Sports

Sri Lanka haven’t played international cricket since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic in March 2020

Published

5 years ago

2021/04/11

Chamari Athapaththu: ‘Want more match time ahead of Women’s World Cup Qualifier’

Sri Lanka Women captain Chamari Athapaththu believes the postponement of the global Qualifier to determine the final three spots at the 2022 Women’s ODI World Cup from its June-July window to December is a “good thing”. Just for context, Sri Lanka, hosts of the qualifying event, haven’t had any form of international cricket for over a year now.

“To get an additional four-five months for our preparation is a good thing because we haven’t played any international cricket in over 13 months,” Athapaththu told ESPNcricinfo. “Things have been uncertain because of the Covid-19 pandemic and I was a bit worried that if the event went ahead as scheduled, we would have been underprepared. I hope that leading up to December we get a few more series apart from the one against Pakistan that our board is trying to organise.”

ESPNcricinfo understands that talks between SLC and the PCB about Pakistan potentially touring Sri Lanka for limited-overs matches before the Qualifier are only at a preliminary stage. Should they come to fruition, the series might be held only after May.

Both teams, along with West Indies, are among the sides part of the 2017/18-2021 Women’s ODI Championship who will vie for the three qualifying berths for the World Cup to be held in New Zealand from March 4 to April 3.

“Getting some match practice on a regular basis is going to be very important for us before the Qualifiers,” Athapaththu said. “Thailand’s debut in the T20 World Cup last year was proof of the kind of challenge teams outside of the top-ranked nations can present on the world stage. We cannot afford to take anyone lightly because it’s qualification to a World Cup that’s at stake.

“If there are long gaps [for teams] without any cricket for say a year or a year-and-a half, even the best look ordinary. I followed the recent series between India and South Africa. India are a top side, but they hadn’t played for a year, so they couldn’t play well. On the other hand, because South Africa had played some games before coming to India, they looked far better even in the absence of some of their senior players.”

Among a raft of world tournaments that the ICC has postponed due to the pandemic is the inaugural Under-19 Women’s World Cup. Originally scheduled for this year in Bangladesh, the tournament has been pushed back to January 2023. In Athapaththu’s assessment, the postponement will rob several deserving young players of the opportunity to play in the world tournament.

“We have a good bunch of Under-19 girls,” Athapaththu said. “The school cricket tournaments were on over the past few weeks and I think a few girls were on the radar as far as making the potential squad for the Under-19 World Cup was concerned. But, unfortunately, most of them will no longer be able to take part in it because a gap of two years is a sizeable one.

“Age-group tournaments come with age-related restrictions, so not having the tournament this year is a very disappointing thing for those young Sri Lankan girls and for me as an international cricketer. I feel bad for them because our qualifiers have also been postponed, but we will still get a chance [to compete in that tournament], but so many of these girls won’t. We will now have to look for pretty much a fresh bunch of girls to field in the 2023 edition.”

Athapaththu hits form in domestic

competition

Since the T20 World Cup last year, where Sri Lanka won only one of their four league games, the only opportunity Athapaththu has had to play any form of top-flight cricket was in the BCCI’s Women’s T20 Challenge in November in the UAE, where she was the leading run-scorer.

On the domestic front, she was part of the recently concluded Women’s Division One Tournament, the eight-team 50-over competition. Athapaththu, who plays for the Chilaw Marians Cricket Club, finished atop the tournament’s run charts with a 429-run tally in seven innings at an average of 61.29, striking at 120.51. The next-best strike rate, 69.49, belonged to Nilakshi de Silva, who took the second place on this list with 246 runs at an average of 49.20.

For the record, the Navy Sports Club, who were undefeated in the league stage, emerged champions after clinching a two-wicket victory over the Army A team in the final in Welisara on April 2.

Inoka Ranaweera, representing Navy, was the leading wicket-taker in the competition, with 25 wickets in seven innings, at an economy of just 2.27. Kavisha Dilhari, the 20-year-old offspin-bowling allrounder with 14 international caps to her name, finished in the top 10 on both charts.

