Sports
Zimbabwe done and dusted, bigger challenges ahead
by Rex Clementine
On occasions, Zimbabwe (or Rhodesia as earlier known) have turned the cricketing world upside down. In the 1983 World Cup, they beat a star-studded Australian side. Yes, an Australian side that had Lillee, Thomson, Yallop, Hookes, Wessels, Border and Marsh !
Zimbabwe themselves had some quality players on that occasion. They were captained by that brilliant strategist Duncan Fletcher, who later went onto coach England and India. They also had Dave Houghton, one of the finest batters to come from that country. Then there was Andy Pycroft, who was the Match Referee in the World Cup final in Ahmedabad in November. Kevin Curran was there too. His son Sam Curran is now an England star.
The most notable of them was off-spinner John Traicos. He had debuted for South Africa in 1970 but after South Africa were exiled from cricket due to apartheid, he switched alliance and represented Zimbabwe. That’s not the fun part. When South Africa were readmitted to Test cricket, he went back to play for them at the age of 45. Between his first Test and last Test, there were seven US Presidents from Richard Nixon to Bill Clinton while the Catholic Church had three Popes; Cardinal Montini, Cardinal Luciani and Cardinal Wojtyla.
Zimbabwe created another upset too when in 1992 World Cup they beat England. That Zimbabwe side had Flower brothers and chicken farmer Eddo Brandes, who famously claimed four wickets.
Zimbabwe in that World Cup nearly beat Sri Lanka too. Those days teams rarely chased down targets above 300. Sri Lanka went onto become the first team to do so.
In recent years as well, Zimbabwe have produced some quality talents like Neil Johnson and Murray Goodwin. However, the country suffered setbacks due to political upheavals and Robert Mugabe’s policies saw Zimbabwe being alienated by rest of the world and most white cricketing talents spread across other parts of the world.
Zimbabwe is a vast country unlike ours. It has a total area of 400,000 square kilometers. Their population is only 16 million whereas we have 22 million living in 65,000 square kilometers. The country is rich with natural resources but faced many setbacks during Mugabe’s era.
All fault of course is not Mugabe’s. When he wanted to reclaim the lands owned by white farmers, the British government of John Major had a deal to compensate white farmers. But once John Major’s Conservative Party was gone and Tony Blair’s Labour Party came in, the deal became null and void. And Mugabe was left with little choice. Like Nelson Mandela in South Africa, Mugabe was a freedom fighter but what he did in the latter years were quite despicable and unacceptable.
After economic instability, the country is recovering, and they aren’t doing too bad with the exchange rate being one US Dollar equal to 360 Zimbabwe Dollars.
Coming back to cricket, beating this Zimbabwe side is no big deal though. You keep hearing that this being a competitive opposition, but the truth of course is far from it. They have a very good left-arm seamer in Richard Ngarava while captain Sikandar Raza is a reliable all-rounder. Craig Ervine and Sean Williams are decent batters while the rest of them are making up the numbers.
Zimbabwe recently suffered home series defeats to Ireland and were even beaten by Namibia while being knocked out of this year’s T-20 World Cup after losing to Uganda. Sri Lanka should have cruised past this side but there were too many close games to their liking which sums up the standard of our cricket.
Barring the period between 2007 to 2011, our bowling has always lacked quality. Now the bowling not only lacks quality but among the top five batters hardly anyone bowls, which wasn’t the case earlier.
So, what the team did those days was to put a high premium on fielding. Now fielding has also collapsed and we are a laughing stock in white ball cricket. One good thing is that the new captain is stressing to put more emphasis on fielding. Upul Chandana has been handed the position of Fielding Coach on a temporary basis but it’s high time that he is made permanent in that position. He has been very loyal to SLC, and his innovative methods will help Sri Lanka to achieve desired results.
