Sports

Big dreams inside a ‘small’ basketball court

Published

4 years ago

2021/10/25

Sahan Weerasooriya

Basketball player Praneeth Udumalagala has come a long way in his chosen sport

Interview with Praneeth Udumalagala

by a Special Sports Correspondent

Praneeth Udumalagala has come a long way in one of his chosen sports basketball and is a hot prospect when he turns out for Sri Lanka in tournaments here and abroad. He is a rare sportsman having represented his country in swimming and basketball. But the latter is what has given him so much recognition and a clear view of what he loves to do in the future. He is engaged in business and manages to dedicate time for competitive sport as well. In an interview with ‘The Island’ Udumalagala spoke about his love for basketball, his work engagements and future plans.

Excerpts of the interview:

Q- How is your busy life as a player dedicated to basketball?

Well, it’s a full schedule just like any other dedicated athlete. The time revolves around training, strength and conditioning and other aspects of the game. My love for the game is such I enjoy every moment as a basketball player.

Q- You say you are looking at playing professional or semi-professional basketball in the future? Please elaborate on that a bit.

At this stage in my basketball career, I want to consistently reach to higher standards outside of Sri Lanka. If any overseas league gives me an opportunity to play professionally or as a semi-professional I would be ready to take up the challenge. I was able to play in the Nepal basketball league in 2019 and I am looking forward for the next.

Q- You are a national athlete and have represented Sri Lanka at many international tournaments. How is the feeling to represent Sri Lanka in your chosen sport?

I was able to represent my country in two sports. As a youngster during school days, I was able to represent Sri Lanka in both swimming and basketball. The pride of representing your country is the ultimate feeling for any athlete in his or her chosen sport. Once you wear the national jersey and step on the court you just want to give your 101% to make your people proud and bring glory to your nation. That feeling is hard to express in words.

Q-What is your best performance for Sri Lanka at an international tournament?

I think the toughest tournament I played in for the national team was the FIBA Pre-qualifiers 2021 in Bahrain. I believe that was my best performance where I was able to average 17.3 points, 5.8 rebounds and three assists throughout the tournament. Apart from that winning the SAG silver medal in 2019 is a great moment where we were able to create history and I’m glad I was able to do my best for the team and country.

Q-Tell us about your experience in representing team Times International Basketball Club which became champions in the Nepal Basketball League

It was such a memorable experience. The league was a month and a half long. By the time I joined the team the league had already begun, and my team had played a couple of games. There was little to no time to see how I fitted in best in the team format, but everyone in my team was excited to have me as much as I was to play in the league. From the league organization, my team management, competition level to the fan base the whole league was such a hit. It couldn’t be any better as we were able to win the league and I was on top of my performance.

Q- Being adjudged as the Sri Lanka Basketball Player of the year in 2015 must have made you feel proud. Do you think you were able to continue the momentum and win more honours in the sport?

It was indeed a proud moment. More than winning more or any honours to be frank the focus was always to be on the top of my game. No matter the situation, when my name is called, I always want to be ready to deliver more than what’s expected. Once I’m able to do what I do best, the rest will fall into place naturally, the recognition and honours will come.

Q- You played your part in Sri Lanka winning Silver at SABA championship 2011 in India. Can you compare how these two nations have progressed in the sport from there onwards?

Yes, that year was a memorable one as it was my debut year paying for Sri Lanka. As unfortunate as it sounds, India has since been improving and making strides in basketball while we struggle to go forward. The biggest difference I see is that India treats basketball as a professional sport while that is not the case in Sri Lanka. The national players here have their full-time jobs to take care of, then comes basketball. Saying that, I’m hopeful that many good things are ahead for Sri Lanka basketball and its players as we have a new leadership in the Sri Lanka Basketball Federation.

Q- You’ve been a regular in the Sri Lanka national team since 2011. How do you see yourself being there for contention when other promising youngsters are also knocking on the door for a playing slot?

The current national team is full of youngsters and promising talent. I am delighted to be playing alongside them to share my experiences and hand over the baton as we go forward. It is important I be on top of my game immaterial if I’m playing with experienced senior players or with talented youth. The playing minutes in a game are based on who’s the best inside the lines and as long as I play in the level I’m playing now it’s safe to say the youngsters could learn a lot and we can get better as a team.

Q- Are you employed and tell us something about work in office and how you manage to engage in competitive sport as well?

I play contract basketball for FairFirst insurance Ltd. I work with my father-in-law and help manage the production process at Shisasa Holdings International Pvt Ltd. I am also a part of the coaching staff at my alma mater St. Joseph’s College Colombo 10.

I have my own company IImpact Hoop Lab Pvt Ltd. Under IImpact Hoop Lab I run my own basketball skills training programme, produce basketball rims and backboards in Sri Lanka.

Q- The COVID pandemic was a challenge to everybody. How did you cope?

