Sports

Dean Jones – Sri Lanka’s friend indeed

Published

5 years ago

2020/09/25

by Rex Clementine

The Aussies were in Galle for the first Test of the series in 2004 and Dean Jones joked in commentary. He said that it took him less than four hours from Singapore to Katunayake but five hours to get to Galle from Katunayake! He was driving home some pertinent points. Travel in Sri Lanka before the highway days was a nightmare. Sri Lanka Cricket did not raise objections with the television company that employed Jones nor did the Sports Ministry. His criticism was well taken by all and sundry. Jones didn’t mince any words. He was a bold critic. As The Island’s former Editor Mr. Gamini Weerakoon used to say, ‘A good journalist works with his resignation letter in the pocket.’

Jones was a huge fan of Sri Lanka. After the death of Tony Greig, he was an ideal ambassador to promote tourism and he did a splendid job. Some of his best moments in commentary came in Sri Lanka.

He earned the nickname of ‘Professor Deano’ for the pre-match show that he did during a triangular series in Dambulla. Jones was dressed as a Professor giving the pitch report and supporting him was up and coming actress Anarkali Akarsha, just 18-years-old. The show was a hit and fans took an immediate liking to both the ex-cricketer and budding actresses.

Not that his career was entirely smooth. During a Test match at P. Sara Oval in 2006, Ten Sports fired him while the day’s play was in progress for calling Hashim Amla a ‘terrorist’. Jones was off air but the microphone in the studio had picked his remark. He apologized immediately and was reinstated a few months later.

The fact that he was shortlisted to take over from Graham Ford in 2017 as the national cricket team’s Head Coach was a poorly kept secret by Sri Lanka Cricket. The Island asked him what would be the first thing he would do if he got the job. Jones said, ‘ban f***ing football during training.’ The Sri Lankan cricket team’s obsession to engage in a game of football as warm-up before a day’s play and training was frowned upon by many given the high number of injuries it was causing.

Jones was a fine batsman and in his generation only Viv Richards played one-day cricket better. A smart thinker of the game, it was Jones’ bright idea to run the extra run on the throw in the vast Australian grounds. He earned a reputation as an excellent runner between the wickets and when asked what was his secret, he replied, ‘just common sense.’ Soon, others followed the extra run on the throw theory while playing in Australia and it paid rich dividends.

His finest hour in the sport came in Test cricket though during the tied Madras Test in 1986. Jones made a double hundred and the scorching heat took a toll on him. He was vomiting and feeling uneasy but did not throw it away. At the end of his 210, Jones was hospitalized. Coach Bob Simpson said that it was the greatest innings played for Australia. His final Test match was played in Moratuwa in 1992.

Jones was in Bombay doing studio shows for host broadcaster on IPL games. The Island learns that he had gone for a run in the morning and was with former fast bowler Brett Lee when he suffered a severe heart attack in the seven star hotel lobby at lunch time. Lee desperately tried to save him with CPR after Jones collapsed but for no avail.

He was 59

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Namibia begin campaign in crucial game against Netherlands

Published

3 hours ago

2026/02/10

Priyan

This match is big for the teams involved. Netherlands vs Namibia in Delhi won’t draw as many eyeballs as when subcontinental giants clash, but for the team that loses on Tuesday, it is the beginning of their end at the 2026 T20 World Cup. They have been placed in Group A alongside USA, India, and Pakistan. Only the top two make the Super Eights, and a loss will put either team on the brink of elimination.

Such a fate might seem particularly cruel for Namibia, who are the only team in the group to have not played a match yet. But like most Associate nations, they are used to jeopardy when they take the field – and they tackle it better than most of their peers. Their consistency has vaulted them to their fourth consecutive World Cup appearance after a competitive Africa qualifiers tournament. This match will also be their first T20I since October 2025; that last one was a final-over thriller they won in their first ever clash against South Africa.

Netherlands will be rueing a topsey-turvy contest against Pakistan on Saturday that they were losing, then surely winning, and then losing again. Paul Van Meekeren did not mince his words in the aftermath of the contest: “I want to be very clear: Pakistan didn’t win the game today, we lost the game against ourselves.”

Netherlands could have been on two points after causing an opening-day upset, but instead they enter this game knowing they cannot afford to let another winning situation slip past them.

Netherlands quick Paul van Meekeren had been there, almost done that on Saturday: Pakistan needed just 50 off nine overs when he bowled a double-wicket maiden to trigger a massive slowdown. He finished with figures of 2 for 20, but Netherlands fell short of a win and van Meerken of the headlines.

If T20 squads are built around allrounders, JJ Smit has certainly laid Namibia’s strong foundations in the build-up to this World Cup. He was their biggest utility player at the Africa qualifiers – the tournament’s third-highest run-scorer, with 197 runs in four innings at 98.50 and a strike rate of 187.61. He can also bowl handy medium pace, and chipped in with six wickets in five games. In 2025, he bowled with an economy rate of 6.19, and will be vital to Namibia’s chances of taking control of the middle overs.

