In the 96 and the next 10/15 years to follow, we had two things in abundance.
1. Unorthodox, gifted talents
We don't have any special talents in the team now. Malinga's retirement marked the end of extraordinary/gifted talents in the team. A team that once had the likes of Aravinda, Sanath, Murali or Vass, now has become pretty much ordinary.
2. Team Discipline & appreciating the opportunities (humility)
With an ordinary team, if you want to win matches, you need to have extreme dedication and discipline. You have to fight with players who are gifted while having no gifted skills. You need to respect opportunities. Sanga is a good example. He wasn't a gifted player at all, yet he managed to retire with great individual stats thanks to his extremely hard work over the years.
I will get a lot of bashing for this.
But I agree with the notion that Sanga/Mahela/Malinga are to be blamed for the current state of the disciplines in the team. They were groomed under the 96 team. They learned the art of team and individual discipline and went on to retire as legends. But, they were unable to groom a couple of players to continue the same mindset in the dressing room after they left. This "We play for our country, We need to work hard" mindset was never passed on. The arrogance of some of these new players, even before they have proved themself, is unbelievable.
So in summary, now we have an ordinary team with no disciplines, no humility, no appreciation for opportunities they get, but with an abundance of arrogance.
How can we ever win?????