The COVID pandemic was a very difficult time period for me, and it still is as we speak. But just like any other challenge we can’t give up on our dreams. My goal was to survive these tough times and hope it will pass by soon. The training programme came to a halt, but we manage to do few online trainings and individual home visits for some of our athletes. Things are looking positive now and I am hoping to return to the programme as soon as I can.

Q- What are your future goals and plans in life and sport?

My goal is to continue to work hard and grow my company IImpact Hoop Lab. I want to work hard, create a dedicated basketball skill training centre for my training programme and help athletes to reach higher levels in the game of basketball. Through my company we produce affordable, high quality basketball rims and backboards that are made in Sri Lanka and we are also scaling into court construction. I will continue to play basketball as long as I can all the while I grow in other aspects in life. At the end of the day I want to be an exemplary role model for every basketball player out there.

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Sooryavanshi blitz, Jurel 81* help Rajasthan Royals take down Royal Challengers Bengaluru with ease

Published

11 hours ago

2026/04/11

Priyan

Vaibhav Sooryavanshi struck at 300.00 [Cricinfo]

Vaibhav Sooriyavanshi equalled his own record for the fastest half-century, off 15 balls, in a six-fest on a flat Guwahati deck as Rajasthan Royals walloped Royal Challengers Bengaluru for their fourth straight win.

RCB hit seven sixes through their 20 overs in an innings where they went all out, seemingly mindful of the challenge Sooryavanshi would pose. And pose he did, hitting seven sixes off his own blade, in a scarcely believable exhibition of brutal hitting.

Reputation counted for little. If it was Jasprit Bumrah the other night, it was Josh Hazlewood’s turn to come under Sooryavanshi’s wheel on Friday. By the time he was dismissed for a 26-ball 78, toe-ending a flat-batted hit to long-on off Krunal Pandya, RR’s asking rate in a 202 chase was just over six with 11.5 overs remaining.

Sooryavanshi’s uninhibited hitting was matched by Dhruv Jurel’s scintillating stroke play, the pair effectively snuffed out RCB’s hopes in the powerplay itself as they plundered 97 – the highest of the season. Although RR lost a couple of wickets in a rush thereafter, the result was never really in doubt.

RCB’s defence was given an early lift when the returning Hazlewood struck in the second over to remove Yashasvi Jaiswal. After conceding a couple of sixes off the short ball, Hazlewood responded smartly by going cross-seam and into the pitch to induce the edge. But the delight at having struck early dissipated quickly as Sooryavanshi seized control by rattling off three boundaries and a six in succession in his next over.

Each of the four boundaries pierced a different arc. The short ball was carved behind point, the hard length into the pitch was muscled over mid-on, the fuller one driven crisply between cover and mid-off, and when tested with the bumper, Sooryavanshi fetched it from outside off and nailed the pull over deep square for six.

And remarkably, it wasn’t just Hazlewood under the pump. Bhuvneshwar Kumar – who had nearly dismissed him first ball with a late-curving inswinging yorker, only for the teenager to dig it out and shovel it straight back for four – was also taken apart. In the fifth over, Sooryavanshi swatted him for back-to-back sixes to bring up his half-century.

Keeping pace with Sooryavanshi stroke for stroke can’t be easy, but Jurel managed it seamlessly, without ever looking like he was trying to. He capped off the powerplay by hitting rookie Abhinandan Singh for a sequence of 4, 6, 4, 0, 6, 4 to end an extraordinary passage.

Jurel’s fast hands were the defining feature of that over – whether it was picking length early to pull or using his wrists to whip the ball into the top tier over deep square. He would later take charge of the innings, tightening his approach after a flurry of wickets, and finishing unbeaten on 76 off 36 balls.

Jurel’s 68-run fifth-wicket stand with Ravindra Jadeja then guided RR home comfortably, steadying things after Krunal briefly stirred RCB’s hopes with back-to-back strikes of Sooryavanshi and Shimron Hetmyer in the ninth over.

RR went through a quiet passage of four overs without a boundary, but the early onslaught from Sooryavanshi and Jurel meant they could afford to play out a few quiet overs fully knowing RCB were a spinner short, as they activated Venkatesh Iyer as an impact player for batting firepower in place of Suyash Sharma.

The match had a blockbuster opening act, with Jofra Archer’s vicious, rip-roaring bouncer sending back Phil Salt for a golden duck. But Virat Kohli fought fire with fire, hitting him for three boundaries in his next over, before Archer struck back to remove the in-form Devdutt Padikkal.

This didn’t affect Kohli, though, as he shredded a much-talked-about matchup with Sandeep Sharma (who had dismissed him seven times in 18 innings) by thumping him over the infield for two fours. But trouble soon came RCB’s way as Ravi Bishnoi struck two quick blows to leave them 73 for 4.

In his first two outings, Rajat Patidar went crash-bang-wallop from the get-go. But a top-order wobble forced him to dig deep. He played himself in, getting to 20 off 22 balls at one stage. And then, three overs later, he brought up a half-century off 35 balls. One of the reasons for this surge was his surety in stroke-making.

