Category Archives: sanath jayasuriya

August 6, 2017 · 3:28 pm

Sidath vs Sanath: Selectors Castigated by Sunday Times

S. R. Pathiravithana, Sunday Times, 6 August 2017, where the title reads “No Plan”

As I was saying before; keeping my ear to the ground, I presume it is a part of my job. It gives you vibes without prejudice or even second thoughts; it just surfaces from the ground within – where it began. The other day I was chatting to my grocery man Seneviratne, an ardent cricket fan. You must see how his face lights up when Sri Lanka wins. It’s so pleasing to see a face so bright. The vibes that emanate from his even make our daily drudges look good. Yet, just before the second Test against the Indians, Seneviratne was down, way below his usual self. When I asked him why, he just mumbled “Oka Hariyanne nehe, Mama cricket balana eka athheriya. (Things will not come right for us, so I quit watching cricket)”.

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Filed under Angelo Mathews, Aravinda de Silva, cricket and life, cricket governance, cricketer politicians, cricketing icons, performance, player selections, politics and cricket, sanath jayasuriya, Sangakkara, Sri Lanka Cricket, T20 Cricket

August 6, 2017 · 3:04 pm

Roller-Coaster Changes in Sri Lanka Cricket: A Chronology

Champika Fernando in The Sunday Times, 7 August 2017, where the title is Chronology of a cricket disaster

When the coalition of Thilanga Sumathipala and Jayantha Dharmadasa convincingly beat the group led by once-powerful board secretary Nishantha Ranatunga at the Sri Lanka Cricket elections in 2016, expectations were high of the new administrators.

Are they rapidly losing their focus – File pic by Amila Gamage

Twenty months into their first term, they have achieved little in respect of their promises of good governance, transparency and, more importantly, improvement of the game. Sri Lanka are now one of the lowest ranked teams among ICC full members across all three formats. They even face the threat of missing out on a direct qualification for the 2019 World Cup. (Only the top eight teams, including hosts, qualify directly while the other teams must play qualifying matches for the remaining two slots).

The slide has been attributed to the long transition following the retirement of Mahela (Jayawardene), Kumar (Sangakkara) and Tilakaratne (Dilshan) but has the Board made the right decisions to enable a smooth passage?

 

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July 31, 2017 · 3:44 pm

Sri Lankan Cricket in Deep !!@##!!

Test cricket cannot afford Sri Lanka going the way of West Indies and Zimbabwe — AFP

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April 25, 2017 · 1:02 am

Arjuna the Indomitable: Challenging Aussie Skulduggery in 1995-98 … and More

Andrew Fidel Fernando, courtesy of The Cricket Monthly, at ESPNcricinfo … http://www.thecricketmonthly.com/story/1087120/arjuna-versus …where the title is “Arjuna Versus”

 January 1999: Sri Lankan supporters show Ranatunga some love outside Adelaide Oval, where he was facing a disciplinary hearing

v Australia, 1995-96
Sri Lanka have played in higher-octane, better contested and far more watchable series, but for pure watershed value none has left its mark on the island’s cricket like this pre-World Cup thrashing in Australia. If Ranatunga had not been at the helm, things might have gone very differently; it was the kind of tour that can run teams aground.

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April 13, 2017 · 11:20 pm

Chandika Hathurusinghe: A Temptestuous and Triumphant Journey

Rex Clementine… in a wide-ranging review which slashes the SLC cricket administration … Island, 9 April 2017

Sri Lanka’s ‘A’ team made a huge impact when they toured South Africa in 2009. No Sri Lankan team has done so well in South Africa. The fast and bouncy wickets in that country has always proved to be the undoing of batsmen who had been brought up on low and slow surfaces. The man who guided Sri Lanka to that unprecedented success was Chandika Hathurusinghe. That team was captained by Thilina Kandamby and included players like Angelo Mathews, Suranga Lakmal and Tharanga Paranavithana.

