Pata
05-18-2007, 07:50 AM
by Rex Clementine
When Sri Lanka were thrashed in India 6-1 two years ago, we were calling for Tom Moody’s blood. He had been in the job for a couple of months and questions were asked as to whether the former Australian all-rounder was the right choice to coach Sri Lanka. His playing career was not a high profile one, and when he took over the Sri Lankan job he was only 38, just three years older than Sanath Jayasuriya and he didn’t have any international coaching experience. The pressure that he went through must have been enormous.
Six months into the job, his record read as victories against minnows Bangladesh and West Indies, sans seven of their leading players at home, and a humiliating defeat at the hands of India in both Test and ODI matches.
We started calling Moody’s tenure as one where Sri Lanka had moderate success and devastating failures.
Not that he was unperturbed, but for some strange reason, he kept on reminding us that what matters is the big picture. He insisted that for him, winning the World Cup was the ultimate goal and he was just preparing the team for this.
After India, Sri Lanka were thrashed in New Zealand where they lost 1-4, but crossing the Trans-Tasman border soon after the New Zealand tour was the start of things for Moody and the Sri Lankans.
The team did exceptionally well in the VB Series in Australia, where they edged out South Africa and took the best of three finals the full distance and that was the turning point for Sri Lanka and Moody.
Moody had no magical formul to make Sri Lanka a successful side. He didn’t overcomplicate things and just stuck to the basics, but his greatest strength was to identify talent and persist with them. He insisted on giving a player ample opportunity before axing and that began to give Sri Lanka the desired results.
Take Upul Tharanga, there was no question about his talent. Two years into international cricket the 22-year-old has already notched six one-day hundreds and when he went through bad patches, the coach discounted them insisting that the left-hander will come good. For Moody, what was important was that five of those hundreds had come in places like Christchurch, Lord’s, Headingly, Mohali and Ahamadabad and he wasn’t prepared to drop Tharanga, unless he had some technical faults.
One of the things that he did shrewdly was to make players realise that they were not making the most of their abilities. Kumar Sangakkara told ‘The Island’ a couple of days ago that one thing that Moody did was to challenge him and make him realise that he was not half the player he can be with his talent.
Moody tried the same ploy with all players challenging them and calling them to achieve greater things and it paid off. Take a look at the statistics of captain Mahela Jayawardene.
Since 30th July 2005, the day Moody started coaching Sri Lanka, Jayawardene has averaged over 40 in ODI cricket in 71 matches with three hundreds and 17 fifties whereas his average had remained in the late 20s after eight years of international cricket previously. There was no question of Jayawardene’s class but we cursed whenever he was out playing a rash stroke. With Moody’s arrival the rash shots were reduced and Jayawardene became a consistent match winner.
Sri Lanka’s cricket was moaning the lack of talented players coming out of the schools system and with Moody’s arrival it no longer looked a problem. We dealt on Tharanga and another exciting talent arrived in the form of Chamara Kapugedara. His pulled six off Bret Lee on debut in Perth, the fastest wicket in the world, was certainly an inspiring act and since has made us to hope for greater things.
Players like Malinga Bandara too were roped in as he received regular breaks. Chamara Silva was brought back to the national side from nowhere and what a performer he has turned out to be.
This writer was covering Sri Lanka’s cricket tour to New Zealand last year and after Silva collected a pair in Christchurch, there was pressure on Moody and captain Jayawardene to drop the player as he was leaving out T.M. Dilshan, an established player in the Test side.
But Moody decided to stick with the batsman and he came up with a match winning 150 that helped Sri Lanka to win the game and square the series. Silva was one reason for Sri Lanka to do so well in the World Cup and if not for Moody, the talented right-hander wouldn’t have got another opportunity after his initial failure.
He always talked of ‘playing the Sri Lankan brand of cricket.’ We are not too sure whether anyone else had this same approach so consistently, but Moody insisted on it everyday and you could see the results. Suddenly, all the players were talking of playing the Sri Lankan brand of cricket. Exhibiting exuberance and batting with style was seen as ‘the Sri Lankan style’ of doing things and while that brought results, it also won Sri Lanka many admirers from all over the world. The Sri Lankans were slowly becoming ‘the new West Indies’ of world cricket.
He also struck a perfect partnership with the selectors. Asanatha de Mel is a respectable man with a no-nonsense approach and together with Moody he plotted a great path for Sri Lanka’s cricket.
True, he wasn’t popular with everyone. At different stages of his two-year stint you came across the occasional individual who didn’t like the way he did things. But even his best critics didn’t deny that he had nothing but the betterment of Sri Lanka cricket in his mind.
Unfortunately he leaves at a moment when things are looking rosy for Sri Lankan cricket. His void will be hard to fill. But the good thing is that he’s not leaving the job seeking more money or for another glamorous job.
In the last two years, ‘The Island’ has travelled to Australia, New Zealand, England, India, West Indies and we’ve seen how Moody ran the show. We have nothing but respect for the man for the way he did things. He believed in practising harder and leaving nothing for chance. His commitment was a lesson for everyone. Sri Lanka will miss Tom Moody in a big way.
