Sports
A Pope who played the game right
In 1978, when Pope John Paul II had a swimming pool installed at the Vatican, it made more than just a ripple. A few Cardinals raised eyebrows at the cost—after all, it wasn’t exactly a drop in the holy bucket. But when word reached the Pope, he waved away the murmurs with a smile and said, “Cheaper than a conclave.” For a man who lived and breathed his daily laps, it was a matter of staying afloat – literally and spiritually. John Paul II wasn’t just a man of prayer but also a man of play, once donning gloves as a goalkeeper in his native Poland.
When he elevated the Archbishop of Buenos Aires, Jorge Mario Bergoglio, to the rank of Cardinal, he knew he was passing the torch to a kindred sporting soul. The two are said to have often bonded over football – a sacred ritual in Argentina almost as fervent as Mass itself.
Like many Argentine boys, Francis grew up with a football at his feet. But if you’re imagining a future Messi or Maradona in the making, think again. The young Jorge wasn’t quite dancing past defenders – he later admitted he had “hard feet,” and his friends didn’t let him forget it. Still, his love for the game never waned.
As Pope, Francis became a spiritual coach to athletes the world over. When meeting footballers at the Vatican, he preached the gospel of teamwork. “Football is a team sport. You can’t have fun alone. Teamwork leads to dream work,” he told them. “Team spirit nourishes both the mind and the heart, especially in a world overwhelmed by individualism.”
True to his roots, Francis remained a die-hard fan of San Lorenzo, the club founded in 1908 by Father Lorenzo Massa. The fans, affectionately known as “the Crows” (in honor of the founder’s black cassock), shared a special bond with their most famous supporter. The Pope held membership number 88,235 and faithfully paid his annual dues till the very end. Fittingly, the club now plans to name their new stadium after him – a tribute cast in stone for a man of faith and football.
Asked once to name the greatest among Pele, Messi, and Maradona, the Pope didn’t pull any punches. “Maradona as a player was great, but as a man, he failed,” he said, speaking truth with grace. It’s the same sentiment that most sports lovers share about the Argentine great, whose ‘hand of God’ sent England packing in the 1986 FIFA World Cup.
Yet when Maradona passed, Francis offered prayers for his fallen compatriot – a reminder that compassion, not condemnation, was his style of play.
To sportsmen chasing glory, Francis offered a word of caution. “Don’t let success go to your head,” he said. “Remember your journey – one of sacrifice, victories, and battles. True greatness lies not just on the scoreboard, but in how you live your life.”
In the wake of the Pope’s passing, both Argentina and Italy postponed their sporting events – a moment of silence for a voice that echoed across locker rooms as much as it did from pulpits.
Tributes came flooding in. Lionel Messi wrote, “You were a different, approachable Pope. Thank you for making the world a better place. We will miss you.” Gianluigi Buffon, Italy’s legendary goalkeeper, added, “Francis illuminated his era like only the greatest can. He moved our souls. I’ll carry his example forever in my heart.”
by Rex Clementine
A quick glance at the head to head record is enough to show the gulf between India and Sri Lanka in women’s T20Is. Despite that, the manner in which India have swept Sri Lanka aside two games in a row would have surprised watchers and the hosts alike. The story in the second T20I followed a similar script to the first. Once again, India’s spinners squeezed Sri Lanka’s middle order before one of their top-order batters made easy work of the chase.
Left-arm spinners Vaishnavi Sharma and N Shree Charani picked up two wickets apiece after Sneh Rana, in the XI in place of the indisposed Deepti Sharma, sucked out the momentum from Sri Lanka’s batting. If it was Jemimah Rodrigues’ half-century in the first game, Shafali Verma was at her brutal best in the second, finishing on an unbeaten 69 in just 34 balls, to help India get to the 129-run target at a run-rate close to 11 an over with 49 balls to spare.
India went 2-0 up at the end of the Visakhapatnam leg, with the next three games to be played in Thiruvananthapuram.
