Tale of two nations, in the past and future

Most analysts agree that SL-W team's best time is not now, not when they won Asia Cup, but it was at 2013 WC. It was a bunch of young players, almost all in 20s, who could beat England and India, got selected to super-6 and then in the play-off secured 5th place - their best ever achievement in a WC so far.

So did SA, who played that play-off against SL and settled for the sixth. SL and SA were both pretty much equals in the period leading up, starting in late 90s (SA, after being suspended in 60s) and then beating each other in the bottom side of the table quite often. From the table bottoms of 2009, they both invested in young players, SL a bunch in 20s, SA a bunch of teenagers; Marizanne Kapp, Dane van Neikirk, Cloe Tryon, Sune Luus, Shubnim Ismail etc. These were their first bunch of world level players to bring them to S6 in 2013. Later they were joined by Laura Wolvaardt, Nadin De Klerk & co, basically the core of SA today.

With their rise of 2013, and these teenagers and 20+ players who stood a level high, both teams should have developed them into maturity, progressed further and reached higher goals. Tale of SA matched that expectation for them making to the SF stage of all world cups since then. 

Tale of SL was far from similar from 2013 onward. The cricket admin of SL between 2010 to 2020 was the worst, even worse than their usual crap.There were two factions that took it to a war and politicians adding more factions into it. The resultant mess killed the men's cricket in the tele-screen, but behind the curtain women's cricket was a silent victim. There were news of lack of coaching staff for women, lack of tours for many many months or years, negligence of players and even allegations of requesting sexual favors (ref: team wiki page). Most of the 2013 players did nothing major in their careers than gradually retiring mostly prematurely. Domestic levels were even worse managed that they rarely found replacements. Team barely managed one win - against Pakistan - in 2017 WC although Chamari stated with her 178 against Australia that she has leaped a level higher - a world class player.

That did not open any eyes though. Comes 2019, the COVID era was marked with something unique. No ODI cricket for women from 2019 till 2022, only a few T20I games were played in 2020 to mark any cricket in the period. I am pretty sure domestic circles took a longer break. SL's other world class player Shashikala retired, we heard that Chamari was moving to Australia (you cannot blame them, as there was no cricket at all). The lack of cricket degraded their team rankings and they lost their qualification to play in 2023 WC where the other nation, SA, made another SF entry.

By 2022, it was lucky that these players did not give up. Hashan, a relatively senior coach got assigned in 2021, and by chance in his absence they assigned Rumesh for just one tour, which made him stay thus far. Team started from the bottom and did pretty well in past four years to get where they are now. 

But the curse of those gloomy days still remain. The senior bunch is closing retirement, having wasted their best years in the days of nothingness. There are not enough replacements, except for the little U17 girls that came through Apsari's ground work. 

With that we look at years ahead, and I see another tale of two nations forming. This time it is Bangladesh and SL. Bangladesh has a bunch of young players, some in teens others in 20s. They did their best performance in a WC, and surely can look forward in the same way as SA did in 2013. SL can hopefully retain these seniors until their U19 talents come to forefront. Like SA matched up with SL in 2013, Bangladesh matches up with SL today.

Where will this tale of two nations head from here?