 

Kumar Sangakkara was the captain of the national team at that stage. Sanga took immediate note and requested the Board to relieve Hathurusinhe of ‘A’ team duties and allow him to work with the national team.
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February 13, 2017 · 2:49 pm

Pissu Percy in his Pictorial Element: Day and Night

sanath_jayasuriya_percy_iifa

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November 6, 2016 · 1:05 am

Breaking News Today: 1996 World Cup Squad in Victory Jaunt in Australia … Marking a Golden Era

Boasting greater solidity and bodily weight today, the triumphant Sri Lankan cricket team of 1996 were hosted in celbratory manner in the land of the vanquished THEN— in Melbourne, the cricketing centre of the cricketing giants Australia,

aa-996-squad

Rex Clementine, in The Sunday Island, 6 November 2016, where the title runs ” Golden era of Sri Lankan cricket”

The World Cup winning Sri Lankan cricket team has just concluded a trip to Australia to celebrate the 20th anniversary of their triumph on that remarkable night of March 17th 1996 at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore. Seeing images of the team touring Australia brought back nostalgic memories as it was the players of this particular team that formed the nucleus of the side that ushered in the golden era of Sri Lankan cricket. The four year period from 1995 to 1998 can easily be considered as the golden era of Sri Lankan cricket for their outstanding achievements and the fear they created in opposition. They were not as dominant as Clive Lloyd’s West Indies of the 1970s, but the exciting brand of cricket they played helped change the way the sport was played.

 

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Filed under Aravinda de Silva, cricket and life, cricket tamashas, cricketing icons, murali, Rex Clementine, sanath jayasuriya, Sri Lanka Cricket, world cup squad

October 31, 2016 · 1:07 pm

Enter Captain Herath: A Rare Instance of a Spinning Captain

Rex Clementine, in the Island, 24 October 2016, where the title runs “King Herath leads Sri Lanka”
Left-arm spinner Rangana Herath has been bestowed with the rare honour of leading Sri Lanka in Test cricket after captain Angelo Mathews was ruled out of the tour of Zimbabwe with a calf strain yesterday. Herath, the 38-year-old 73 Test veteran is the most experienced cricketer in international cricket. He is also the only current international cricketer to have made his Test debut in the last millennium. He will become the 14th man to lead Sri Lanka in Test cricket and only the second spinner after D.S. de Silva.

rangana-herath-008 Pic from Guardian

“I am absolutely delighted with this honour,” Herath told The Island. “Chairman of Selectors Sanath Jayasuriya called me up today and informed that Angelo has been ruled out of the series and that I will have to step in as captain,” Herath added. “Having said that, these are difficult circumstances having lost two of our leading players. Both Angelo and Chandi have done remarkably well for us over the years,” Herath further said. Continue reading →

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October 6, 2016 · 2:14 pm

Rangana Herath: A Leftie Lovable

Andrew Fidel Fernando, courtesy of THE CRICKET MONTHLY, where the title is “Left-arm lovable”

It was perfect that Rangana Herath‘s parents bought the family their first television shortly before Aravinda de Silva‘s 1984 debut, because soon de Silva was Herath’s favourite player. “When Aravinda is smashing sixes and fours,” Herath remembers, “who doesn’t want to watch?”

There was sometimes a crowd in the house. In the lush village of Waduwawa, on the southeastern tip of the Northwestern Province, this was one of the first black-and-white television sets. Matches drew friends and neighbours to the lime-green living room, and when games finished, the mob scattered into the front yard. Beneath thambili palms, with birdsong in the trees, and the Buddhist temple’s bana on the breeze, they poured out pent-up aspirations into matches of their own.

herath-with-his-son-in-galle-2014-afp With his son in Galle, 2014 © AFP

When no friends were around, older brother Deepthi was cajoled into games. “Aiyo I could never get away from him,” Deepthi says. “He was always wanting to play. I had to learn batting left-handed even, so that I wasn’t breaking windows when I hit to the leg side. He batted left-handed from the small days, so he was always whacking balls into the trees. If I couldn’t play, he’d hang a ball in a sock from the mango tree, and hit it by himself. He had more than enough shots.”

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July 31, 2016 · 2:34 am

Sa’adi Thawfeeq’s Account of the Win at Pallekele

Sa’adi Thawfeeq,  in Sunday Observer, 31 July 2016 with the title “Sri Lanka beat the Test champs after 17 years”

What a remarkable turnaround by Sri Lanka. Dismissed for 117 in the first innings they found a way to come back and beat the number one Test nation in the world Australia by 107 runs in the first Test to go one-up in the three-match series at Pallekele International Stadium yesterday. The win was only Sri Lanka’s second win against Australia in 27 Tests and it inflicted on Steve Smith his first loss as Australia’s Test captain in 12 Tests. Sri Lanka last won under the captaincy of Sanath Jayasuriya when they beat Steve Waugh’s Australians by six wickets in 1999 and it was also in Kandy at Asgiriya.

A=ckt 11 The final moment Continue reading →

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