Sri Lanka were jolted in the opening over after being asked to bat. Vishmi Gunaratne’s uppish drive was caught by Kranti Gaud in her follow-through. Chamari Athapaththu then started the charge. After the defeat in the first game, she asked her batters to step up and find ways of scoring. She was intent on leading from the front. She used her feet against Gaud to slash her in front of point. Two balls later, Gaud almost got back at the Sri Lanka captain.
Charani, who dropped two simple catches on Sunday, misjudged Athapaththu’s slash and conceded a six. She charged in from the boundary line and then ran back, missed the ball completely despite a leap. Athapaththu blazed away with the field restrictions on, scoring 31 off 24 balls out of Sri Lanka’s 38 in 5.3 overs at that stage.
After her dismissal, Hasini Perera and Harshitha Samarawickrama continued to bat with high intent. They primarily scored square of the wicket and added 28 in the three-and-a-half overs. And then came the squeeze from India.
On a day she was newly crowned the No. 1 T20I bowler in the ICC rankings, Deepti missed a T20I for the first time since 2019 – after 92 straight games – because of a mild fever. Harmanpreet Kaur has often turned to her when in search of control, but on Tuesday, Rana fit into the role with ease.
Playing her first T20I in India since 2016 – she played 15 away from home in between – Rana’s first task was to stop a belligerent Athapaththu, and she delivered. She kept the Sri Lanka captain guessing with flight and dip before dismissing her. With Athapaththu itching to cut loose, Rana generously flighted one. It landed slightly shorter than Athapaththu expected because of the dip, and she ended up miscuing it to long-off.
Rana then returned with Perera and Samarawickrama scoring at a good tempo, bowled a maiden and that turned the tide. It allowed left-arm spinner Charani to slip in a few quiet overs, which resulted in Perera’s dismissal. Vaishnavi also returned to pick up her first international wicket, with Charani, who denied her in the first T20I by dropping a dolly at short fine leg, taking a simple catch at the same spot after Nilakshika Silva top-edged a sweep.
Sri Lanka hit 11 boundaries in the first nine overs, but could hit only two fours in the rest of their innings. They lost six for 24 to be restricted to a below-par total for the second game in a row, which was never going to challenge the hosts. Three run-outs for a second game in a row did not help matters either.
If Sunday was an opportunity missed by Shafali, she more than made up for it on Tuesday. She was happy to bide her time at the start, with Smriti Mandhana being the aggressor. Once Mandhana fell, caught at point in a bid to hit Kavisha Dilhari’s offspin inside out over the off side, Shafali took centrestage. Inoka Ranaweera’s left-arm spin with the field restrictions in place was just the tonic she needed.
Shafali hit Ranaweera for successive fours in the penultimate over of the powerplay – both by dancing down the track and lofting her over cover. She then took apart Athapaththu’s offspin, hitting here for 4, 6, 4 in the sixth over of the chase: first sweeping a short ball through backward square leg, then thumping a full ball straight into the sight-screen and then lifting one over extra cover.
With the in-form Rodrigues for company, there was no respite for Sri Lanka’s bowlers. Rodrigues also tore into Ranaweera, hitting her for two fours and a six as the left-arm spinner was taken for 31 in her two overs.
In an attempt to maintain the high tempo, Rodrigues holed out to long-on. Shafali soon completed her fifty from just 27 balls. She picked Shashini Gimhani’s left-arm wristspin from the hand and thumped her for back-to-back boundaries in a 12-run over that put India on the brink.
Sri Lanka earned a consolation when Malki Madara’s dipping yorker deceived Harmanpreet. But they knew, as Athapaththu conceded after the game, that the batters failed to make the helpful conditions count in successive games.
