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Lalith says the ‘player’ label still fits him perfectly

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Lalith Priyantha is 57 but continues to play the same fast game

By A Special Sports Correspondent

Former table tennis national champion Lalith Priyantha says he was never the best player that the country produced. But he keeps winning at every veterans’ tournament he enters. Just recently he won a triple crown at the Veterans’ Table Tennis Championships, held for the year 2022. He played with lightning speed when he was young and continues to play the same fast game even today at the age of 57. He still gets the ‘wow’ response from the crowd and destroys his opponents; like in the good old days when he represented Akbar Brothers and won the national singles crown on three consecutive years (1988, 1989 and 1990).

He made his start with humble beginnings and grew into something big that even the Table Tennis Association of Sri Lanka (Board of Control for Table Tennis in Sri Lanka back then) could not handle. He was the rebel in the eyes of the administrators and the darling of the crowd. He was clinical in his approach; there was no fancy foot work during games and boasting before a match like boxer Mohammad Ali did. He was an executioner and he killed them all with his ‘rubber’. The ideal term that describes him would be swift assassin.

Lalith is still the same. Now he is a table tennis coach and also sells insurance. The appetite shown to win at table tennis tournaments is also shown in his quest to reach a stable and successful life. He enjoys his favourite brand of distilled spirits in the evening and has a stock answer for those who complain about costing of living rising high in Sri Lanka. “If the cost of living is rising and your salary is not enough earn a little more. Never sacrifice the things that you love to do in life” is how he resonated his answer when this scribe asked the same question during an interview with him at his residence in Kotikawatte.

Lalith has great public relations skills. He has courtesy, convincing power and the knack to learn fast. When one compares him with other table tennis players of his era Lalith is streets ahead in the life he has created for himself outside the ‘world’ of table tennis. He lets off this vibe of having a successful life and sincerely hopes others would pick it up from him; like catching infleuza! This could be because he belongs to an era where players who played the game back then spoke in English, were happy and were gainfully employed. He too had this life as a competitive sportsman.

But there are a fair share of critics who envy his great run in the sport. They want a change in champion at the veterans’ singles event which Lalith has won at over 50 such tournaments. He has a few ‘medicines’ for good health and happiness, but he sadly says that there is no cure for jealousy. At this recently concluded veterans’ tournament, played at S.Thomas’ College Mount Lavinia Gymnasium, he beat Chaminda Rodrigo in the singles final and teamed up with Dietmar Doering in the doubles final to beat Gamini Moraes and Thilakananda. In the mixed doubles he was partnered by Ira Ruwanpathirana from the preliminary matches onwards till they successfully completed a rout and won the final showdown too.

However he extends a helping hand to anyone who seeks his assistance in sports or outside the sporting arena. Some of those people who receive his help are those who at one time wished he’ll fall. He credits his toughness endure challenges to the three ‘Ds’ he practices; dedication, devotion and determination.

He could be termed as one of the administrators in table tennis who sincerely promoted and worked towards the welfare of the sport. He was the president of the Table Tennis Association of Sri Lanka; first in the accounting year 1999-2000 and then again for the accounting year 2000-2001. The best thing which happened during his tenure as president was players receiving certificates and medals at the semi-final stage of tournaments. The result? “For the first time in the sport’s history, after many years, the stadiums were full with spectators even on the final day of table tennis tournaments. The other good thing which happened to the sport during this time was the TTASL’ officials finding sponsorships for the players who were selected for overseas tournaments. “No player had to go with a begging bowl to sponsors in search of funds. I had my way of convincing sports ministry officials that the players had to have funds and the tours would give much international exposure to the players,” said Lalith. That was how strong an administrator he was and between serving the TTASL as an official he has also time and again accompanied the national men’s and women’s table tennis teams as Sri Lanka coach on one-off tours.

Still, despite all those successes, Lalith never misses an opportunity to play in veterans’ tournaments. He feels he has had enough as an administrator. He had his moment of glory at the International Veterans’ Table Tennis Championships Sri Lanka hosted in 2017 and went on to beat Indian Sunil Babras in the early stages of that tournament. However, Babras bounced back and played strongly before winning the singles crown.

There is some spark that ignites within him when he gets an opportunity to play even today. Now, despite battling fitness issues due to lack of time to practice, he still enters all veterans’ tournaments. When this writer asked whether he has anything to prove to the table tennis commune at home and himself by still wanting to play he had this to say, “I still want to be known as a player.



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IPL 2025: Chennai Super Kings suffer fifth loss on the trot as Kolkata Knight Riders register monster win

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Sunil Narine capturedthree wickets and scored 44 runs for KKR

So that’s what happens when Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) get the kind of pitch their spinners like. Sunil Narine, Varun Chakravarthy and Moeen Ali (12-1-55-6) went into Chepauk and burgled wickets away from the five-time IPL champions until they were a pale, weak shadow of themselves. Chennai Super Kings (CSK) crumbled to 103 for 9, their lowest IPL total at home, suffered a fifth successive defeat, which had never happened before in their entire history, and are marooned in ninth place on the points table. Welcome back to captaincy, MS Dhoni.

