Stephen Basso
Today’s post brought a book from England. My long-suffering wife smiled and inquired politely about it, knowing full well that it would be another book about cricket. More specifically, about players and officials, from anywhere on earth, who have had some fame or infamy in that great game that is a passion for so many of us.
Trevor Jayetilleke, in The Island, 14 March 2020, with this title “West Indies cricket teams of the 1960’s and Frank Worrell”
Apropos the letter written by Mr. K. K. S. Perera and published in the Opinion Columns of your journal of the 4th March, please permit me to add my comments/observations to the facts expressed by Mr. Perera.
Harry Solomons, the Aloysian Australian Invincible, in Australian colours…. the same combination as his alma mater, St, Aloysius, Galle …. playing for Australia’s Over Seventies against New Zealand this February 2020 –where, he says, “we beat NZ in our only 70s International on tour…… [and] I played the full 6 matches on tour”. Harry then presents snapshots of the “emotional cap ceremony.”
SW Ambris ….. run out (Mathews/Udana) 17
12.2 sensational fielding, and a run out breaks the partnership. I think this one is on Shai Hope. He clips this one square of midwicket and he thought he had beaten Angelo Mathews, but Mathews leaps to his right and cuts that one off. Hope has called Ambris through for a single, but seeing suddenly that Mathews has the ball in hand, he changes his mind. Only, Ambris is two thirds down the pitch now. Hope scampers back to the striker’s end, and Ambris is nowhere as the throw comes in from Mathews, and the bowler Udana takes the bails off. Hope might even had made it had he committed to the run. 64/1
Michael Ramsey,of AAP in Courier Mail. 22 February 2020, with this title “How conversation with ‘absolute rock star’ inspired Ashton Agar’s historic hat-trick”
Ashton Agar has revealed how a conversation with Indian superstar Ravindra Jadeja inspired his match-winning hat-trick in South Africa. Agar stole the show in the T20 series-opener at Johannesburg, snaring 5-24 to lead a rampant Australia to a thumping 107-run win.
The left-arm spinner is just the second Australian after Brett Lee in 2007 to deliver a hat-trick in a T20 international.
Nicholas Brookes at https://wisdenblog.wordpress.com/2020/02/06/notes-from-a-small-island/ …. with this chosen title “Play to the Whistle” … with highlighting added and Pix illustrative and not always from such moments
Until 1982 Sri Lanka were stranded on the fringes of international cricket: a small island, marooned. Life on the outside wasn’t easy, but Sri Lanka still had something to make most of the cricketing world envious. You might call it a geographical blessing.
In the days before planes, the only way to get between England and Australia was by boat. It was an arduous journey that could take up to three months and required a stopover. With the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869, Ceylon (as it was called until 1972) emerged as the natural point of transit.
Andrew Fidel Fernando, in ESPNcricinfo, 20 December 2019, where the title runs thus: “Dinesh Chandimal condenses rollercoaster career into one innings”
Dinesh Chandimal plays a shot during the second day of the second Test cricket match between Pakistan and Sri Lanka –Photo by Asif HASSAN /AFP via Getty Images)
There is almost a novel here. A talented wicketkeeper from the southwest gets spotted by a big Colombo school in his teens. Goes on to lead that school to their best season ever. He quickly gets picked up by the national squad, and at first glimpse of this guy, the public is enchanted. He’s organised, but there’s also that manic fun of a schoolboy. He swings so hard at the ball his limbs could go flying off. By 23, he is Sri Lanka’s T20I captain – their youngest ever.
Dhammika Ratnaweera, in Sunday Observer, 15 December 2019, with this title “Pioneer cheer leader Percy launches book”
The story of one-man cheer squad Percy Abeysekera titled ‘I‘am Percy Cricket Crazy’ was launched yesterday at the newly opened Chance Sports Grand Showroom at Baseline Road Borella. The veteran cheer leader’s biography written by Darrshini Parthepan notes Percy’s unforgettable stories out of the boundary line in this book and the first copy was handed over to 1996 World Cup winning captain Arjuna Ranatunga from the man himself at the simple ceremony organized by Sportsinfo and Trimo Media.
ONE = Shenai Anushka, in Sunday Times, 8 December 2019, where the title reads thus – “Sri Lanka’s gruelling test in ‘unknown’ Pakistan’
Sri Lanka’s full-strength Test team will embark on a significant tour of Pakistan today to play two matches as part of the ICC World Test Championship. Pakistan has not hosted Test cricket since the 2009 Lahore attack on the Sri Lanka team that wounded several players, staff members and killed a few security officers. The series was initially scheduled to be played in October with the most likely venue to be the UAE. However after successfully hosting the second-string Sri Lanka team in the limited-overs leg in August and September, they forced Sri Lanka Cricket to play the Test series in Pakistan.
