Sri Lanka U19 Team suffered a humiliating first round exit in recently concluded Asia Cup due to some mysterious, strange decisions by Tour management, Cricket Age learns. Eventually, Afghanistan stunned Cricket World by winning the trophy, while other Asian gaints like India, Pakistan and Bangladesh also failed miserably.
According to sources, during the tournament, in Malaysia, team manager Mahinda Halangoda and Coach Roy Dias took some strange decisions, that affected to the balance of the team. Against UAE and Afghanistan, Sri Lanka won convincingly. However, after two consecutive wins, Halangoda and Roy Dias thought the semi final place is confirmed.
As a result for an all-important match against Pakistan, they rested key players. Left arm fast bowlers Kalana Perera and Thisaru Rashmitha, and regular Wicket-keeper batsman Krishan Sanjula not played against Pakistan. At the end, Sri Lanka faced a defeat and Crashed out of the tournament from the first round.
Not only this blunders paved the way for U19 team poor showing, even before the departure of the team for the tournament, Roy Dias Disobeyd SLC instructions. According to sources SLC instructed Roy Dias to do centre wicket training and asked to go to Dambula or Hambantota for that, but Roy Dias and manager Didn’t follow the instructions.
