What happened to Dinesh Chandimal, the captain?
He came, he saw but, he failed to conquer. As a captain of any team, consistency is what you aim and sustainability is what you fear. When your fear comes true, failure is guaranteed. However, this was not the complete case with Dinesh Chandimal, the former captain of the Srilankan T20 cricket team. Prologue – Dinesh Chandimal was the captain of Srilanka in the 2014 T20 World Cup in Bangladesh and was replaced by senior countryman Lasith Malinga as the captain of the team midway in the tournament. Srilanka went on to win the tournament.
Now, let’s throw some light on what actually happened. Mr. Chandimal was leading his troops quite well through the tournament but, an injury meant that a new captain had to be selected midway. Lasith Malinga filled that shoes and how well! But, the injury was not the only thing that didn’t work in Chandimal’s favour. As his bad luck would have it, under Malinga’s captaincy, Srilanka went on to win the World Cup. Probably, another thing that didn’t work in Chandimal’s favour was the fact that not may T20 international matches followed the World Cup. This simply meant that Malinga has had no opportunity to underperform and Chandimal has had no chance to make a comeback.
While Malinga is known for his T20 prowess, not many thought that he would be a successful captain as well. He represents teams across the globe in many leagues, which has made him a household name. On the other hand, the case is totally opposite for Chandimal. Frankly speaking, he is not your complete T20 package player.
The rise of Angelo Matthews as a captain and as the MVP of Srilankan cricket eliminated any hope of Chandimal’s return as a captain. Angelo Matthews was in the reckoning and come May 2013, he sealed his fate with a string of good performances with the bat, ball and his captaincy. Apart from a few hiccups, he has managed to keep up to that reputation since then.
The most important question is “Is Chandimal a future captain?”. To answer that, I’ll use the line with which I began this article – “He came, he saw but, he failed to conquer”. It would be fair to say that he was given his opportunities but, he failed to deliver as promised. He was regarded as the future but, he threw it away. As they say, OPPORTUNITIES KNOCK, BUT ONCE.
