- Gahapaan machaan –boundary, boundary
- Walles patau–goni, goni
- Kavuda Raja! Aloysius Raja!
Winning or losing the cheering support was always there. Continue reading
Monthly Archives: July 2017
Sri Lankan Cricket in Deep !!@##!!
Test cricket cannot afford Sri Lanka going the way of West Indies and Zimbabwe — AFP
Ashen Bandara Ahoy! Aloysians Ahoy!
Rex Clementine, in Island, 31 July 2017“Sri Lanka look to 18-year-old Bandara to address fielding woes”
Sri Lanka’s Cricket officials in a desperate bid to address the team’s fielding woes had called up 18-year-old schoolboy Ashen Bandara to do fielding duties in the Galle Test after Asela Gunaratne was ruled out with injury.
Bandara, a student at St. Aloysius’ College in Galle, was called up to the squad to do fielding duties and he looked electric. During India’ second innings, when captain Virat Kohli flicked a Dilruwan Perera delivery to mid-wicket, young Ashen sprinted from wide mid-on and dived in the mid-wicket region to save a boundary prompting questions from fans about his identity? Continue reading
Filed under chaminda vaas, cricket and life, performance, player selections
The Galle Test Match: Assorted Reflections
ONE > Rex Clementine: “Kohli praises Dimuth and PradeeP”, July 30, 2017,
Indian captain Virat Kohli praised the efforts of opening batsman Dimuth Karunaratne and fast bowler Nuwan Pradeep after his team completed a comprehensive 304-run win in the first Test between the countries in Galle on Saturday. Karunaratne was dismissed after a well-compiled 97 runs while Pradeep took career-best figures of six for 132.
Indians as happy chappies-ESPNcricinfo
Mukund as Spingboard for Slashing Criticism of Sri Lankan Players
Rex Clementine, in the Sunday Island, 30 July 2017, where the title is “What Sri Lankans can learn from Abhinav Mukund”
Sri Lanka’s fielding has been something that has been discussed at length over the last 12 months or so. Fielding has cost the team heavily; for instance during the first ever Test defeat to Bangladesh at P. Sara Oval in March, during the virtual quarter-final clash against Pakistan in Champions Trophy in June and more recently against Zimbabwe in the bilateral ODI series. During that painful defeat to Zimbabwe, Sri Lanka dropped as many as nine catches in five games, three tough catches and six that should have been taken. Once easily the best fielding team in Asia, today Sri Lanka has become the worst. Something has gone wrong somewhere.
Mukhund batting
Filed under cricket and life, performance, Rex Clementine, Sri Lanka Cricket, unusual people
India outclass Sri Lanka in All Departments
Sidharth Monga, courtesy of ESPNcricinfo, 27 July 2017, where the title runs thus “Fleet-footed India outdo Sri Lanka in the Galle maze
India like to be ruthless when ahead, in that they don’t like to leave the door open in order to make a statement. Even the ever-present threat of rain in Galle is not likely to make them enforce a follow-on on a 10-man Sri Lanka, even if they bowl them out in the first hour on the third morning. Prospects of a three-day finish might not be tempting enough for this team, which has seen the pitch drying out quickly, and which knows from first-hand experience that chasing anything on a quick-drying Galle surface can be treacherous.
India’s Abhivav Mukund, successfully takes a catch to dismiss Sri Lanka’s Niroshan Dickwella, left, during the second day’s play of the first test cricket match between India and Sri Lanka in Galle, Sri Lanka, Thursday, July 27, 2017. — AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena
The Australian Cricketing Dispute: Some Light?
News Item in Sydney Morning Herald, 27 July 2017
Australia’s cricketers have been blindsided by an extraordinary proposal from Cricket Australia which could see players re-employed next week and save the Ashes and the upcoming tour of Bangladesh.In a major twist to one of the most damaging pay disputes in Australian sport, CA dropped a bombshell on Thursday by calling for talks to be taken to a mutually agreed industrial umpire if an agreement cannot be reached by early next we
India’s Cricket Administration: Sidharth Monga evaluates the Ram-Guha Protest Resignation
Sidharth Monga
When Ramachandra Guha was appointed to the Committee of Administrators, there were sniggers from various quarters. What did a historian living in an imagined utopia know about running Indian cricket, it was asked. Having found the kitchen too hot, it will be said, he has quit. He has quit all right, and arguably without accomplishing the primary objective of seeing the reforms through, but he has left with an important piece of what all his detractors consider him good for: writing.
BCCI Reform on the Boil: Ramachandra Guha’s Letter of Resignation
ESPNcricinfo …. http://www.espncricinfo.com/india/content/story/1100563.html
Dear Vinod, It has been a pleasure working with Diana, Vikram and you in the Supreme Court Committee of Administrators. It has been an educative experience, spending long hours with three top-flight professionals from whom I have learned a lot in these past few months. However, it has been clear for some time now that my thoughts and views are adjacent to, and sometimes at odds with, the direction the Committee is taking as a whole. That is why I eventually decided to request the Supreme Court to relieve me of the responsibility, and submitted my letter of resignation to the Court on the morning of the 1st of June. Continue reading
Filed under Uncategorized
Indians sail away in Galle
Sidharth Monga courtesy of ESPNcricinfo, where the title is Fortunate Dhawan directs his sail
Test openers share a special bond. They walk out together for one of the most difficult tasks in cricket: negotiate the mischievous new ball, two men against 11. They know each other’s weaknesses and insecurities. They thrive off each other’s strengths. When KL Rahul, a nervous wreck, failed on his debut in Australia, the two other openers in the squad, M Vijay and Shikhar Dhawan, comforted him.