“I am glad we were able to host the women’s inter-club tournament because several of our national-team players, seniors and youngsters alike, got a chance to shake off a bit of the rust,” Athapaththu said. “It also allowed many of us to assess how we are doing individually because we have been mostly training individually in our hometowns because of the pandemic, though we have had a couple of national camps since September last year. The Covid situation has been an obvious a hindrance to hosting games in Sri Lanka but it’s good to have got some competitive cricket this year.”

Although there are substantial Covid-19 restrictions still imposed by the government, with over 90,000 active cases, Sri Lanka has largely avoided the worst of the pandemic, and many aspects of life have returned to normal. The island’s Covid-19 death toll is just under 600.

In the recent past, SLC hosted the Lanka Premier League and a men’s Test tour, and has a schedule lined up for the men’s national team over the next three months. Athapaththu, who is currently training under her personal coach in Kurunegala, was hopeful that the Division One tournament would pave the way for more playing opportunities for Sri Lanka’s women’s cricketers, too.

“The inter-club tournament went well and Kavisha and many of the other national-team players expectedly did better than the others. If youngsters like her get more game time – on the domestic as well as international level – that will be good for the health of women’s cricket in Sri Lanka. SLC is trying to organise practice matches against Under-17 boys, so that, too, could help us.”

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Sports

Tharanga lifts Sri Lanka’s profile in Budapest ahead of Asian Games

Published

7 hours ago

2026/09/15

Sahan Weerasooriya

Rumesh Tharanga and his coach Tony Prasanna celebrate after winning the Ultimate Championship. (Pic credit World Athletics Ultimate Championship)

by Reemus Fernando

‎

Rumesh Tharanga powered Sri Lanka’s track and field to new heights with yet another dominant performance, winning the men’s javelin title at the World Athletics’ inaugural Ultimate Championship in Budapest on Sunday.

‎In a performance that reconfirmed his position as the globe’s number one athlete in his discipline, Tharanga’s feat stood out not just for its drama on the field, but for how rarely Sri Lanka has produced a champion at this level.

‎Tharanga arrived in Budapest as the man to beat, having won 11 of his 12 competitions in 2026 and lived up to his billing winning by a huge margin.

‎Tharanga had already elevated the country’s profile when he qualified for the Ultimate Championship. Track and field is taken part part by over 190 countries in the world but athletes from only 65 countries could secure a berth in the Ultimate Championship. Only six Asian countries had athletes qualifying for the Budapest event. Hence he was already a winner before he entered the arena.

‎When the dust settled, not even half the nations that took part had a champion in any discipline.

How Tharanga dominated

‎‎Tharanga opened with an uncharacteristic throw of 75.89m, while European champion Julian Weber (Germany) took an early lead with 84.09m. In the second round two-time world champion Anderson Peters of Grenada surged ahead with 86.18m. Weber improved to 85.89m but slipped to second. Tharanga found his rhythm with a throw of 85.69m. It was during the third round the 23-year-old seized the lead with a throw of 87.11m. Olympic champion Arshad Nadeem of Pakistan managed a season’s best 81.49m — good enough only for fifth and was eliminated before the final round.

‎In the final round, Tharanga produced a massive 91.09m throw, the first-ever 90-metre throw in Hungary according to World Athletics. Peters (82.63m) and Weber (78.75m) couldn’t respond, and the title was sealed.

‎‎Sri Lanka has not seen their athletes atop global athletics podiums. Only two Sri Lankan athletes have won Olympic or World Championship medals in the country’s history- underscoring how exceptional a global title of this magnitude is for Sri Lankan sport. Neither of the two winners won golds.

Tharanga created history when he won the Diamond League title a week ago. And on Sunday he continued his remarkable breakthrough year winning the Ultimate title.

‎A Sri Lankan winning a world-level throws title, against a field including an Olympic champion and a two-time world champion, is a landmark rather than a routine occurrence.