When Sri Lanka were thrashed in India 6-1 two years ago, we were calling for Tom Moody’s blood. He had been in the job for a couple of months and questions were asked as to whether the former Australian all-rounder was the right choice to coach Sri Lanka. His playing career was not a high profile one, and when he took over the Sri Lankan job he was only 38, just three years older than Sanath Jayasuriya and he didn’t have any international coaching experience. The pressure that he went through must have been enormous.
Six months into the job, his record read as victories against minnows Bangladesh and West Indies, sans seven of their leading players at home, and a humiliating defeat at the hands of India in both Test and ODI matches.
We started calling Moody’s tenure as one where Sri Lanka had moderate success and devastating failures.
Not that he was unperturbed, but for some strange reason, he kept on reminding us that what matters is the big picture. He insisted that for him, winning the World Cup was the ultimate goal and he was just preparing the team for this.
After India, Sri Lanka were thrashed in New Zealand where they lost 1-4, but crossing the Trans-Tasman border soon after the New Zealand tour was the start of things for Moody and the Sri Lankans.
The team did exceptionally well in the VB Series in Australia, where they edged out South Africa and took the best of three finals the full distance and that was the turning point for Sri Lanka and Moody.
Moody had no magical formul to make Sri Lanka a successful side. He didn’t overcomplicate things and just stuck to the basics, but his greatest strength was to identify talent and persist with them. He insisted on giving a player ample opportunity before axing and that began to give Sri Lanka the desired results.
Take Upul Tharanga, there was no question about his talent. Two years into international cricket the 22-year-old has already notched six one-day hundreds and when he went through bad patches, the coach discounted them insisting that the left-hander will come good. For Moody, what was important was that five of those hundreds had come in places like Christchurch, Lord’s, Headingly, Mohali and Ahamadabad and he wasn’t prepared to drop Tharanga, unless he had some technical faults.
One of the things that he did shrewdly was to make players realise that they were not making the most of their abilities. Kumar Sangakkara told ‘The Island’ a couple of days ago that one thing that Moody did was to challenge him and make him realise that he was not half the player he can be with his talent.
Moody tried the same ploy with all players challenging them and calling them to achieve greater things and it paid off. Take a look at the statistics of captain Mahela Jayawardene.
Since 30th July 2005, the day Moody started coaching Sri Lanka, Jayawardene has averaged over 40 in ODI cricket in 71 matches with three hundreds and 17 fifties whereas his average had remained in the late 20s after eight years of international cricket previously. There was no question of Jayawardene’s class but we cursed whenever he was out playing a rash stroke. With Moody’s arrival the rash shots were reduced and Jayawardene became a consistent match winner.
Sri Lanka’s cricket was moaning the lack of talented players coming out of the schools system and with Moody’s arrival it no longer looked a problem. We dealt on Tharanga and another exciting talent arrived in the form of Chamara Kapugedara. His pulled six off Bret Lee on debut in Perth, the fastest wicket in the world, was certainly an inspiring act and since has made us to hope for greater things.
Players like Malinga Bandara too were roped in as he received regular breaks. Chamara Silva was brought back to the national side from nowhere and what a performer he has turned out to be.
This writer was covering Sri Lanka’s cricket tour to New Zealand last year and after Silva collected a pair in Christchurch, there was pressure on Moody and captain Jayawardene to drop the player as he was leaving out T.M. Dilshan, an established player in the Test side.
But Moody decided to stick with the batsman and he came up with a match winning 150 that helped Sri Lanka to win the game and square the series. Silva was one reason for Sri Lanka to do so well in the World Cup and if not for Moody, the talented right-hander wouldn’t have got another opportunity after his initial failure.
He always talked of ‘playing the Sri Lankan brand of cricket.’ We are not too sure whether anyone else had this same approach so consistently, but Moody insisted on it everyday and you could see the results. Suddenly, all the players were talking of playing the Sri Lankan brand of cricket. Exhibiting exuberance and batting with style was seen as ‘the Sri Lankan style’ of doing things and while that brought results, it also won Sri Lanka many admirers from all over the world. The Sri Lankans were slowly becoming ‘the new West Indies’ of world cricket.
He also struck a perfect partnership with the selectors. Asanatha de Mel is a respectable man with a no-nonsense approach and together with Moody he plotted a great path for Sri Lanka’s cricket.
True, he wasn’t popular with everyone. At different stages of his two-year stint you came across the occasional individual who didn’t like the way he did things. But even his best critics didn’t deny that he had nothing but the betterment of Sri Lanka cricket in his mind.
Unfortunately he leaves at a moment when things are looking rosy for Sri Lankan cricket. His void will be hard to fill. But the good thing is that he’s not leaving the job seeking more money or for another glamorous job.
In the last two years, ‘The Island’ has travelled to Australia, New Zealand, England, India, West Indies and we’ve seen how Moody ran the show. We have nothing but respect for the man for the way he did things. He believed in practising harder and leaving nothing for chance. His commitment was a lesson for everyone. Sri Lanka will miss Tom Moody in a big way.