Sports

A historic day for Ceylon

Published

5 years ago

2021/02/3

Duncan White, Lakshman Kadirgamar, Sharm Mustafa and Oscar Wijesinghe are seen in this picture which appeared in The Ceylon Daily News decades ago. Duncan White, Lakshman Kadirgamar, Oscar Wijesinghe and M.A.M. Sherrif represented the four communities when they brought four scrolls to the Independence Square to be handed over to the Prime Minister D.S. Senanayake to be read for the public to hear.

After 400 years of Western domination Ceylon as Sri Lanka was known gained Independence on the 4th of February 1948. Heralding the occasion four athletes from the four corners of the Island brought four scrolls to the Independence square to be handed over to the Prime Minister D.S. Senanayake to be read for the public to hear.

The four reputed athletes represented the four communities. They were Oscar Wijesinghe (Sinhalese), Lakshman Kadirgamar (Tamil), Mohamed A Sherrif (Muslim) and Duncan White (Burgher). Arriving at the Independence Square they handed over the scrolls to young females representing the four communities. Swarna Amarasuriya (Sinhalese), Srimani Ramachandran (Tamil), Ayesha Zally (Muslim) and Phyllis de Kretser (Burgher). In turn the four damsels handed over the scrolls to the Prime Minister who read them over the public address system.

It was indeed a happy coincidence that in the very same year Sri Lanka made her debut at the greatest sporting spectacle in the world, as an independent nation. A team comprising of three athletes and three boxers represented the country at the XIV Olympic Games in London 1948. No one ever dreamt that any of the participants would ever win a medal at the greatest sports festival after the Second World War. In the final of the 400m Hurdles event Duncan White of Sri Lanka though beaten by Roy Chocran, USA to second place lowered the existing Olympic record skimming over the hurdles in 51.8 secs. Thus getting the first medal to Independent Sri Lanka at an international sporting event. Commenting on the breath taking performance, the President of the Sri Lanka Olympic Association said that “White has done more for Sri Lanka in 51.8secs than all the propaganda over 100 years”. This athlete was none other than one of the athletes who brought the scroll to the Independence Square on 4th February 1948.

Duncan White proved that his performance at the London Olympics was not a flash in the pan at the British Empire Games in Auckland New Zealand in 1950 (now known as the Commonwealth Games). His noteworthy performance of 52.5secs not only won the gold medal and the Empire Games record, but was just outside the world record for the event by one fifth of a second.

Subsequently the other three athletes too performed well for the country. Oscar Wijesinghe and M.A.M. Sherrif represented the country at the British Empire Games along with Duncan White. Oscar Wijesinghe a Public Schools athlete, representing the University of Ceylon won the 100m at the All India and Ceylon Inter University Championships. He established a Sri Lanka record in the 100m in 11.0 seconds in 1949 (The writer too equalled this record in 1955).

Lakshman Kadirgamar won the 110m Hurdles event at the Public Schools Meet and later won the Nationals in 1951. At the All India and Ceylon Inter University Athletic Meet too he won the above event.

He finally became the Foreign Ministers of Sri Lanka.

K.L.F. Wijedasa

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Ireland opt for an extra batter as they ask Sri Lanka to bat

Published

39 mins ago

2026/02/8

Priyan

Ireland will hope to restrict Sri Lanka to a chaseable total (Cricinfo)

Ireland captain Paul Stirling won the toss and opted to bowl against Sri Lanka in the Group B match at the R Premadasa Stadium in Colombo.

Stirling said the pitch looked “hard and firm” but was a bit drier than the last time they were here. “We have got good all-round options in the middle, so we have picked an extra batter tonight. Hope that will come in handy at the backend of the game.” As suspected, there was no room for Josh Little.

Sri Lanka went in with five batters and five bowlers. Their captain Dasun Shanaka felt “anything over 170 would be very good on this pitch”.

The square boundaries are 71 metres and 77 metres. The straight one is 84 metres.

Sri Lanka and Ireland have faced each other only three times in T20Is, with Sri Lanka winning on all three occasions.

Sri Lanka: Pathum Nissanka, Kamil Mishara, Kusal Mendis (wk), Pavan Rathnayake, Kamindu Mendis, Dasun Shanaka (capt), Dunith Wellalage, Wanindu Hasaranga, Dushmantha Chameera, Maheesh Theekshana, Matheesha Pathirana

Ireland: Paul Stirling (capt), Ross Adair, Harry Tector, Lorcan Tucker (wk), Curtis Campher, Ben Calitz, George Dockrell, Gareth Delany, Mark Adair, Barry McCarthy, Matthew Humphreys

(Cricinfo)

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England bat; Nepal hand debut to Sher Malla

Published

5 hours ago

2026/02/8

Priyan

Sher Malla made his debut against England [Cricinfo]

Rohit Paudel warned Harry Brook that a used pitch at Wankhede Stadium could play into his team’s hands as Nepal were asked to bowl first in their first-ever international match against England.

