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Australia– a land like no other

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3 years ago

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Rex Clementine in Geelong  

On the eve of a game at MCG, a young Sri Lankan team Manager was busy running around. A former Sri Lanka cricketer domiciled in Australia wanted to visit the nets and give some tips to the players, but the Manager had failed to get clearance and a pass for the ex-cricketer. He walked up to the steward at the gate at the practice nets and informed him that he wanted the ex-player in. The steward was firm. He said that he had identified the ex-cricketer but had to adhere to the law, which is you cannot enter the practice nets without a pass. When the Manger tried to push his weight around, the steward, maybe in his 60s, told him in no uncertain terms, ‘Mate, even if the Prime Minister of Australia turns up here and wants to go through, I’ll have to stop him if he hasn’t got a pass. In Australia, it doesn’t matter who you are. You need to respect the law.’

That incident left a lasting impression on us young reporters who were covering the series. You need to respect the law.  Talking of Prime Ministers, John Howard was the Australian PM for 11 years from 1996 to 2007 and he’s known as bit of a cricket buff. During the tsunami fundraiser in Sydney, the Sri Lankan players had visited the Australian dressing room and a message came along that the Prime Minister was on his way to greet the players. The Sri Lankan players were on their feet. As Howard entered the dressing room and was shaking hands with Chaminda Vaas, there was a loud noise, ‘Hey John, how are you mate? Come mate, have a beer.’ That was Matthew Hayden. He was in his underpants.

You may be the Prime Minister of Australia, but it’s a country where all citizens are equal. There’s no ‘Honourable’, ‘His Excellency’, or ‘Sir’ over here.  A few years later, when Howard was done with his premiership, he expressed his desire to become the President of the International Cricket Council. India used SLC as cat’s paw to kill the proposal. In the end, Howard had to pull out as Sri Lanka opposed his appointment vehemently, on flimsy grounds.

Some Prime Ministers have invited Sri Lankan teams to their residence in Canberra. Julia Gillard welcomed the Sri Lankan team in 2012. The team manager was introducing the players and upon reaching a certain player she asked, ‘How are you keeping.’ To which our man replied, ‘I’m not a wicketkeeper, I am a fast bowler.’

Australia is the home for many ex-Sri Lankan cricketers. The sporting visa system allows those who have represented the country to migrate to Australia and many are the players who have benefited from the system and most of them are based in Melbourne.  The Australian cricket board has also immensely helped other developing cricket nations including Sri Lanka.

After Sri Lanka’s bid for Test status had been turned down repeatedly, in 1981, Gamini Dissanayake decided to bring down the Australian cricket officials to Colombo before the ICC vote to give them a firsthand experience of the quality of cricket in the island. Generous host Killi Rajamahendran, Vice-President of the board, was entrusted to look after the visitors and by the end of the tour, the delegation had promised their support at the ICC meeting and had recommended some of the upgradings that the venues needed.

At the ICC meeting, Australia voted for Sri Lanka to be granted Test status after India and Pakistan proposed and seconded the motion. England abstained from voting. Once Australia were supporting, the Brits got cold feet to veto the motion.

The Australian board did not stop there. By providing constant opportunities for local coaches and curators to train in Australia, they helped lift the standard of cricket back in Sri Lanka. Australia played a three-match Test series against Sri Lanka ten years before England committed to multiple Tests. England had played in one-off Tests against Sri Lanka from 1982 to 2001.

The hiring of Dav Whatmore in 1995 proved to be a turning point in Sri Lankan cricket history. While the board was keen to hire then Victoria coach, they didn’t have the money. It was the Australian board that came to their aid by parting away with 100,000 US$ that were spent on hiring the World Cup-winning coach. Ironically, it was the Aussies that Sri Lanka beat in the 1996 World Cup finals.

From 1987 to 1992 when there was no cricket in the island, then Board President Ian Peiris and Secretary S. Skandakumar during the ICC meeting in June 1991 appealed to the member boards to visit Sri Lanka. Australia was the first team to tour a few months later and every other cricket team followed in the next 18 months.  Even the recent trip that was undertaken by the Australian team in the backdrop of the nation’s worst economic crisis and civil unrest was applauded by all and sundry.  Given the fact that Asia Cup was shifted when the situation had improved vastly, what the Aussies did during long hours of power cuts and uncertainty was truly remarkable.


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Chamodi Prabodha to lead Sri Lanka women’s U19 National Team for the tour of Australia

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9 hours ago

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2026/04/3

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The Sri Lanka Cricket Selection Panel has named a 15-member squad for the upcoming Tri- Series tour of Australia, which will also feature England.

During the tour, the team will play a total of six matches, comprising two One Day and four T20 games, scheduled for the 7th, 8th, 12th, 13th, 17th, and 18th of April.

The squad is scheduled to depart for Australia today [3rd April 2026.]

 

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Sri Lanka Cricket Appoint National coaches for Bowling, Fielding and Spin Bowling

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9 hours ago

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2026/04/3

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Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) has announced the following appointments to the National High Performance Center:

Ryan van Niekerk – National Bowling Coach

Ryan van Niekerk, who served as the bowling coach and interim head coach of the Netherlands national team from 2023 to 2026, was appointed as the national bowling coach of Sri Lanka Cricket.

In this role, he will oversee fast bowling across all national teams, including the national men’s team.

Before taking over the interim role, he worked as the assistant coach and bowling coach of the Netherlands national men’s team.

During his stint with the Netherlands team, Ryan has contributed to the team’s participation in major international tournaments such as the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023, ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2024, and ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2026.

He was appointed for a two-year tenure, commencing on 15th April 2026.

Jordan Gregory – National Fielding and Spin Bowling Coach

Jordan Gregory, who has worked as a fielding consultant for Netherlands Cricket, was appointed as the national fielding and spin bowling coach.

