh well, right now, we have to take what we can get!"