Sri Lankan Government Spokesman and Minister of Media & Information, Keheliya Rambukwella on Thursday said he was "horrified" when the national cricket team lost by a huge 258-run margin to South Africa in the first one-dayer at Paarl.
Replying to a South Africa's total of 301 for eight, Sri Lanka lost their first six wickets for 13 runs before being bundled out for 43, their lowest ODI score. In fact, South Africa's victory margin of 258 runs was the third biggest in the history of one-dayers.
Forty-three is the fourth lowest total in the history of all ODIs and Sri Lanka's worst since they were skittled out for 55 against Clive Lloyd's West Indian side in 1986 in Sharjah.
"You can understand a defeat but not something like this," said Rambukwella whose son Ramith is a Sri Lankan U-19 international said.
Rambukwella said some urgent action was needed to restore Sri Lanka's cricketing pride after the shocking defeat and felt that lack of team spirit might be the cause.
The crushing one-day defeat followed Sri Lanka's 1-2 loss to Proteas in the Test series and came after the local governing body saw its first election in seven years after a string of politically appointed interim committees had run the game since 2005.
{{/usCountry}}The crushing one-day defeat followed Sri Lanka's 1-2 loss to Proteas in the Test series and came after the local governing body saw its first election in seven years after a string of politically appointed interim committees had run the game since 2005.
{{/usCountry}}Rambukwella's brother Lalith is a member of the new SLC administration.