Sri Lanka’s head coach Mickey Arthur has reacted strongly to Sri Lanka player Bhanuka Rajapaska after the latter said he had been treated unfairly.

Arthur’s strict adherence to minimum fitness standards has seen a few players axed from the Sri Lanka international team and Rajapaksa has been one of them. After being overlooked yet again, Rajapaksa had some strong words for Arthur in an interview.

“When you run on the gym or work out on the gym, I don’t think you can improve your performance”, Rajapaksa said. “For 12 years I have not suffered a major injury or broken down during a game. I have been given step-motherly treatment. The board sorts out my visa and everything to go on tours, but in the last moment I am told that I can not make the tour because my skin folds are high.

“When I was dropped, the head coach told me that I was running with the gloves in hands and that I didn’t have commitment for running between the wickets.”

Arthur, who is known to be pretty strict when it comes to work ethics and fitness, reacted to the comments, calling Rajapaksa a “comfort zone player”.

“Bhanuka has got to make some commitments and he’s got to look after his diet,” Arthur told The Island. “His excuse has been that he loves chocolates. If you want to be one of the finest cricketers, then you have got to make some sacrifices. We had a diet plan for him and we expected him to look after himself but his skin folds have gone up again.”

Arthur wasn’t impressed with Rajapaksa’s sloppy attitude to fitness and explained the reason why he was unhappy with the player carrying his gloves in his hands while running between wickets.

❤️🙏 pic.twitter.com/OghxophoOv

— Bhanuka Rajapaksa (@BhanukaRajapak3) June 1, 2021

“I was upset that he was running with gloves in hand. It highlights the fact that he didn’t push the first run hard. It was just sloppy cricket and I don’t like sloppy cricketers. That shows me his attitude as he jogs the first run. If someone has scored 120 in 40 degrees heat, I can understand that. But I want our players to get out of their comfort zones.”

The player, according to Arthur, failed the skin fold test and took off before completing the tests and it rubbed the head coach the wrong way.

“[It] just shows me the attitude and the short cuts he is looking to take. Kusal Janith [Kusal Perera] has lost 15 percent of his skinfolds. In that humidity of Dhaka, the other day, he batted for 42 overs and scored a match-winning hundred. If he is not at the best standards, he gives it away at 60 odd. Fitness gives you the base to score those runs and be electric on the field,” Arthur pointed out.

Rajapaksa has only played seven T20Is for Sri Lanka so far, making a stellar 77 in one of those games. He is touted as an exciting talent coming through the ranks and Arthur acknowledges this.

“He’s got great hands and superb hitting ability. His fielding, however, is not international standards. His fitness levels too are not at required standards. We are building a culture to push the players to be the best they can be. We want our best players on the field. He would be in our T20 squad. But at the moment his skin folds have gone up and he’s got to work on it,” Arthur explained.

Arthur is infamous for being adamant about player work ethics. In 2017, when he worked with Pakistan, Umar Akmal was dropped on grounds of fitness. He is, however, most famous for the ‘homework-gate’ saga as Australia coach when he dropped Shane Watson, Mitchell Johnson, Usman Khawaja and James Pattinson during a tour of India in 2013 for not submitting a task given to the players.

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