It was February 2023, and with roughly a week left for the start of the Women's T20 World Cup, Sri Lanka were still without a coach. Hashan Tillakaratne , who had been in the post since June 2021, had resigned in October 2022 to take up the head coach position with Bangladesh Women. And this meant, with the a major tournament looming ever closer, the Sri Lankan women's side were yet again in danger of being an after thought - something that would have been surprising if it wasn't so disappointingly on brand.
This was, after all, the same side that didn't play a single international game between March 2020 and January 2022 because the board was unable to schedule a single bilateral series. Even with Covid as an excuse, that is pretty appalling as far as Sri Lanka Cricket is concerned.
Then, leading up to the 2022 Asia Cup, they played precisely two bilateral T20I series - against Pakistan and India, losing both - as well as the Commonwealth Games, where they lost all three matches they competed in. In the Asia Cup, however, they made it through to the final, edging past Pakistan in the semis, only to be comprehensively outplayed by India in the final .
That game on October 15, 2022 would turn out to be Tillakaratne's final match in charge. Rumesh Ratnayake would end up taking the reins for his first game on February 10, 2023. Presumably he had been in charge for at least a week - though that is a guesswork at this point because there was never any official communication from SLC with regard to his appointment.
At the time, Ratnayake was working at the Sri Lanka Cricket High Performance Centre, and the arrangement was for him to take over in an interim capacity until a long-term successor could be found. But as things panned out, he ended up having a much more profound impact on his side than anyone could have foreseen.
"We have done simple things well," explained Ratnayake, speaking to ESPNcricinfo in the immediate aftermath of Sri Lanka's historic Asia Cup win on Sunday. "What I did at the start was arrange the environment, which was very important. Because if you have a certain way of playing the game, if you think differently, I believe that everybody should be on the table together."
While this may sound like some hokey homespun wisdom, whatever Ratnayake is doing and saying is having a very real influence.
Just in T20Is alone, Sri Lanka have won bilateral series against Bangladesh, England and South Africa - the latter two away from home - while they've also registered ODI series wins against New Zealand and West Indies, all over the past year.
And not only have results improved but across the board player performances have seen considerable upticks, starting with their star player. Since the start of 2023, Chamari Athapaththu in 33 T20I innings has struck 1145 runs, including two centuries and seven fifties - accounting for more than half her career catalogue of milestones - and done so at a strike rate of 132.83 and an average of 39.48, well above her respective career figures of 110.90 and 25.38.
If you take performances just from the start of this year, the numbers are even more startling. Anushka Sanjeewani , for example, has been a perennial underachiever in the national side. Despite showing good ball striking at the domestic level, across her 10-year international career, she has struggled to translate that to the national side. But from the start of 2024, she has upped her strike rate from 89.47 to 110.22, and come up with a few match-winning cameos at the death.
Kavisha Dilhari , who has always been a threat with the ball, has also seen improvement in her batting numbers, but more importantly, of her 46 career boundaries, she has struck 27 of them this year - including her only two sixes, both of which came in Sunday's final.
"I got great backing from the board as well, they said, 'your flavour, your way, Rumesh,'" added Ratnayake. "And it was a way in which it was very simple for the girls, it was an enjoyable learning environment. A positive, constructive environment where they learnt things. And we recognised the smallest component, which was one ball at a time. Nothing more, nothing less."
Ah yes, one ball at a time. How many of us haven't heard that, or some variation of it, at some point in our lives? But surely that wasn't the whole story, there had to be more, right? Well, yes and no.
"So how do we win that one ball? Batting, bowling and fielding. So when we simplified it, when they [the players] understood it, it started to sink in.
"I showed them today how they were at the start two years ago, and how they were three months up, how they were after the English tour, how they were after the South Africa tour, and the progression from then to now. I showed them this and said, 'just go out and enjoy,' and I'm sure this [victory] will come if you do that. And so they enjoyed and backed themselves.
"We also talk about fearlessness. Through words you can bring about negativity. Negativeness can bring in fear. So even today I had to say 'no, not that, say it differently, reframe it'. Small things like that certainly helped.
"Because [when I came in] it was in a place where a lot of negatives were spoken by players, coaches, staff, and everybody else."
And on Sunday, there was ample room for negativity. Sri Lanka had dropped both Smriti Mandhana and Richa Ghosh, while an umpiring decision also went against them. It would have been easy for the side to feel aggrieved at things not going their way, especially against an imposing opponent such as India.
But as events transpired, Sri Lanka just never wavered. Harshitha Samarawickrama , at fault for both critical dropped chances - chances that had cost Sri Lanka, by a rough calculation, upwards of 50 runs - dusted herself off and batted virtually through the innings.
Dilhari, whose bowling it was that had been dismantled for 18 runs in the penultimate over, came in with still 72 needed off 48 - and their talisman back in the dugout - and proceeded to smash 30 off 16, clawing back each of those 18 runs in the process.
Even Athapaththu, whose 61 off 43 was vital to Sri Lanka's cause, had earlier run out her opening partner - the in-form Vishmi Gunaratne. Athapaththu's face told the entire story, but then she remembered - one ball at a time. And so she turned herself away from the frustration of having let one youngster down, by proceeding to help another - Samarawickrama - through a game-changing partnership.
These were not mere mean feats of mental strength, no, these were athletes performing consistently at an elite level. So whatever strange chain of events helped put in place the foundations for this success, Sri Lanka Cricket would be wise to ensure it stays that way for as long as possible.
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