Beer Consumption brings Barmy Army a Cricket Match with Lion Brewery
Lion Brewery PLC hosted a friendly T20 cricket match between the Brewery and England’s Barmy Army at the Colts Ground in Colombo recently. The world renowned ‘Barmy Army’ squad was in Sri Lanka to support their home team at the recently concluded Sri Lanka tour…. Item in Island, 6 December 2018
ONE: Rohit Pawar, in Cricket Age, 4 December 2018
Sri Lanka National team, led by Dinesh Chandimal, left for New Zealand on Monday. The team will play two Tests, three ODIs and a one off T-20I. However, head coach Chandika Hathurasingha had fled to Australia on Sunday itself. According to sources, SLC CEO Ashley De Silva approved his Australia visit and he will join the rest of the squad in Auckland.
Filed under child of empire, player selections, Sri Lanka Cricket
Rohan Wijeyaratna, Island, 28 November 2018, where the title is “Playing the bigger moments better……”
When attendant scribes finally sit down to write on this English tour outside the cricket in retrospect, not much would be written complimentarily, given what happened to some members of the Barmy Army – the travelling supporters of the England team. The manner in which some were denied their pre-booked hotel rooms – thanks to some panic stricken match organisers – will feature high in what now seems an utterly ill-managed and ill-executed aspect of the tour. The stink it would earn this country will only be eclipsed by the larger stink generated through the uncouth political wrangling and totally unacceptable behaviour, never seen in the annals of any civilized society anywhere, this century. The damage in both instances would take long years to mend, and it will take a lot out of many, to offset the negative publicity the country has attracted. It would also sting an already sensitive tourist industry beyond its threshold of pain. What happened to these Barmy army men was no hiccup. But adding insult to injury, not even a cursory apology was forthcoming. Feelings were ruffled, people seriously inconvenienced, and to complete the misery, the host team was handed a complete ‘whitewash’ for their trouble. Much work will now have to be done to control the damage, but for the repair processes to begin, the country must first return back to normal. At the time of writing, normalcy seems nowhere in sight.
News Item in Cricket Age, 29 November 2018
Imran Khan, Pakistan’s world cup winning captain and current Prime Minister, recently came hard on corruption in cricket. One of the most respected voice in world cricket, Imran Khan said that the game must be play in right spirit. “Any person, who has the slightest connection to betting, will be removed from the cricket in Pakistan” he said in a statement.
Former Sri Lanka Sports Minister Navin Dissanayake gave an interesting prospective [on this item of news] by seeing the current status of the game in the Island. “In our country, we made a betting business owner as the head of cricket” he posted on his official Facebook account. Those, who knows the insides of Sri Lanka cricket, immediately got the point that Dissanayake was referring to former Sri Lanka Cricket Board (SLC) president Thilanga Sumathipala.
Errol Fernando’s EMAIL NOTE to pals, 28 November 2018
I have enjoyed 3 contests – 4 if you include the Aussie ladies winning the World Cup against England which was extremely praiseworthy.
England men won the 3rd Test against Sri Lanka despite a wonderful last wicket stand between numbers ten and eleven. Well done England winning 3-nil.
Pakistan levelled the series 1-1 against New Zealand 5 minutes ago. Yasir Shah took 14 wickets,equalling the 14 – wicket record of Imran Khan. When making his Man of the Match speech Yasir began by giving thanks to Allah. When Shane Warne made his many MOM speeches. D o you recall whom he gave thanks to ??
Finally, Kohli won the third match against Australia,levelling the series 1-1. Everyone is expecting the Aussies to be thrashed in the Test matches by Kohli’s Indians. However,I am not so sure about this. The Aussies have a fearsome bowling attack and I am not at all convinced by the Indian attack. It will not be a one-sided series.
Andrew Fidel Fernando …. assembling Evaluations of Rangana Herath on his Retirement for ESPNcricinfo
Sa’adi Thawfeeq, in Daily News, 23 November 2018, where the title reads “Lakmal blames spinners for defeats when batsmen have failed”
In the first two Tests of the ongoing three-Test series it is clear as day that it is the Sri Lankan batting that has been the downfall of the team who find themselves trailing 0-2 in the series and having a fight on their hands to prevent England from completing a 3-0 whitewash by winning the third and final Test starting at the SSC grounds from today. However acting captain Suranga Lakmal was of the view that it was the spinners who had contributed largely to the two defeats. “When we’ve play in Sri Lanka, our strength has been our spinners. Unfortunately in the last two games we didn’t get as many wickets from the spinners as quickly as we expected. The England batsmen played them really well. If we had bowled a little better we would have been able to win those two Tests. Everyone tries to stick to their strengths playing at home and for us it is our spinners,” said Lakmal at the pre-match press conference held at the SSC yesterday.
Filed under English cricket, performance, player selections, Sri Lanka Cricket
N Krishnamurthy in Cricket Age, 23 November 2018, where the title is “Graeme Labrooy to be sacked, Ashantha De Mel likely to be SL Chief Selector”
Graeme Labrooy, the incompetent chairman of selectors of Sri Lanka Cricket Board (SLC), is likely to be sacked after the conclusion of the England series, Cricket Age reliably learns. Sri Lanka have already lost ODI, T20 and test trophies against England and the third test begins today. “Yes. Discussions are going on to replace Labrooy. We will be able to come to the conclusion only after the ongoing series” a top SLC Official told Cricket Age. When further inquired, Cricket Age learnt that the Sports Minister Faizer Mustapha has already given the node to sack Labrooy. Moreover, former Sri Lanka player Ashantha De Mel’s name has been proposed to replace Labrooy.
Andrew Fidel FErnando, in ESPNCricinfo, 13 November 2018, where the title is ” Four batsmen who must step up in Sri Lanka’s hour of need”
If Sri Lanka have a half-decent Test record over the past 14 months – and they do, winning six and losing only three of their last 13 Tests – it is largely the work of their bowlers.
Take the matches in the UAE last year, for example. In the first Test, Sri Lanka collapsed in the second innings to leave Pakistan needing only 136 for victory, before Rangana Herath drew on his famed reserves of cricketing fortitude and body-slammed Pakistan for what felt like the millionth time in his career, taking six wickets as they crashed to 114 all out. In the next Test, the day-nighter in Dubai, Sri Lanka were all out for 96 in their second innings, before the bowlers held it together through a tough period in which they were forced to contend with a dew-moistened ball, then snuffed out the Pakistan chase when the match resumed the next afternoon.