Brief scores:
India Women 129 for 3 in 11.5 overs (Smriti Mandhana 14, Shafali Verma 69*, Jemimah Rodrigues 26, Harmanpreet Kaur 10; Malki Madara 1-22, Kavya Kavindi 1-3, Kavisha Dilhari 1-15) beat Sri Lanka Women 128 for 9 in 20 overs ( Chamari Athapaththu 31, Hasini Perera 22,Harshitha Samarawickrama 33, Kavisha Dilhari 14, Kaushini Nuthyangana 11; Kranti Goud 1-31, Sneh Rana 1-11, Shree Charani 2-23, Vaishnavi Sharma 2-32) by seven wickets
[Cricinfo]
Stripped of the captaincy on the eve of a World Cup, Charith Asalanka finds himself skating on thin ice. Suddenly, runs are not just runs; they are legal tender. In a game that is brutally transactional, weight of runs is the only currency that guarantees a seat on the flight. The soft will curse their luck and sulk in the corner. The tough roll up their sleeves, take guard, and play the long innings.
History, as ever, offers a handy cue card. Take Arjuna Ranatunga. Axed as captain after the controversial 1991 tour of New Zealand, he was reduced to a mere batter for the 1992 World Cup. What followed was one of the great redemption arcs. A backs-to-the-wall knock at the Basin Reserve against South Africa, with Allan Donald huffing and puffing fire and then that audacious chase against Zimbabwe that rewrote the laws of possibility with the game’s first successful 300-plus pursuit. By the time the confetti settled, Ranatunga was back at the helm, having dragged Sri Lanka to glory almost single-handedly. Asalanka, a fellow left-hander, could do worse than study that script.
When Asalanka took charge of the white-ball sides last year, the sense was that destiny had tapped him on the shoulder. This was a leader in the making, groomed patiently by Sri Lanka Cricket for over a decade. An Under-19 captain, exposed through development squads and domestic leadership roles, he appeared primed to become an all-format captain in due course.
With the bat, particularly in ODIs, he often played the role of the fireman, dousing flames after collapses or steering run chases with a cool head. As a leader, he spoke well, kept the dressing room together and was generous with praise. But just as the talk turned to a long reign, the wheels began to wobble and then, slowly but surely, came off.
Asalanka began treating First-Class cricket like a contagious disease, scarcely turning out for SSC. That absence hurt. The country’s premier club slipped into Division Two, losing First-Class status for the first time in its storied history and his name was firmly in the dock.
Then came murmurs of a clique, largely made up of his Richmond College schoolmates, a charge that rarely ends well in any dressing room. The Asia Cup only deepened the scrutiny. His bowling changes were pedestrian, with holding Dunith Wellalage back for the final over against Afghanistan’s Mohammad Nabi standing out as a tactical misread. The feeling grew that he wasn’t squeezing the most out of his resources.
Pakistan was worse. He looked out of shape, which is never a good look for a captain and the runs dried up in T20 internationals.
When Dasun Shanaka, the man he had replaced, was installed as his deputy, the writing was on the wall in bold capitals. Asalanka, though, failed to read the signs. His brinkmanship in Pakistan, including threats to pull out of the tour, proved to be the final straw.
At 28, Asalanka is still young and this episode may yet prove a necessary dressing down. He is no villain. By all accounts, he is a humble bloke who has momentarily lost his bearings. It happens, particularly to young athletes thrust into leadership before they fully understand the traps that come with it. Right now, he needs support, a steady arm around the shoulder and the chance to rediscover his game.
There is little doubt about his value. Asalanka remains the country’s best finisher, not the sort who clears the ropes four times an over, but the kind who finds gaps, runs hard, rotates strike and before the opposition realises it, has them gasping for air. These are not the fireworks merchants who hog the highlights, but they are the players who win you matches quietly and consistently.
If he is to reclaim his place and perhaps the T20 armband again, the path is simple and unforgiving. Bat first, talk later. In cricket, as in life, nothing silences critics quite like runs on the board.
by Rex Clementine
The Kelaniya Dharmaloka Central College swimming team won the Overall Championship at the swimming meet organised by the Biyagama Swimming, Diving and Life Saving Association and held at the Kiribathgoda Vihara Maha Devi Balika Vidyalaya Swimming pool recently.
The boys school championship was won by Mahara President College while the girls championship was won by Kadawatha Mahamaya Balika Vidyalaya. The mixed school championship was won by Kelaniya Dharmaloka Central College. The Club championship was won by Yakkala Wave Runners Swimming Academy.
Text and pics by DELGODA W.D.VITHANA
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