Sri Lanka’s Shanaka says constant criticism has affected players’ mental health

COLOMBO: Sri Lanka captain Dasun Shanaka said the relentless criticism aimed at his players has been damaging to their mental health and undermined their efforts at the Twenty20 World Cup, where they were eliminated from the group stage on Wednesday.

The tournament co-hosts drew heavy flak from fans and pundits for their shaky buildup to the World Cup, which included losing five of six limited-overs matches to England.

The 2014 champions suffered a second successive Super Eights defeat on Wednesday, with New Zealand scoring a comprehensive victory to knock them out of the tournament.

Shanaka apologised to fans after their “embarrassing” performance but also felt an atmosphere of negativity had reached an extent where the authorities must intervene.

“No matter how we as cricketers try to stay positive, there is negativity outside,” Shanaka told reporters after their defeat in Colombo.

“We will play and leave, but for the players who will come in the future, if the government can even stop it, that’s better for their mental health.”

Chasing 169 for victory, Sri Lanka were 46-5 in the 11th over and never looked like recovering.

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“Honestly, we are very sorry for what happened. No one goes out there to fail, everyone goes with the intention of playing well and winning for the team,” said Shanaka.

Losing the services of three key bowlers - Wanindu Hasaranga, Matheesha Pathirana and Ehsan Malinga - through injuries was a major setback.

“You’ve also got to make fitness a non-negotiable,” he said.

“When you have the number of injuries we’ve had, it’s hard to get a good outcome.

“Your fitness level influences your injuries. There are some players who can’t even get into the team because of fitness issues. That’s something we’ve talked about a lot over several World Cups now,” he added.

Former captain Kumar Sangakkara said Sri Lanka were in danger of becoming irrelevant in the cricket world.

“There is a lot of work to be done at all levels to course correct,” he wrote on X.

“We can’t do the same things over and over and expect different results when the cricket world around us has evolved so quickly. We haven’t adapted and the danger is irrelevance.”