da bwin： Sri Lanka’s ace spinner has had a poor tournament, a solitary wicket and bundles of runs leaked at pace

da realsbet： Osman Samiuddin in Johannesburg26-Sep-2009If emotions and the rest of it didn’t come into it, Kumar Sangakkara wouldhave some straightforward decisions to make for the game against NewZealand, which they must now win to make the semi-finals. But human beingswithout emotion are not human beings at all, and so whatever decisions hedoes take between now and Sunday will likely be among the most difficultones he has had to make the short time he has been captain.On the face of it, Muttiah Muralitharan should be dropped; he has had a poor tournament, a solitary wicket and bundles of runs leaked atpace. He has not looked quite with it, truth be told; probably if you stoodclose by you might not even hear the low, ominous whir of his usualdeliveries. He has missed that very thing that makes him – that snap in hisspin, in his wrists, the devil in his eyes. Perish the thought but has heeven looked robotic? England played him comfortably, even daring to goafter him, and that can never be a good sign for any spinner.And the Wanderers in this mood simply demands another pace option. Not often do you drop your fast bowler when he is in the form of his life, but such are the peculiar dilemmas of Sri Lanka’s depth that Thilan Thushara has not so far played a part here. Sangakkara must know he has to play him against New Zealand, if conditions and the surface are as they weretonight. Ajantha Mendis has looked the better spinner and the rest of theattack has performed so who to drop but Murali?But Muttiah Muralitharan – Murali, legend, icon, great, national hero -cannot be dropped so easily. One of the downsides of greatness is notknowing how much rope to give it as time nears its end; in greatness whendoes a momentary lack of form become a more permanent and fatal condition?He’s done it so many times before after all, and the odds that he does itagain cannot be that long.Sanath Jayasuriya’s place may not be as much a predicament simply becausethe space he occupies in Sri Lankan cricket is altogether different;anyway he is at a more advanced point in his career than Murali. Andconcerns about his form are not new. If we want to be ruthless about it,then he averages barely over 10 outside the subcontinent over the last twoyears and half that here. To a lesser degree, the Jayasuriya question issimilar to Murali’s. What if one of those prods outside off takes an edge,goes over point for six and sparks carnage?

Not often do you drop your fast bowler when he is in the form of his life, but such are the peculiar dilemmas of Sri Lanka’s depth that Thilan Thushara has not so far played a part here

The matters are delicate, and tellingly the question wasn’t raisedpost-match though Sangakkara did allude to it. “We’ll have to sit down andhave a think. There are lots of good players on the bench waiting to havea look. Come training tomorrow, we’ll have a think, worry about it a bitmore, a bit longer and probably make the obvious decision when the timecomes to make that decision.”The smoothness of Sangakkara does have an edge to it. You can imagine himbeing gung-ho about it and taking the decision, though until he makes it,it is just that: imagination. Whatever decision he takes will in theprocess reveal a fair bit more about him and his leadership.None of this is to apportion blame for triumph and failure are collective.The top order failed today and Sri Lanka’s fielding was some way off itsown energetic standards. Whatever was right about Sri Lanka came from theyoung, a signal maybe to Sangakkara of which path to take. “[Thilina] Kandamby and[Angelo] Mathews have been very impressive for the whole of the last year, andthey’ve been great in the A and international side. We’ve sort of sortedout the middle order problem, now we have to get everyone firing at thesame time.”But haste is of essence. It is one of the painful beauties of thistournament that one match can bring upon such headaches. There is no timefor sentiment or emotion. Get the team wrong again on Sunday and you mightbe out.