SLC must be commended for bringing in experts like Jonty Rhodes and Bharat Arun to lift our cricket standards. Rhodes obviously was the best fielder in our generation and players will learn quite a lot from him. However, unless individuals commit themselves, even if you bring Colin Bland from the dead we aren’t going to make improvements.
The upcoming series against Afghanistan will prove to be a different ball game altogether, particularly the white ball series. The Afghans are giving India a good run for their money at present and Sri Lanka will have to be at top of their game.
The Afghan series is followed by a tour of Bangladesh and that too will be quite challenging.
It’s a strange feeling. Sri Lanka toured Australia before the 1996 and 2007 World Cups and a lot of people say that those tours down under toughened the team up and helped them play their best cricket in the World Cup. Pity that we are saying a tour of Bangladesh will be tough these days. That’s how the cookie has crumbled.
91st Battle of the Saints
St. Joseph’s hold the edge when they meet arch rivals St. Peter’s in the 91st Battle of the Saints’ big match starting today. After having beaten Petes by nine wickets in the Under 19 Division I Tier ‘A’ quarter-final at Polonnaruwa the Joes arive at the SSC ground to prove that the victory registered two months ago was not a fluke.
St. Joseph’s captained by wicketkeeper batsman Kenath Liyanage are concluding a successful season after having remained unbeaten until they were eliminated in the semi-final by St. Sebastian’s .
A strong batting lineup and a dynamic spin department are making them a formidable outfit.
Experienced campaigner Yenula Dewthusa and Demion de Silva with their left-arm spin and Aveesha Samash and Nushan Perera with off spin provide the Joes variety in the spin department. Dewthusa, Demion de Silva and Nushan Perera are their leading wicket takers. Spinners doing well at schools matches have not been effective at the SSC during the last few big matches. It will be interesting to watch as to how the spinners in these two teams would fare during the three days.
For pace the Joes will look to Maanasa Madubashana and Dunick Perera who are expected to share the new ball.
Abishek Jayaweera and Aveesha Samash will open batting, while Senuja Wakunugoda, skipper Liyanage, Dewthusa and Rishma Amarasinghe form the rest of the top order batting lineup.
St. Joseph’s registered three outright victories this season (beat St. Servatius’, St. Benedict’s and St. Peter’s) and remained unbeaten.
St. Peter’s under Oween Salgado’s captaincy did well to reach the business end of the Tier ‘A’ tournament. But the Petes were uncertain of Salgado’s participation in the big match as they were yet to assess his fitness yesterday morning. He was wounded during a match and the stitched wound had not fully healed according to team sources.
Petes beat Gurukula, St. Aloysius’ and Holy Cross this season. Their only defeat was at the hands of their arch rivals. They will look forward to avenge the defeat at the big match.
The Petes will rely on the likes of Dilana Damsara, Thareen Sanketh, Nathan David and Jason Fernando to take a greater share of batting responsibilities. The middle order batsman Sanketh is their leading batsman and has maintained an average of over 50 runs.
Speedsters Ethan Ransilige and Joshua Sebastian will share new ball duties for the Petes.
Lashmika Perera and Sanketh will share most of the slow ball duties.
St Peter’s are in the possession of the coveted Rev. Fr. Maurice J. Le Goc Trophy having last won the big match under the captaincy of Vinu Mohotty in 2016.
St. Joseph’s lead the series tally 12-10. They last won under Ruwantha Fernandopulle’s captaincy in 2008.
St. Peter’s College Team
(Seated from left) Harsha Prabath Perera (Asst. Physio/Trainer & Massuer), Thushara Maduhanka (1st XI Asst. Coach),
Nalin Wijesinghe (Head Coach), Priyadarshana Cooray (MIC – Senior & Junior), Oween Salgado (Captain), Rev. Fr.
Rohitha Rodrigo (Rector), Rev. Fr. Praveen Wijesekara (Priest in Charge – Cricket), Lashmika Perera
(Vice Captain), Dilana Damsara, Rohan Fernando (MIC – 2nd XI), Dinuka D. Godakanda (2nd XI Coach).