An impressive all-round bowling performance took Netherlands close to a famous win, so it is unlikely they will be tinkering with their combinations just yet.

Netherlands (possible): Michael Levitt, Max O’Dowd, Bas de Leede, Colin Ackermann, Scott Edwards (capt & wk), Zach Lion-Cachet, Logan van Beek, Roelof van der Merwe, Aryan Dutt, Kyle Klein, Paul van Meekeren

The Delhi pitch should have plenty in it for the spinners, especially under the sun, for Namibia to begin the tournament with their veteran left-arm spinner Bernard Scholtz in the eleven.

Namibia (possible): Louren Steenkamp, Jan Frylinck, Jan Nicol Loftie-Eaton, Gerhard Erasmus (capt), JJ Smit, Malan Kruger, Zane Green (wk), Ruben Trumpelmann, Bernard Scholtz, Ben Shikongo, Jack Brassell

(Cricinfo)

Sports

Markram, Ngidi help South Africa ease past dogged Canada

Published

4 hours ago

2026/02/10

Priyan

Lungi Ngidi picked up the first three wickets (Cricinfo)

South Africa’s first T20 World Cup match since the heartbreak of the 2024 final proved a substantially less fraught affair. In the echoing environs of the Narendra Modi Stadium, they were made to work just hard enough by Canada in the first meeting between the two nations, eventually easing to a 57-run victory thanks to Aiden Markram’s 28-ball fifty, and 4 for 31 from Lungi Ngidi.

Canada fought hard in patches, principally through Anush Patel’s three wickets of wristspin, then a feisty half-century from Navneet Dhaliwal, whose 64 from 49 was the highest score of the match. Most of his runs came in a fifth-wicket stand of 69 with Harsh Thaker that cracked along at eight an over even as the rate continued to rise. By then, however, Ngidi had claimed three of his wickets in the powerplay to wreck any realistic hopes of an upset.

With its mix of red and black soil, Ahmedabad’s pitches can veer between extremes. But this offering, hard and lightly grassed, could hardly have been better suited to South Africa’s route-one methods.

Markram set the tone from the top of the order with a dominant 59 from 32 balls, Ryan Rickelton chipped in with 33 from 21, before Tristan Stubbs and David Miller brought up the rear in unbeaten knocks of 34 from 19 and 39 from 23 respectively.

Though no-one turned up for a statement display, none was really needed against enthusiastic but outclassed opponents whose fielding – despite one moment of individual brilliance – was consistently sub-par, and whose bowlers served up 13 extra deliveries across their innings, including nine wides and back-to-back no-balls on height in Kaleem Sana’s final over.

Pace and bounce, and a hint of seam movement. Ngidi doesn’t need a second invitation to thrive in such conditions. With a hefty target of 214 on the board, he landed the first ball of Canada’s reply right in the channel and found a thin snick off the edge of Dilpreet Bajwa’s bat, even as he tried to leave it alone.

In Ngidi’s next over, the left-hander Yuvraj Samra was done in by one that left him a fraction, for Quinton de Kock to claim his second catch of the powerplay. And though Nicholas Kirton smashed his second ball through the covers for four, he then spliced his third to Kagiso Rabada at mid-on. Ngidi had 3 for 13 in two overs, and Canada’s challenge was faltering before it had begun.

Rabada then beat Shreyas Movva for pace to leave them teetering at 45 for 4, but with the dew factor kicking in – as Canada’s captain Bajwa had anticipated at the toss – further breakthroughs were put on hold as Dhaliwal and Thaker exploited the extra zip onto the bat, and across the outfield. But when Ngidi returned for his final over, Thaker failed to pick his looping slower ball, and Rabada at deep third clung on to the leading edge.

If South Africa felt at home from home in these conditions, then Patel was literally so. Born in nearby Vadodara, he had moved to Toronto as a baby, but returned to Gujarat at the age of 10, when his father took a punt on his burgeoning cricket talent. A contract with Punjab Kings ensued in 2022, but a change in eligibility rules forced him home again, and into the midst of Canada’s return to the big-time.

Ansh’s first act of his home-from-homecoming didn’t quite go to plan, when he spilled de Kock at short third on 6. De Kock, however, didn’t quite make Canada pay. He had been ominously placed on 25 from 22 when he played over the top of a looping delivery from Bajwa, and lost his off stump.

That was the cue for Ansh to enter the attack. With his energetic, low-slung, left-arm wristspin, he provided the handbrake that Canada needed as he whirred through his repertoire to claim 3 for 31, all between overs eight and 16.