Sunday afternoon’s game will be played on the same strip where India’s powerhouse batting line-up eked out 161 for 9 against United States on Saturday night. Brook won the toss and chose to bat first with conditions in mind, but Paudel said that Nepal’s players “love slow tracks” and that they hoped the surface would suit them.

“We love slow tracks, and it’s a used wicket so I think it will spin a little bit,” Paudel said. “I think, if that happens, it will help our team… To be honest, we would have bowled first. Looking at the conditions, I think chasing is a good option.”

Young spinner Sher Malla made his T20I debut for Nepal, while Lokesh Bam was preferred to the veteran Sompal Kami in the middle order.

Nepal play all four of their group games at the Wankhede and will be cheered on by thousands of their fans in Mumbai. “Playing all the games here will always be an advantage to the team playing all four games here,” Paudel said. “As a team, playing in Asian conditions always helps Nepal.”

Brook predicted that the pitch would get worse as the game wore on. “We feel like the pitch is going to be in the best shape for the first innings, and then hopefully we can bowl well and defend our score in the second innings… It looked like there was a little bit of spin in it, and a little bit of bounce, so hopefully we can utilise that in the second innings.”

England named their team on the eve of the match, with Luke Wood preferred to Jamie Overton. “We wanted to go with two out-and-out seamers up top with the new ball to see if we can get it to swing and get a few early wickets in the powerplay,” Brook said. “Pretty much everything else was already settled.”

England’s build-up to the tournament has been overshadowed by Brook’s now-infamous night out in Wellington last October, but he has tried to draw a line under the incident. “I’m feeling good,” he said. “I’m feeling good with the bat, and hopefully I can make some good decisions as captain as well – on and off the field.”

England: Phil Salt, Jos Buttler (wk), Jacob Bethell, Tom Banton, Harry Brook (capt), Sam Curran, Will Jacks, Liam Dawson, Jofra Archer, Adil Rashid, Luke Wood.

Nepal: Aasif Sheikh (wk), Kushal Bhurtel, Rohit Paudel (capt), Dipendra Airee, Aarif Sheikh, Lokesh Bam, Gulsan Jha, Karan KC, Sher Malla, Nandan Yadav, Sandeep Lamichhane.

[Cricinfo]

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Seifert and Phillips conquer Afghanistan spin to script convincing New Zealand win

Published

5 hours ago

2026/02/8

Priyan

Tim Seifert controlled the powerplay overs for New Zealand despite Mujeeb Ur Rahman's strikes [Cricinfo]

New Zealand may have felt a sense of deja vu after Gulbadin Naib’s half-century andMujeeb Ur Rahman’s double-strike in their opening game of the 2026 T20 World Cup in Chennai. But Tim Seifert’s own half-century and a punchy knock from Glenn Phillips offset the early damage caused by Afghanistan and set New Zealand on the path to victory in the group of death, which also includes fellow title-contenders South Africa.

After Afghanistan opted to bat in a day game, they posted 182 for 6, on the back of Naib’s 35-ball 63, which looked like an above-par total on a challenging Chepauk surface, which offered substantial bounce, especially in the early exchanges, and some grip to the slower bowlers.

That total looked a whole lot bigger once Mujeeb blasted out Finn Allen and Rachin Ravindra in the second over of the chase off back-to-back balls.

Phillips, however, kept out the hat-trick ball and combined aggressively with Seifert to loosen Afghanistan’s grip on the game. They snatched it from Afghanistan’s hands when they cracked Rashid Khan for 14 in his first over. Rashid – and Afghanistan – never really recovered from that as New Zealand wrapped up the chase with five wickets and nearly two overs to spare.

Brief scores:

New Zealand 183 for 5 in 17.5 overs (Tim Seifert 65, Glenn Phillips 42, Mark Chapman 28, Daryl Mitchell 25*, Mitchell Santner 17; Mujeeb Ur Rahman 2-31, Azmatullah Omarzai 1-40, Rashid Khan 1-36, Mohammad Nabi 1-18) beat Afghanistan182 for 6 in 20 overs (Rahmanullah Gurbaz 27, Ibrahim Zadran 10, Gulbadin Naib 63, Sediqullah Atal 29, Daevish Rasooli 20, Azmatullah Omarzai 14, Mohammad Nabi 10*; Matt Henry 1-27, Jacob Duffy 1-30, Lockie Ferguson 2-40, Rachin Ravindra 1-14) by five wickets

[Cricinfo]