ONE = Simon Barnes: “Muttiah Muralitharan as Cricketer of the Year 2006″
writing in 2007 on the year 2006 = https://www.espncricinfo.com/wisdenalmanack/content/story/350915.html
The time has come to grasp the nettle, to remove the mental and, to reject the frown, the shrug, the pursed lips and the quizzical look. Muttiah Muralitharan was, without qualification, the finest cricketer on the planet last year and, by implication, is one of the best cricketers that have ever played the game.
Filed under bowling average, Bradman, child of empire, cricket and life, cricketing icons, cricketing records, cricketing rules, ICC, Mahela Jayawardene, memorable moments, murali, performance, politics and cricket, spinning art, technology and cricket, tower of strength, unusual statistics, work ethic
Michael Roberts, reprint from Lions of Lanka, produced by the Lanka Monthly Digest, 2019, to coincide with the 2019 Cricket World Cup …. http://www.lionsofsl.lk/article2.html
Cricket was one channel of Westernisation during British colonial rule. But it was also a medium for Ceylon to challenge the ideas of racial superiority so prevalent among the island’s ruling Britons. By the 1920s the Ceylonese team were proving their superiority over the Europeans in annual matches. The Maharaja of Vizianagram was so captivated by all-rounder Edward Kelaart in the early 1930s that he invited him to play for his Indian team. Meanwhile, F. C. de Saram made the headlines when he scored 128 runs out of a total of 218 for an Oxford University side that faced the touring Australians in May 1934.
ONE: Associated Press Notice in https://beyondthedash.com/obituary/bruce-yardley-1947-2019-1073700248 entitled “Yardley, ex-Australia player and Sri Lanka coach, dies at 71″
PERTH, Australia — Bruce Yardley, who played test cricket for Australia and coached Sri Lanka’s national team, has died after a long struggle with cancer. He was 71. Yardley died Wednesday in a hospital in Western Australia state. He played 33 tests, starting in 1978 during the split in Australian cricket amid the World Series era, after converting from a medium pacer to off-spin bowling. Continue reading
Bipin Dani, in Daily Observer, 14 March 2019, where the title is “Murali donates all his trophies and awards for a noble cause”
World’s highest international wicket taker Muttiah Muralitharan (1347 wickets- 800 in Tests, 534 in ODIs and 13 in T20Is) has donated all his Man of the Match awards and trophies he won in his 19-years of international cricket to Foundation of Goodness, Sri Lanka’s premier charity organisation of which he is one of the trustees.
This was revealed by his manager and another trustee Kushil Gunasekera. Speaking exclusively over telephone from Sri Lanka, he said, “The Murali Museum (new adventure of the organisation) will be situated at the Foundation of Goodness’ Sports Academy premises in Seenigama”.
Filed under cricket and life, cricketing icons, murali, Sri Lanka Cricket, unusual people
47.6 Perera strike, Raval fails to reach his century once again. Length on middle and leg, Raval was looking to work it on the leg side, gets an inside edge on to the pads that lobs towards short leg, Mendis accepts it gleefully, tumbling to his right 121/1
An English wicket in 2018– Photo by ISHARA S. KODIKARA / AFP)– (Photo credit should read ISHARA S. KODIKARA/AFP/Getty Images)
Andrew Fidel Fernando …. assembling Evaluations of Rangana Herath on his Retirement for ESPNcricinfo
Rangaiyaa! Rangaaiyya! Budu Ammo! Herath raised aloft after securing a match fo Sr Lanka … or so one can imagine
Tanya Aldred in The Spin,8 October 2018 where the title is “How Sri Lanka’s magical 1996 cocktail paved the way for Morgan’s men”
As England and Sri Lanka prepare for the five-match one-day series starting on Wednesday in Dambulla, a warm-up of sorts for the World Cup now less than eight months away, it feels the right time to stumble backwards 22 years, to one of cricket’s greatest stories.
On 17 March 1996, in the sultry atmosphere of Lahore’s Gaddafi Stadium, Arjuna Ranatunga, Sri Lanka’s captain, lifted the World Cup high into the air. No one could quite believe it. Sri Lanka, the baby brother of the Asian block, the international whipping boys, had popped out of the hat, brandishing a party popper, a grin and a new kick-ass way of playing the game.
Sri Lanka captain Arjuna Ranatunga celebrates with his team after winning the Cricket World Cup final against Australia in Lahore in 1996. Photograph: John Parkin/Getty Images
Sa’adi Thawfeeq presenting Mahinda Wijesinghe’s Choice XI …. courtesy of ESPNcricinfo, 1 April 2010
How dearly the national selectors would love to have a Cricinfo jury to help them pick the national teams, going by how straightforward the selection of Sri Lanka’s all-time XI turned out to be. The middle order of Kumar Sangakkara, Aravinda de Silva and Mahela Jayawardene, and champion spinner Muttiah Muralitharan, were all unanimous picks, with 10 votes apiece.
Left-arm spinner Ajit de Silva and legspinner DS de Silva were tied for the spot of Muralitharan’s spin partner; but with Murali dominating from one end and Chaminda Vaas, whose nine votes justify his place as the spearhead of the bowling attack, from the other, you could assume the three other bowlers in the XI would have little to do. Continue reading
Critiquing Cricket 