Ford was extremely frustrated with Sri Lanka’s lacklustre performance throughout the series

Sri Lanka coach Graham Ford has admitted that the national team’s inconsistency across all three formats continues to be the main reason behind their downfall over the past couple of years.

The Sri Lankans were completely humiliated after being whitewashed in their recently concluded three-Test series against Australia and Ford stated that the only way the team would be able to turn their fortunes around would be to play consistent cricket instead of having one good Test here and there.

During the Test series, Sri Lanka could only pass the 300 mark once and they only managed to have one session where they did not lose any wickets at all.

Sri Lanka were also unusually poor in the field throughout the series as well, especially during the second Test in Melbourne where they spilled five chances.

However, the team’s poor use of the Decision Review System (DRS) also contributed to their embarrassing loss.

“We’ve got to look at ourselves and accept there were areas where we were short and consistency is an important thing,” Ford said. “There were periods when we were every bit as good as the Australians, but we weren’t able to sustain that. We had the odd session every now and then when we set ourselves back quite badly.”

During the final Test in Sydney, Sri Lanka were given a boost by many of their younger players such as batsman Lahiru Thirimanne, who scored 91 and opener Dimuth Karunaratne, who made 85 in the second innings, while part-time wicketkeeper Dinesh Chandimal added 65 in the second innings.

“A couple of the young guys who have been given opportunities have shown that they can play at this level,” Ford said. “What I was happy with on the final day was the pride and the passion and the way they went out and fought. A lot of people didn’t feel the Test would continue for as long as it did. A chap like Nuwan Pradeep going out and handling some nasty pace he wasn’t equipped to handle – he really showed some character, along with young Chandimal. The boys certainly never gave up in the field until the last run was scored.

“I think what’s been positive is that the young batsmen have handled their time out of the side so well. They’ve kept working on their game and kept talking about how they will be absolutely ready when they do get their chance. Attitude is just so important in a touring group. They’ve showed the perfect attitude and when the chance has come their way, they’ve really grabbed it.”

Ford defended senior batsman Thilan Samaraweera’s poor series, where he only managed 79 runs in six innings.

“That’s the nature of the game,” Ford added. “We see highly experienced players make decisions that don’t work on the particular day. Looking at the bigger picture, what was disappointing for me, and I said it after the press conference, is that we could have perhaps squeezed out a few more runs in that first innings. And we could have squeezed out a few more in the second innings as well.”