‎”This was my one and only goal — to bring the trophy to Sri Lanka,” Tharanga told the World Athletics after the event.

‎”I faced a lot of challenges today but I was still hoping to win and I’m proud I did it. I was never thinking about the prize money and I don’t have any idea yet how I will spend it. My next goal is to bring the Olympic gold medal home.”

‎While Budapest was the final destination for many top athletes for this season, Tharanga will have no time to rest as he has another milestone to accomplish when he leads Sri Lanka at the Asian Games starting in Nagoya, Japan later this week.

‎His presence means Sri Lanka has a near certain gold medal opportunity in track and field.

Sports

Sri Lanka rely on Pathum for batting resurgence

Published

7 hours ago

2026/09/15

Sahan Weerasooriya

Sri Lanka rely heavily on their consistent opener Pathum Nissanka. He is ranked sixth in the world in T-20Is.

The heartbreak of the T-20 World Cup earlier this year is still fresh. Sri Lanka failed to reach the semi-finals despite enjoying home advantage throughout the tournament, with their batting proving the Achilles heel. Those concerns have hardly disappeared as they head into a three-match T-20 series against England, beginning today in Southampton.

The batting misfired in both warm-up games against England Lions and how Sri Lanka respond when the real business begins remains to be seen.

It is not as though they have not tried to find answers. Sri Lanka Cricket has brought in power hitting coaches and psychologists, while several batters have been given a long rope. Yet none of those measures has produced the desired results in the shortest format.

T-20 cricket remains Sri Lanka’s weakest suit, as reflected by their ranking of ninth in the world, their lowest position across the three formats.

England, meanwhile, arrive with considerably more swagger. They went down fighting to eventual champions India in the semi-final of this year’s World Cup and are currently ranked second in the world, level on points with India. A series win will see Harry Brook’s side seize the number one ranking.

Sri Lanka have plenty of motivation of their own, with a 2-1 series victory helping them climb the rankings.

The bigger question, however, is how a batting unit short on confidence will cope against a formidable England attack.

Pathum Nissanka remains Sri Lanka’s biggest hope. Ranked sixth in the world, the top order batter has frequently carried the burden on his broad shoulders and once again much will depend on how he fares against the new ball.

Barring Kusal Janith Perera, there has been little change to the batting unit that featured at the World Cup. Given the continued struggles, it is fair to wonder whether Sri Lanka need to rethink not merely their approach but also the personnel entrusted with carrying it out.

The bowling, though, paints a much brighter picture.

Wanindu Hasaranga and Maheesh Theekshana are both ranked among the world’s top ten, while the fast bowling unit has arguably been the most impressive component of the side. Their skill set and ability to hold their nerve under pressure have repeatedly helped Sri Lanka drag games back when the batting has left them with little margin for error.

One question that lingers, however, is whether Sri Lanka require quite so many spin options in English conditions.

Apart from Hasaranga and Theekshana, Dunith Wellalage and Tharindu Rathnayake are also part of the squad, leaving the selectors with some interesting calls to make over the balance of the side.

England have named a formidable squad led by Brook and featuring established match winners Jos Buttler, Jofra Archer and Adil Rashid.

There is also room for uncapped Welshman Aneurin Donald, a prolific run-scorer in domestic cricket, while 22-year-old spin bowling all-rounder James Coles is the other uncapped player in the squad.

Sports

SSC and Tamil Union in T-20 final

Published

7 hours ago

2026/09/15

Sahan Weerasooriya

SSC have been quite impressive in domestic cricket this season having already reached the finals of the one-day competition last week and this week they have reached the T-20 finals.

SSC beat a strong NCC side in the semi-final at RPS on Sunday night and will take on Tamil Union in the final on Wednesday also at RPS.

Tamil Union beat CCC in a high scoring game on Sunday at SSC. The scores were tied at the end of 20 overs sending the game to a Super Over and Tamil Union won the contest by the barest of margins.