Category Archives: sportsmanship

Ranjan Mellawa’s Pursuit of Cricket Luv’ly Cricket

Elmo Jayawardena, with the title Winds Behind The Willows – The Full Monty to Cricket

One has to know something about cricket to enjoy this magnificent book. Suited me ideally as I do not know much about cricket matters but like almost all Sri Lankans I too am connected umbilically to international cricket and especially when the home country is at the crease. Let me try and express my views on author Ranjan Mellawa writing a book. I can categorically state that if not the bull’s eye, he certainly has hit pretty close to it as a new author in his maiden venture on cricket journalism.

The man has managed to vagabond his way to be present at six World Cup finals. That alone gives him credentials to be somewhat an expert on the international scene from a spectator’s point of view. Ranjan has been an ardent cricket fan. He’s played too, starting with a plastic bat as a kid to rustic cricket in neighborhood tennis-ball matches. From there he graduated to club level domestic league. Hence, his story begins at grass-root level and then blossoms and spreads wild and wide taking him to the world of international cricket as a die-hard knowledgeable fan. Continue reading

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Filed under Australian cricket, cricketing icons, performance, sportsmanship, Sri Lanka Cricket, unusual people, verbal intimidation, welfare through sport, West Indian Cricket, World Cup 2015

The Oldest Cricketing Schools in Ceylon

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April 8, 2017 · 1:37 pm

Pissu Percy in his Pictorial Element: Day and Night

sanath_jayasuriya_percy_iifa

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Recognising Michael Tissera in the Tale of Sri Lankan Cricket

Abhishek Mukherjee, 25 March  2016, courtesy of http://www.cricketcountry.com/articles/michael-tissera-the-man-who-gave-his-name-to-west-indies-sri-lanka-test-series-340992

Michael Tissera shares a trophy name with Garry Sobers. Till date, he also remains the only Sri Lankan captain to win a Test on Indian soil, albeit unofficial.

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Michael Tissera © Getty Images
 Michael Hugh Tissera, born March 23, 1939, was one of the architects of Sri Lankan cricket in 1960s and 1970s. Unfortunately, his international career started late, for Sri Lanka did not get a chance to lock horns with the big guns in official matches till World Cup 1975. His leadership qualities and all-round skills on the field made him stand out among Sri Lankan cricketers of his era. To honour him, the West Indies-Sri Lanka Test series were named Sobers-Tissera Trophy after him and Sir Garry. Abhishek Mukherjee remembers a forgotten man of Sri Lankan cricket.
29-tissera-bowling sobers-wild

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AFP Report. Coroner’s Verdict on Phil Hughes’ Death: ‘Tiny Misjudgement’

AFP, 6 November 2016, http://www.hindustantimes.com/cricket/tiny-misjudgement-led-to-phil-hughes-unsurvivable-injury-coroner/story-QPQrHL4KG3AWBHtctD4anJ.html

Australian batsman Phillip Hughes made a “minuscule misjudgement” before he was fatally struck by a cricket ball, a coroner ruled on Friday, attaching no blame to the bowler, verbal abuse or the tactic of sending down short-pitched deliveries. Hughes, who played 26 Tests, died from bleeding on the brain in November 2014 after being hit on the neck by a rising ball from Sean Abbott while batting in a domestic match at the Sydney Cricket Ground. The death of the popular 25-year-old, who had risen through the ranks to play for his country, stunned Australia and the world cricket community, sparking an outpouring of grief.

cricket-aus-nzl-hughes-files_fea50f4a-a240-11e6-8b09-4d35dc1d77aaA photo of Phil Hughes is displayed on a scoreboard as a minute of silence is observed before play on the first day of the fourth Test match between Australia and India at the Sydney Cricket Ground on January 6, 2015, less than two months after Hughes’ death. (AFP)

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Sledging dirties a Beautiful Game, says Coroner Barnes in Hughes’ Inquest Verdict

 Sledging in the spotlight after Hughes inquiry”

The coronial inquest into the death of Phillip Hughes has raised questions around the culture of sledging in cricket. Hughes died in November 2014, two days after being struck by a ball in the back of the head while batting for South Australia in a Sheffield Shield game against NSW at the SCG. Although NSW Coroner Michael Barnes found no one was to blame, he took aim at what he said was an unhealthy culture of sledging by cricketers, who he urged to “reflect upon whether the practice … is worthy of its participantsAn outsider is left to wonder why such a beautiful game would need such an ugly underside,” Mr Barnes said.

