Mark Wood floors himself as Jermaine Blackwood’s lofted drive beats mid-offSanjeewa Jayaweera, in Island, May 2020, with this title “Roshan Mahanama a gentleman par excellence” ….. http://www.island.lk/index.php?page_cat=article-details&page=article-details&code_title=222098
I recall meeting Roshan Mahanama and his father Upali Mahanama 15 years ago, both not known to me, while climbing a narrow staircase in a hospital. Presumably, the elevator was not functional. I was taking my mother for a consultation. What struck me and my mother, who was then about 75 years, was the innate politeness and humbleness of Roshan and his father. They quickly got aside and made way for my mother and me to go up as they were coming down. Also, they acknowledged us with a heartwarming smile despite not knowing us.
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.
Andrew Miller, in ESPNcricinfo, 13 March 2929, where the title is “England tour of Sri Lanka postponed amid COVID-19 spread”
England’s Test tour of Sri Lanka has been called off at the request of the ECB, due to the growing threat of the the COVID 19 pandemic, but on the understanding that it will be rescheduled at a later date.
A Note from Ron Slee …. an Aged Aussie Mate
Michael, my ‘old age indulgence’ lacks the verification of yours and while it bears some similarities, sadly, I have no pictures.
It was ‘64/65. I was captain of my High School Cricket X1. I provided leadership in neither batting nor bowling but I had a heightened sense of how difficult it was to score runs against good bowlers and how equally difficult it was to bowl to good batsmen. This profound weakness at batting and bowling led me to develop a strategy which produced success for my team.
There once was a wee lad
Named HARRY … incarcerated
In boarding school Aloysius
Somachandra Skandakumar
The two semi finals of ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 will go down in cricket history as ones that reminded us all again that this great game we call cricket which has stood the test of time is also the greatest leveller.
Rex Clementine, in Sunday Island, 31 March 2019, where the title runs “Marvan on ‘Mankading’ Buttler in 2014”
There are certain places visiting teams would hate play overseas. As for Sri Lankans, they avoid Wanderes in Johannesburg like the plague as it always seams around there. So is Edgbaston in Birmingham where the seam bowlers come into the equation all the time. Sri Lanka have played at Edgbaston on five times but won only once. That win came in 2014 in a bitterly contested ODI. These days teams tend to make most of the scheduling and invariably the hosts would want to play the final game of a series at a venue that favours them, just in case if that happens to be a decider. So was the case in 2014. The five match ODI series was squared 2-2. Sri Lanka won a low scoring thriller with Lahiru Thirimanne and Mahela Jayawardene posting half-centuries to wrap up the series 3-2. Rather than celebrating a famous series win, the cricketing world was busy discussing the ‘Mankading’ of Josh Buttler. Some ex-England players found fault with the Sri Lankans.
Sachithra Senanayake gestures to the umpire after ‘mankading’ Jos Buttler.
Mevan Pieris, in Daily FT,5 March 2019, where the title runs thus: “Moments that make memories of the Battle of the Blues”
Cricket that had germinated among schoolboys of Britain received prominence in the 19th century when leading public schools such as Eton played Harrow as a big match and a few years later in 1837, the only two universities of that time, Oxford and Cambridge played each other for the first time to be labelled as England’s Battle of the Blues. About the same time in Ceylon, an academy sprang up on top of San Sebastian Hill and a few years later in 1851, Bishop James Chapman, an Etonian cricketer himself, started S. Thomas’ College (STC) on top of Mutwal Hill.