The two sixes he hit off Nandre Burger in the 15th had that stamp of authority. A gentle extension of his arms to loft one cleanly over long-off laid down the marker, but the hop back to whip a short ball aimed at his ribs over deep square leg was the blockbuster.

With none of Romario Shepherd or Tim David coming off with the bat, RCB brought in Venkatesh Iyer as their Impact Player, leaving Suyash on the bench. And Venkatesh gave an excellent account of himself on RCB debut, finishing the innings off with a cameo 29 that pushed them past 200.

As it turned out, it was nowhere near enough.

Brief scores:
Rajasthan Royals 202 for 4 (Yashasvi Jiswal 13, Dhruv Jurel 81*, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi 78, Ravindra Jadeja 24*; Josh Hazelwood 2-44, Krunal Pandya 2-30) beat Royal Challengers Bengaluru 201 for 8 in 20 overs (Virat Kohli32, Devudutt Padikkal 14, Rajat Patidar 63, Tim David 13, Romario Shepherd 22, Venkatesh Iyer 29*; Jofra Archer 2-33, Sandeep Sharma 1-47, Ravi Bishnoi 2-32, Ravindra Jadeja 1-14, Brijesh Sharma 2-37) by six wickets

[Cricinfo]

Sports

Brazil bowler Laura Cardoso takes 9 Lesotho wickets in record-breaking T20 win

Published

1 day ago

2026/04/10

Priyan

Laura Cardoso has taken the best bowling record in a T20 Women's International following her nine-wicket haul against Lesotho [Aljazeera]

Brazil are the unlikely candidates to have claimed two cricket records as one of their bowlers took a record nine wickets – including five in a row – in their 189-run T20 Women’s International victory against Lesotho in Botswana.

Having won the toss on Thursday, at the BCA Kalahari Women’s T20 International Tournament, Brazil posted a daunting 202-8 with wicketkeeper Monnike Machado hitting 69 off 41.

The fun, for the Brazilians, was only just beginning, though, as Laura Cardoso claimed a hat-trick with the last three deliveries of her first over – the second of the Lesotho innings – to set in motion the incredible feat that eventually saw the Africans bowled out for 13.

The 21-year-old then continued her wicket-taking achievement with a Women’s T20 International first of five dismissals in a row as she struck with the first two balls of her second over. This was all part of claiming the first nine Lesotho wickets to fall, but being denied the chance to take all 10 after a change of bowling following her third over. Her final wicket was Ret’sepile Limema, who fell to the fifth ball of the fifth over, with Cardoso replaced for the following over at that end. Her nine wickets, nevertheless, is the best return in either men’s or women’s T20 internationals.

The right-arm seamer did, indeed, come close to another hat-trick, when she claimed wickets with the last two balls of her second over, which itself totalled four victims.

Cardoso, who has has taken 55 wickets in 48 T20 matches for Brazil, replaces Indonesia’s Rohmalia Rohmalia at the top of the Women’s T20 best bowling rankings, as she finished with figures of 3-2-4-9.

Rohmalia had claimed seven wickets in 2024 in a match against Mongolia in Bali. Only three other women have claimed seven in a T20 international.

The men’s record, and the overall in the format, had been held by Bhutan’s Sonam Yeshey after ⁠he took eight wickets for seven ⁠runs against Myanmar ⁠last year.

The previous record for the number of wickets in consecutive deliveries was four, and was jointly held with the most prominent occasion in women’s cricket being when Shakera Selman pulled off the feat for the West Indies against Pakistan in 2018. Afghanistan’s Rashid Khan and Sri Lanka’s Lasith Malinga are among the most notable bowlers from the men’s game to have claimed four consecutively in the format.

Although a huge winning margin, Brazil’s overall win does not compare with Argentina’s record after they beat Chile by 364 runs in 2023. The Argentinians had struck 427-1 to set up their victory.

Lesotho’s part in the record extends to no further than Cardoso’s haul, with the record-lowest total belonging to Mali, who were bowled out for 6 in 2019 by Rwanda.

Brazil, ‌who lead the six-team tournament with five straight wins, play ‌Mozambique ‌on Friday.

[Aljazeera]

Latest News

Zimbabwe Women set for maiden tour of Pakistan

Published

1 day ago

2026/04/10

Priyan

Pakistan and Zimbabwe will play 3 ODIs and 3 T20Is [Cricbuzz]

Zimbabwe Women are set for their maiden tour to Pakistan for three ODIs and three T20Is.

The ODIs kick off on May 3 and will be part of the ICC Women’s Championship 2025-29. The T20I series will be played from May 12. All six matches will take place at the National Bank Stadium in Karachi.

Pakistan are currently placed fifth on the Women’s Championship table after a 2-1 series loss to South Africa. Zimbabwe are placed seventh after a three-match series loss to New Zealand.

Zimbabwe are scheduled to arrive in Pakistan on April 29.