The major characteristic of a black-soil pitch is that it is slow and it grips. It felt like home, which is ironic because home hasn’t felt like home for them this season. KKR would prefer to play most of their matches in conditions like this but their efforts to procure them at the Eden Gardens hasn’t gone well. Ajinkya Rahane doesn’t even want to talk about it now. He did, however, spearhead a phenomenal bowling performance. He brought Moeen into the XI and set him loose on CSK’s two left-hand openers. Devon Conway couldn’t overcome the handicap. The KKR offspinner pocketed a wicket maiden. In the next over, Rachin Ravindra was gone. CSK were bleeding by the end of the powerplay, their 31 for 2 only slightly better than the season low of 30 for 3 that they themselves had set, against Royal Challengers Bengaluru.

Exposing this CSK team’s middle order is the only thing their oppositions need to do to win against them. Rahul Tripathi was brought in as Ruturaj Gaikwad’s replacement but he couldn’t figure out whether he wanted to hit out or play through and that indecision was reflected in his final score – 16 off 22. Vijay Shankar could have been dismissed for a duck, or for 20, had KKR held onto their catches. Even with those two lives he couldn’t push on to make a big score. Shivam Dube walked out with CSK at 59 for 3. He had faced only 13 balls and that was still enough time for the score to slip to 75 for 8, at which point his team was in danger of recording their lowest total in IPL history.

For the 16th time in his IPL career, Narine bowled his four overs without conceding a boundary. No one, having got through their full quota, has done it more times. He also knocked off Tripathi, who didn’t know which way the ball would turn, and Ravindra Jadeja and MS Dhoni, who didn’t know which way the ball would spin. There was some doubt over the Dhonii lbw, though. UltraEdge showed what looked like faint murmurs as the ball passed the bat.

CSK were being smothered. They had to wait 63 balls between boundaries – only two teams have ever been that emphatically silenced in this tournament – and hit just three after the eighth over (one of them off a top edge). They had to bring in Deepak Hooda as Impact Player, accepting the risk of going in with a bowler short when they would have to defend this total. But even that gamble backfired. Hooda fell for a duck and one of their key players, Matheesha Pathirana, could not take part in the game.

Defending 103 is a thankless job because bowlers tend to go hard searching for wickets and in that process they leak runs. After under-performing in their batting powerplay, CSK underwhelmed with their bowling powerplay. KKR ransacked 71 runs in the first six overs. This game was no contest.

Brief scores:
Kolkata Knight Riders 107 for 2 in 10.1 overs  (Sunil Narine 44, Quinton de Kock 23, Ajinkaya Rahane 20*, Rinku Singh 15*; Anshul Kamboj 1-19, Noor Ahmad 1-08) beat Chennai Super Kings 103 for 9 in 20 overs (Devon Conway 12, Rahul Tripathi 16, Vijay Shankar 29, Shivam Dube 31; Sunil  Narine 3-13, Varun Chakravarthy 2-22, Harshit Rana 2-16, Moeen Ali 1-20, Vaibhav Arora 1-31) by eight wickets

[Cricinfo]

 

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Dharshana and co win invitational relay

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Sri Lanka ‘A’ team inclusive of Olympian Aruna Dharshana, Sadew Rajakaruna, R. Madushan and Kalinga Kumarage won the invitational 4×400 metres relay ahead of Sri Lanka ‘B’ and India at Diyagama a little while ago.
They returned a time of 3:05.60 seconds( not the official time) to win.
They remained unchallanged from the gun to finish as Dharshana provided a solid start for the others to maintain. Their only challange came from the Sri Lanka ‘B’ team who beat India to the third place.
India did not field their best team.
Kalinga Kumarage did the anchor leg for Sri Lanka.
The Maldives and the Phillippine teams were well behind the winners.
Sri Lanka Athletics conducted the event in a bid to provide the country’s 4×400 metres team a chance to produce a top timing.
(RF)
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Mohamed Salah signs new two-year contract with Liverpool

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Mohamed Salah has scored 243 goals in 394 games for Liverpool [BBC]

Egypt forward Mohamed Salah has signed a new two-year contract with Liverpool.

The 32-year-old’s previous deal was scheduled to run out in the summer and there had been doubts he would stay with the Reds following comments from him during the season and speculation linking him with a move to Saudi Arabia.

However, he is staying and will have the chance to add to his 243 goals and 109 assists for the club in 393 appearances.

“Of course I’m very excited – we have a great team now,” said Salah.

“Before also we had a great team. But I signed because I think we have a chance to win other trophies and enjoy my football.

“I have played eight years here, hopefully it’s going to be 10. I’m enjoying my life here, enjoying my football. I have had the best years of my career here.”

Salah has scored 32 goals in all competitions this season, including 27 in the Premier League as the Reds chase a 20th top-flight title. Liverpool are 11 points clear of second-placed Arsenal with seven games remaining.

Salah, who joined Liverpool from Roma in 2017, has won the Champions League, Premier League, FA Cup, League Cup and Fifa Club World Cup with the Reds.

He was one of three key Liverpool players who will be out of contract this summer, along with right-back Trent Alexander-Arnold and centre-back Virgil van Dijk.

Netherlands defender Van Dijk has said there has been progress on talks over a new deal but Alexander-Arnold has been heavily linked with a move to Real Madrid.

[BBC]

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