Phil Hughes poses for a portrait during a Cricket Australia player camp. Picture: Robert Cianflone/Getty Images Continue reading

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Filed under Australia Cricket, Australian cricket, child of empire, confrontations on field, cricket and life, cricketing rules, sportsmanship, technology and cricket, unusual people, verbal intimidation

A Miracle: Steve Smith Rapped on Knuckles for His Dissenting Reaction by Some Australian Commentators

Though Stuart Clark and some Australian commentators implied that Smith was hard done by, Robert Craddock, Ian Chappel and Wayne Smith were among those who upheld Aleem Dar’s decision and reprimanded Steve Smith for the character of his remonstrance. Also note Sangakakra’s decisive opinion on the issue of the Umpire’s cCall for lbw decision and DRS. Michael Roberts

ONE: Robert Craddock, in The Courier Mail, 6 November 2016. where the title is  Steve Smith walking a perilous tight rope as he struggles to find his identity as a captain”

STEVE Smith is a captain is like a young Steve Waugh, a man searching to find himself but not there yet. It’s no crime for a young captain to have a formulative period where he works out who he is and what he stands for. Some leaders like Mark Taylor knew from the moment he was appointed who he was and what he wanted to do (it helps if you have Warne and McGrath). Taylor barely changed in the five years he had the job. Most leaders take more time. Steve Waugh struggled for a while, trying to be all things to all people before deciding “stuff this … I am just going to back my gut feeling and cop the consequences.’’

Steve Smith is facing a fine for his on-field outburst after being given out LBW. Picture: Daniel Wilkins

It is difficult for Smith to take this stance and be the person he wants to be because there are so many conflicting and confusing forces around him. He is walking on a perilous tight rope which has trouble either side of it. On one hand he senses his side is a quiet one and needs to find his voice and aggression. He wants Australia to get its marauding mojo back.  On the other hand he is aware that in the fallout of the Phil Hughes death, sledging is suddenly a dirty word. So he and his team need to be confident but not arrogant, aggressive but not offensive, loud but not obnoxious. Continue reading

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Coroner Barnes exonerates Australian Cricketing Philosophy in Verdict on Hughes’ Incident

Brydon Coverdale in ESPNcricinfo, 5 November 2016, where the title is “Players, umpires cleared of fault in Hughes’ death,”

scales-of-justice  The death of Phillip Hughes was a tragic accident arising from a “minuscule misjudgement” from the batsman and no players or umpires were at fault, according to the New South Wales coroner Michael Barnes.  Mr Barnes on Friday released his findings from the coronial inquest into the death of Hughes, who was struck on the neck by a bouncer during a Sheffield Shield match at the SCG in November 2014. Although the coroner determined that Hughes had been targeted by bouncers during his innings, he found that no laws of the game had been breached, and Hughes was well-equipped to deal with such bowling.

Phillip was targeted by short-pitched balls bowled at or over leg stump or middle stump that placed him in greater danger of being struck,” Mr Barnes said. “Of the 23 bouncers bowled on that day, 20 were bowled to him. However, in view of the evidence of the other players, the presiding umpires, and Mr Taufel [former umpire Simon Taufel], that Phillip was, because of his high level of skill and confidence, comfortably dealing with the short-pitched balls, I conclude that no failure to enforce the laws of the game contributed to his death. The death of  Continue reading

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Filed under Australia Cricket, Australian cricket, Brydon Coverdale, Daniel Brettig, fair play, performance, politics and cricket, sportsmanship, technology and cricket, verbal intimidation, welfare through sport

The Rousing Tale of Pradeep Matthew, ambidextrous and bowling Chinaman

Benjamin Colby, courtesy of The CRICKET MONTHLY, October 2016, and ESPNcricinfo, where the title runs “The greatest cricketer who never lived” …  In the first of a series on cricket in fiction, a look at Chinaman, in which the game isn’t so much plot driver as plinth

There is more cricket fiction than is probably thought to exist. Screeds of it, in fact, with a curious abundance of thrillers and murder mysteries stretching from Dorothy Sayers’ Oxford Blue amateur sleuth Lord Peter Wimsey to Ted Dexter’s Testkill. As is often the case with artistry, novelists tackle cricket in a manner one might not otherwise think up. “How different would English summers be without slip fielders?” Jennie Walker’s 24 for 3 contemplates. Arthur Conan Doyle’s Spedegue’s Dropper has a schoolteacher bowling 50 feet upward for the ball to fall vertically onto the stumps. Anthologies of cricket’s gilded writings tend toward literary pedigree, such as All-Muggleton’s jolly trouncing of Dingley Dell in Charles Dickens’ Pickwick Papers. Evergreen in the game, too, is celebrating an England of green fields surely more emerald than ever was the case in life. Upstanding here is the nostalgic village-cricket schmaltz of Hugh de Selincourt’s The Cricket Match ….shehan Shehan Karunatillaka-Pic by Alamy … http://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-shehan-karunatilaka-sri-lanka-born-author-who-won-the-commonwealth-40676969.html

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Call for Clarification of Bouncer Laws at Inquest into the Phil Hughes Death

Daniel Brettig,  in ESPNcricinfo, 14 October 2016, with title “Clarify bouncer laws, Phillip Hughes inquest told”  

Definitions of what constitutes “unfair bowling” should be clarified by cricket’s lawmakers, the New South Wales coronial inquest into the death of Phillip Hughes has heard on an emotion-charged final day. Counsel assisting the coroner, Kristina Stern SC, submitted that the inquest should conclude that this was a case of “accidental death”, which was not made more likely by the nature of play on the day of the Sheffield Shield match at the SCG. Hughes was struck in the side of the neck on day one of the match, November 25, 2014, suffering an arterial injury that resulted in his death at St Vincent’s Hospital two days later.hughes_3116917bhughes-and-helmetphil-hughes

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