Category Archives: English cricket

May 23, 2017 · 11:31 am

Kumar Sangakkara’s Portrait adorns Lords

Kumar Sangakkara stands by his portrait © MCC/CS

Vithushan Ehantharajah,  courtesy of ESPNcricinfo, May 2017, with title as “Sangakkara celebrates the great unveiling

When they talk about the best players – the very best players – achievements, accolades and statistics only go so far. Kumar Sangakkara, scorer of 38 Test hundreds for Sri Lanka, approaching 20,000 runs in first-class cricket and an impressive humanitarian for good measure, finally has his hook. Some have statues, others have busts but the only fitting Sangakkara tribute could come via a brush rather than a hammer and chisel. And on the day that a portrait of the 39-year-old was unveiled in the Lord’s Pavilion, he treated Lord’s to the strokes of a genius.

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April 19, 2017 · 6:43 am

English Cricket Governors target Kolpak Imports

Simon Burnton,  courtesy of THE SPIN, where the tile is “ECB’s Kolpak clampdown is the latest gambit in 100 years war”

News the England and Wales Cricket Board is planning to tighten regulations to prevent county sides becoming flooded with Kolpak imports marks the start of another skirmish in the never-ending battle between domestic cricket’s governing body, the counties and the international sides the latter would like to plunder. The words of Haroon Lorgat, chief executive of Cricket South Africa, when Kyle Abbott and Rilee Rossouw announced their moves to Hampshire in January were particularly striking. “We invest huge sums of money in every individual,” he said, “and if you take Rilee, by way of example, in the last I don’t know how many months we’ve been treating his injuries, we’ve been investing in him. Sadly there’s no return for us in the years to come.”


 Rilee Rossouw, whose Kolpak move to Hampshire was announced in January, along with that of his South Africa team-mate Kyle Abbott. Photograph: Gallo Images/Getty Images

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April 13, 2017 · 3:37 pm

Ravi Wijeratne to captain Harrow in Elite School Match vs Eton

Sa’adi Thawfeeq, in Daily News. 12 April 2017 

Sri Lankan-born Rahul Wijeratne will be creating history when he leads Harrow this year in their traditional cricket match against Eton at the home of cricket – Lord’s Cricket Ground on June 24, a 55-overs-a-side contest. Rahul, son of Sri Lanka business tycoon Ravi Wijeratne has been appointed captain of Harrow School for the current English school cricket season.
Seldom has a Sri Lankan had the honour of leading such a prestigious institute which is over 400 years old and in the oldest of all cricket fixtures – Eton v Harrow which will be the 177th contest between the two schools this year. The Eton v Harrow cricket match is an annual fixture between Eton College and Harrow School and is one of the longest-running annual sporting fixtures in the world and, the only annual school cricket match still to be played at Lord’s.
   Indrajit Coomaraswamy stumped at 65 playing for Harrow — Getty images

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March 3, 2017 · 12:47 pm

Danushka Gunatilaka as Allrounder as Sri Lanka A beat England Lions in ODI

danushka-gun

England Lions in Sri Lanka unofficial ODI Series – 1st unofficial ODI
Sri Lanka A won by 47 runs (D/L method)
List A match | 2016/17 season
Played at Rangiri Dambulla International Stadium
02 March 2017 (50-over match)

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February 27, 2017 · 1:52 pm

Livingstone’s Twin Hundreds and Huge Stand between Karu and Sam feature in Riveting Contest at Dambulla

Malinda Pushpakumara the left-arm spinner also had an outstanding match and was one of Sri Lanka A’s match winners, taking 8 wkts in England’a ‘s first innings and five in the second. Amongst the batsmen, Liam Livingstone was solid in both innings for England A; while Dimuth Karunaratne’s double-century and wkt-keper batsman Sadeera Samarawickrama‘s 185 enabled Sri lanka A to marshalle a huge first innings score of 548 urns. Despite this the England second innings acheivment and the time-limits resulted ina tight finish with Lanak scrapping home at 90 runs for 7 wkts.