(Standing 1st row from left) Dinsara Rathnaweera, Dineth de Silva, Tharin Senvidu, Nathan David, Hiruka Silva, Thareen
Sanketh, Virul Amarapala, Yatheendra Jayaweera, Salith Gallage, Raphael Hettige. (Standing 2nd row from left) Jason Fernando,
Joshua Sebastian, Savi Fernnado, Ethan Ransilige, Asadisa De Silva, Sadeesha Kariyawasam, Enosh Peterson
by Reemus Fernando
120th Lovers’ Quarrel
The stakeholders of the Lovers’ Quarrel Big Match were still pursuing to make the historic 120th edition a reality on the eve of the match after Richmond authorities threatened to pull out citing that Mahinda had violated an accepted norm by included a newly recruited player in the big match team.
The historic edition was scheduled to commence as a three day encounter at the Galle International Stadium today. But the match remained doubtful at the time this edition went to press. The officials of both teams were unavailable for comments on the eve of the match. According to sources close to the two teams the joint big match committee was scheduled to meet in the evening yesterday to take a final decision regarding the match.
Richmond threatened to pull out after Mahinda included Charya Paranavithana in their big match team. Paranavithana captained St. Aloysius’ this season. He is not eligible to play matches that come under the purview of Sri Lanka Schools Cricket Association as he is yet to be registered as a Mahinda player. Big Matches are not played according to SLSCA rules but Richmond authorities had raised concerns over the player registration citing that the two schools had honoured the norm even at the big match.
According to sources Richmond were threatening to pull out if Paranavithana’s name was included in the playing XI on the match day morning.
Mahinda concluded a highly successful season as the team captained by Kaveen Rukshan earned the Under 19 Division I Tier ‘A’ promotion this year. They were also the joint champions of the Tier ‘B’ tournament with Thurstan. In contrast former Division I champions Richmond had to fight relegation scares. The team captained by Thamindu Pradeeptha later successfully retained their Tier A position by recording an outright victory.
Mahinda College Team
Seated left to right: T.D. Ajantha Kumara (Head Coach), Y. Nishantha Kumara (Master in Charge – Senior), L. P. Weeraman (Deputy Principal –
Sports), Kaveen Rukshan (Captain), Mr. Janaka Peduruheva (Principal), Arosha Udayanga (Vice Captain), Mr. M.W. Ajith (Prefect of Games), Mr.
Jagath Samarakoon (Master in charge – Junior), Mr. Sachith Lakmal (Asst. Coach)
Standing (Middle row) – left to right – Dineth Pahasara, Thiyon Helika, Vinupa Nethmira, Sahanjith Irugalbandara, Dulisth Darshana, Senuka
Dangamuwa, Sadew Nethmina, Manitha Rajapaksha, Vishmitha Sathsara, Charya Paranavithana, Randula Mabarana
Standing (Back row) – left to right – Sajeew Punsara, Sehas Ashinsa, Kaveesha Githmal, Thevindu Rashmika
by Reemus Fernando
CR & FC huffed and puffed before beating Havelocks Sports Club 25-24 in a keenly contested Clifford Cup semi final game worked off in Colombo yesterday before booking their berth in Sunday’s rugby final, scheduled to take place in Kandy.
In Sunday’s final, CR will meet Kandy SC, the winner of the first semi final.
CR dominated the first half, but Havies came from behind in the second half to be in contention of pulling the game off till the last minute. Havelocks’ chances were boosted with two powerful tries coming from Chathura Dilshan late in the second half. But unpardonable mistakes by the men in the pink and chocolate jerseys helped CR to slip away with the game. Havelocks gave away two yellow cards during extra time in the second half.
The winners collected their points through three tries, two conversions and two penalties while Havelocks responded with three converted tries and a penalty. The winners led 15-10 at half time. Referee Raveen Alexander controlled the game.
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