Michael Roberts
Contingencies reigned during the Second Test Match at the Colombo Oval between New Zealand and Sri Lanka. Rain was the reigning contingency — surmounted in part by the tremendous work of an army of workers beating tarpaulins and what have you. Watching most of the match live, my thoughts are disjointed and point-form.
BJ Watling the quiet achiever
Andrew Fidel Fernando, in ESPNcricinfo, August 2019 where the title runs “Sri Lanka are winning, but it’s in spite of the system”
ri Lanka have won another Test, their third in a row chasing a tough score. Their captain dug in for a tenacious fourth-innings hundred. The victory has yielded 60 Test Championship points – an excellent start to their campaign in that competition. Away from Tests, they have comfortably won their most-recent ODI series, against Bangladesh, and performed better than expected at the World Cup, finishing sixth. With young players suddenly coming through, and a capable captain at the helm, it is tempting to believe Sri Lanka have begun to recover following a several-year lull.
Michael Roberts
I was able to observe the Test Match between New Zealand and Sri Lanka at Galle during the first two days. This was initially from the first floor precincts of the Galle Cricket Club, where I was delighted to find my old friend Nick White from Australia seated amidst equally diehard cricket ‘tragics’ from abroad: one Kiwi, one Englander and one Irish-Brit in an arena that was sparsely peopled.
A saunter down the ground produced unexpected fortune. Eranga Jayawardena, a talented cameraman for Associated Press, greeted me warmly and immediately arranged for my entry to the Press Box. This spot was ‘heaven’: we were more or less behind the bowler’s arm at the pavilion end and there was tea around the corner if one so desired.
Andrew Fidel Fernando in ESPNcricinfo, 17 August 2019, where the title runs “Karunaratne, a cool captain for Sri Lanka’s high seas”
The selectors are making strange picks, the board is trying to sack another coach, the sports minister is making serious overreaches, the XI changes from series to series, but from amid this chaos, which to many has seemed like the wreckage of a once-was cricketing power, Dimuth Karunaratne has eked out a small but significant patch of stability.
Andrew Fidel Fernando, in ESPNcricinfo.com, 13 August 2019, where the title is “England whitewash forced us to rethink plans for New Zealand Tests – Dimuth Karunaratne”
Sri Lanka may have whitewashed South Africa in February, but their most recent Test series at home brought a 3-0 defeat at the hands of England. Though the hosts’ spinners were expected to dominate the England batsmen, the opposition top order batted aggressively, and found ways to put up daunting totals.
Sri Lanka cricket has installed Rumesh Ratnayake as interim coach for the Test series against New Zealand, as they attempt to sever ties with head coach Chandika Hathurusingha.
Hathurusingha has been under substantial pressure in 2019, with Sri Lanka’s sports minister in particular suggesting that the team is not producing results consistent with the size of Hathurusingha’s remuneration package. That pressure has been ratcheted up since the end of the World Cup, with minister Harin Fernando repeatedly casting aspersions on Sri Lanka’s win record under Hathurusingha. Essentially, he has stated publicly that Hathurusingha does not deserve a salary that according to Fernando amounts to “$40,000 per month”.
Andrew Fidel Fernando, courtesy of The Lions of Sri Lanka, where the title is “Sri Lanka’s international venues”
P Saravanamuttu Oval
The most storied of Sri Lanka’s venues, the Oval has seen some of Sri Lanka’s greatest Tests. It is the only Asian venue to have been graced by the legendary Australian batsman Don Bradman, who brought his 1948 “Invincibles” side to play a match at the Oval, during their stopover in Colombo, en route to that year’s Ashes in England. The Oval also hosted Sri Lanka’s debut Test, against England, in 1982.
Sathi Coomaraswamy beats Bradman at the Oval 1948
A scene at the Oval in 2017 with Luke Slattery at his best ….
Filed under Andrew Fidel Fernando, Sri Lanka Cricket
Andrew Fidel Fernando, in ESPNcricinfo, 17 April 2019, with this title “How Sri Lanka’s search for a World Cup captain ended with Karunaratne”
Where most teams are merely working out which of their fringe players will make the trip to the World Cup, Sri Lanka had a bigger question to answer: who will captain the team? Over the past two years, the captaincy has changed hands at a dizzying rate, with Angelo Mathews having had it in two stints, Dinesh Chandimal also helming the ship twice, Lasith Malinga getting the job in late 2018 (after having been stand-in captain once, in 2017), while Thisara Perera and even Chamara Kapugedara have also led the team. It’s been like a game of spin-the-bottle, except instead of embarrassing teenage consequences, Sri Lanka have had embarrassing losses. Since the start of 2017, they have lost 41 and won only 11 ODIs.
Sharda Ugra, in ESPNcricinfo, with inputs from Andrew Fidel Fernando, in article entitled “Mali & Boom, a match made in bowling heaven”
Mali and Boom look like they have emerged from different sporting planets. Mali is chunky, lumbering and slowing down at 35. Boom posts Twitter pictures of his six-pack and, at 25, is a rocket heading into cricket’s stardom stratosphere. Mali has been there and done that, an adoring dad of two, who assiduously ensures that his curls are always gold-tinted. Boom, a bachelor of close crop, neat beard and zero visible tattoos, has said in public that he would rather go bald than do that.
Malinga and Bumrah, united by their distinctive unorthodoxy BCCI
Andrew Fidel Fernando in ESPNcricinfo, 20 March 2019, with title “South Africa nearly choke, but Tahir rescues them in Super Over
Sri Lanka 134 for 7 (Kamindu 41, Phehlukwayo 3-25) tied with South Africa 134 for 8 (Miller 41, Malinga 2-11)
Super Over South Africa 14 for 0 beat Sri Lanka 5 for 0
Sri Lanka’s spinners squeezed and throttled and tugged down the opposition run rate in defence of a modest score, but it was the best slow bowler on show – Imran Tahir – who saw South Africa through a tense Super Over situation, and suggested that whatever his team-mates are like, he is capable of keeping his cool in tough circumstances.