Sadeera Rashen posing for a portrait at Red Bull Campus Cricket in Dehradun, India on 18 October 2015

Sadeera Rashen posing for a portrait at Red Bull Campus Cricket in Dehradun, India on 18 October 2015

liam-livingstone

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February 25, 2017 · 9:54 am

The Lions aka England A defeat Sri Lanka A at Pallekelle

ESPNcricinfo staff, 20 February 2017, reporting on the First Test

England Lions 316 (Westley 97, Roland-Jones 82, Livingstone 59, Pushpakumara 4-97) and 215 (Perera 5-73, Pushpakumara 4-77) beat Sri Lanka A 167 (Weerakkody 68, Roland-Jones 4-51) and 169 (Jayasundera 64*) by 195 runs

The Curran brothers followed their important second-innings runs by sharing six wickets as England Lions completed a comprehensive 195-run victory in the opening four-day match against Sri Lanka A.

aadilruwan Dilruwan Peera and  aa-m-pushpakumaraMalinda Pushpakumara may have shone as bowlers… But Tom Westley aa-tom-westley, T Roland-Jones and a-sam-curranSam Curran out-batted and utbowled the Sri Lankan A squad  Continue reading →

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January 29, 2017 · 12:47 am

Vijaya Malalasekera on His Cricketing Days

News Item in Daily News. entitled “My Views on Cricket” … http://www.dailynews.lk/2017/01/27/sports/105868/my-reflections-cricket-vijay-malalasekera

Q: What led you to take up to cricket?

VM: From my boyhood days I had been very interested in cricket since in our neighbourhood we always played cricket as a pastime. My interest grew further as a result of my being taken to watch the Royal-Thomian cricket match from 1952 onwards. I saw Royal being defeated that year but was enamoured by the players who performed for Royal. This interest grew in me and since 1952 I watched every Royal-Thomian upto the time I left for England in 1963. Having seen players like T. Nirmalingam, Michael Wille, Lorensz Pereira, Michael Dias, the brothers Lalith and Nanda Senanayake and the likes of Dan Piachaud, Ronnie Reid, Michael Tissera, Michael Sproule and the likes of the opposing side made me want to play in the Big match. In particular, I remember Nirmalingam’s 69 in 1954 where he was run out for 69 and when the Royal scoreboard read 70 for 1 and the man out was Nirmalingam for 69. It was an innings of sheer brilliance. Ronnie Reid’s 157 in 1956 and his two short innings of 65 in 1957 and Tissera’s 49 in 1954 were all inspiring innings. The Dias-Lalith Senanayake partnership in 1958 against the formidable leg-spinner Larif Idroos were innings to remember. Lalith went on to get 69 and 47 n.o. in 1960 and they were brilliant knocks made in absolute style for a right-hander. They all inspired me to promise myself that one day I will play in the Royal-Thomian as a Royalist.

Vijayvijay-m-11 … https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vijaya_Malalasekera Continue reading →

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January 19, 2017 · 9:24 am

Peter Roebuck vs Botham and Richards in the Somerset Bust-Up 1986

David Hopps, courtesy of ESPNcricinfo, where the title is “Peter Roebuck’s anguish at Somerset in 1986”.. with highlighting emphasis being the work of The Editor Cricketique
Richards and Roebuck at the wicket in a county game. Roebuck reveals he lived in fear of Richards’ temper © Getty Images

The civil war that beset Somerset cricket more than 30 years ago was all the more remarkable because of the unimposing, bespectacled figure at its centre. Peter Roebuck would not have immediately struck a casual observer as a man capable of going to war. An unconventional loner, gauche even with close friends, he did not meld easily with either the old-fashioned administrators in charge of the club or the imposing superstars, Ian Botham, Viv Richards and Joel Garner, who would eventually be expunged from a Somerset dressing room that had fallen on hard times.

 

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December 16, 2016 · 2:00 pm

England Lions Squads for Sri Lanka in February-March 2017

ESPNcricinfo, 

Days after making a century on Test debut, Keaton Jennings has been named captain of England Lions for their tour of Sri Lanka next year. Jennings will be joined in the four-day squad by the man he replaced in the Test side, as Haseeb Hameed works back to full fitness after suffering a broken finger in India. Another man to have opened the batting alongside Alastair Cook in recent weeks, Ben Duckett, is also named in the Lions party, although only for the one-day fixtures. The Lions will play two four-day games followed by a five-match 50-over series in February and March 2017.

jennings-afp Keaton Jennings hh-the-bolton-news Hameed

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November 19, 2016 · 7:40 am

Uncomplicated Excellence that is Haseeb Hameed the Rookie England Batsman

Paul Edwards, in ESPNcricinfo,  13 September 2016, where the title is “A Chateau Lafite cricketer in a wine-box world”

Lancashire batsman Haseeb Hameed has a style that’s both simple and cultivated. What stands out, though, is his calmness  Do you remember the first time you hit a ball with a bat? It doesn’t matter what type of ball it was or even whether you used a rough stick instead of a bat. Do you remember the thrill of making the ball travel some distance? Perhaps it went a fair way and eventually you discovered that this was achieved by “timing the stroke”. Perhaps you then nagged a parent, sibling or friend to provide balls for you to hit and before long you were asking them to “bowl” in the garden, yard or street. hh-the-bolton-news

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