He needed a moment of inspiration to ignite his display. Markram had been in ominous touch with 10 fours and a six, as he peppered the arc from cover to mid-on with his favoured range of drives. But, when he dragged Ansh’s googly a touch too straight, Dilon Heyliger was lurking at long-on with a sensational interception: a leaping, reaching take on the run to his left, capped with cool footwork as he kept his balance inches inside the rope.

Rickelton was also done in while attempting a launch down the ground, a far more straightforward catch to Thaker at long-on, and Ansh made it three in nine balls when Dewald Brevis was deceived in flight to hoist a steepler to mid-off for a run-a-ball 6.

From 126 for 1 to 138 for 4, it was the start of a fightback … but only from South Africa’s impressively stacked middle order. Though Heinrich Klaasen remains much missed since retiring from internationals, Stubbs and Miller are no mean combo for the death overs. Five sixes between them from the final 14 balls put the contest out of reach.

Brief scores:

South Africa 213 for 4 in 20 overs (Aiden Markram 59, Quinton de Kock 25, Ryan Rickelton 33, David Miller 39*, Tristan Stubbs 34*; Dilpreet Bajwa 1-40, Ansh Patel 3-31) beat Canada 156 for 8 in 20 overs (Yuvraj Samra 12, Navneet Dhaliwal 64, Harsha Thaker 33, Saad Bin Zafar 11; Lungi Ngidi 4-31, Marco Jansen 2-30, Kagiso Rabada 1-40, Corbin Bosch 1-27) by 57 runs

(Cricinfo)

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Pakistan withdraw boycott of India match at T20 World Cup

Published

4 hours ago

2026/02/10

Priyan

India and Pakistan will face off on February 15 in Colombo (Cricinfo)

The ten-day standoff over Pakistan’s refusal to play India in their scheduled 2026 T20 World Cup group fixture ended in an evening of frenzied press statements and near simultaneous announcements from the Pakistan government and the ICC that the match, billed to be the commercial centrepiece of the tournament, will go ahead on February 15 in Colombo.

The statement from the Pakistan government confirmed that a number of ICC members, including Sri Lanka and the UAE, had urged the PCB not to boycott their fixture, citing financial impact on other nations. It also confirmed that Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had spoken to Sri Lanka President Kumara Dissanayake on the issue.

“In view of the outcomes achieved in multilateral discussions, as well as the request of friendly countries, the Government of Pakistan hereby directs the Pakistan National Cricket Team to take the field on February 15, 2026, for its scheduled fixture in the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup. Moreover, this decision has been taken with the aim of protecting the spirit of cricket, and to support the continuity of this global sport in all participating nations,” the government statement concluded

The ICC said talks had been successful. “The dialogue between ICC and PCB took place as part of a broader engagement with both parties recognising the need for constructive dealings and being united, committed and purposeful in their aspirations to serve the best interests of the game with integrity, neutrality and cooperation.

“In that prevailing spirit, it was agreed that all members will respect their commitments as per the terms of participation for ICC events and do all that is necessary to ensure that the ongoing edition of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup is a success.”

Thedecision not to penalise Bangladesh after their exclusion from the T20 World Cup for refusing to play in India, appears to be the most significant public outcome from a fortnight of negotiations between the ICC, the PCB and, ultimately, the BCB. Pakistan had linked their decision to boycott the game to Bangladesh’s absence from the event, which the PCB chairman Mohsin Naqvi had said was an example of the ICC’s “double standards” and an “injustice”.

ESPNcricinfo understands that the PCB also brought up a morere equitable ICC revenue share model in their negotiations, though neither the Pakistan government nor the ICC made reference to that in their statements. Speculation that bilateral, or trilateral, series with India was a PCB condition has been strenuously denied by the board.

Though back-channel communications have been going ever since Naqvi first cast doubt on the PCB’s participation in the T20 World Cup a fortnight ago, they intensified after the Pakistan government announced that Pakistan will participate but not play India. Those culminated with a meeting in Lahore on Sunday between Naqvi, the BCB chairman Aminul Islam and ICC director Imran Khawaja. The PCB was the only member other than the BCB to vote against Bangladesh’s removal from the T20 World Cup at an ICC board meeting and wanted any resolution of the India match boycott to include redress for Bangladesh.

ESPN Cricinfo had reported earlier on Monday that there was growing optimism those discussions might bear fruit. On Monday evening, developments unfolded quickly. Naqvi said a decision on Pakistan’s game against India could come within the next 24-48 hours. Minutes earlier, the ICC had released its statement on Bangladesh, confirming that no penalty would be levied on them. Furthermore, the BCB was granted hosting rights for an additional ICC tournament in the 2028-2031 cycle. As a result, the BCB issued a statement thanking the PCB for its support, and asking them to take part in their fixture against India. Following all of this came the Pakistan government’s statement.

(Cricinfo)