He will be responsible for overseeing fielding and spin bowling across all national teams at the High Performance Center, including the national men’s team.

During his time with Netherlands Cricket, Gregory has contributed to several bilateral and multinational tournaments, including the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2023.

Jordan will begin his two-year tenure on 15th April 2026.

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Klaasen fifty, Travishek onslaught hand Sunrisers Hyderabad first points of the season

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18 hours ago

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2026/04/3

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Heinrich Klaasen scored 52 off 35 balls [Cricinfo]

Sunrisers Hyderabad [SRH] became the first team in IPL 2026 to successfully defend a total, and for that, they had to post 226 for 8, the highest score of the season so far. Even that did not look safe at one point, but in the end, Kolkata Knight Riders [KKR]  fell short by 65 runs.

Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma set the platform for SRH by adding 82 in 5.4 overs. Head made 46 off 21 balls, and Abhishek 48 off 21. KKR did make a comeback in the middle overs, but Heinrich Klassen’s  52 off 35 deliveries ensured they picked up 51 in the last four overs.

Finn Allen, batting on the same strip where he had scored a blazing hundred against South Africa in the T20 World Cup semi-final, started the chase by smashing 24 runs off David Payne. But Harsh Dubey had him caught and bowled from the other end. Angkrish Raghuvanshi’s 27-ball fifty steered KKR to 110 for 3 in ten overs, but his run-out soon after proved to be the turning point. Rinku Singh’s brief resistance was futile, and KKR were eventually all out for 161 in 16 overs.

Ajinkya Rahane, playing his 200th IPL match, opted to bowl after winning the toss. Vaibhav Arora started with three dots, beating Head’s outside edge on all three occasions. But that was the proverbial calm before the storm. Head pulled the last ball of the over for four before picking two more fours off Blessing Muzarabani in the next over.

Muzarabani was trying the short-ball ploy that had worked for Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s Jacob Duffy against the same opposition in the tournament opener, but it backfired here. Abhishek rubbed it in by pulling yet another short ball from Muzarabani for a six.

After Head smashed two sixes and two fours in Vaibhav’s next over, Rahane turned to spin. Sunil Narine conceded only three runs from the fourth over, and even induced a miscue from Head, but it landed safely. However, Abhishek took Varun Chakravarthy apart from the other end, hitting two sixes and three fours in a 25-run over.

Kartik Tyagi ended the stand by dismissing Head, but not before the batter had smashed him for a four and a six. SRH finished the powerplay on 84 for 1.

Muzarabani pulled things back for KKR by dismissing Ishan Kishan and Abhishek in the space of three balls. Kishan was caught at deep cover, and Abhishek at deep square leg, where Varun dived forward to complete a low catch. The third umpire had multiple looks at it before deciding it in KKR’s favour.

In the next over, Anukul Roy had Aniket Verma caught at long-off to make it 118 for 4. After that, Klaasen and Nitish Kumar Reddy decided to go into consolidation mode. As a result, only 37 runs came from overs 10 to 14.

Klaasen and Reddy picked up a four each off Narine in the 15th over, but Tyagi gave away only seven runs in the next. When Vaibhav conceded only three off the first five balls of the 17th over, it started looking like the final flourish might never come. But his final ball was in the slot for Reddy, who launched it over the bowler’s head for a six.

Klaasen then reverse-lapped Tyagi over deep third for a six, before Reddy hit him for back-to-back fours. Vaibhav hurt SRH by dismissing Reddy and Salil Arora off successive deliveries, but Klaasen, with the help of Dubey and Shivang Kumar, took them past 220.

Allen gave KKR the start they needed, with 25 runs coming off the first over. While Rahane was struggling and eventually fell for 8 off ten balls, Raghuvanshi didn’t let the scoring rate drop. He hit two sixes off Abhishek in the third over, and smashed back-to-back fours off Jaydev Unadkat in the fifth. After five overs, KKR were 67 for 2.

Cameron Green, though, was run out in the following over. As Raghuvanshi drove one back towards Eshan Malinga, the two batters set off, only to find the bowler had stopped the ball with his boot. Both Raghuvanshi and Green froze for a moment before deciding to keep running. Malinga picked the ball up and broke the stumps. Initially, it looked like Raghuvanshi, who was running towards the non-striker’s end, was run out. But the TV umpire found out the batters hadn’t crossed when the wicket was broken, and it was Green who was out.

Raghuvanshi and Rinku, though, kept the chase on track, and took KKR to 100 in nine overs, with SRH’s poor ground fielding also contributing towards it.

Soon after that, Reddy got rid of Roy and Rinku in back-to-back overs. Narine and Ramandeep Singh took KKR to 155 for 6 in the 15th over, before falling to Malinga’s slower balls. Unadkat then wrapped up the win with two wickets in two balls.

Brief scores:
Sunrisers Hyderabad 226 for 8 in 20 overs (Heinrich Klaasen 52, Abhishek Sharma 48, Travis Head 46, Ishan Kishan 14, Nitish Kumar Reddy 39; Vaibhav Arora 2-47,  Blessing Muzarabani 4-41, Kartik Tyagi 1-48, Anukul Roy 1-16) beat Kolkata Knight Riders 161 in 16 overs (Finn Allen 28, Angkrish Raghuvanshi 52, Rinku Singh 35, Ramandeep Singh 10, Sunil Narine 12; Harsh Dubey 1-17, Jaydev Unadkat 3-21, Eshan Malinga 2-14, Nitish Kumar Reddy 2-17) by 65 runs

Eshan Malinga and Shivang Kumar celebrate after running out Angkrish Raghuvanshi [Cricinfo]

[Cricinfo]

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