Sports
Green tops await Sri Lankans in South Africa
by Rex Clementine
The national cricket team landed in South Africa Friday night and soon will resume training lead up to the two match Test series against the Proteas. Compared to most places in the world, South Africa’s health guidelines are lot more flexible and all what a person needs is two negative PCR reports before being allowed to assume daily activities. For a cricketer, a day’s activities in these times of pandemic means practice, weight training and rest. They will be restricted to their hotel and the cricket ground and South Africa’s fantastic tourist destinations will be out of bounds.
Well, safari parks aren’t the only attractions in Johannesburg. There’s the Apartheid Museum, Gold Reef City, Walter Sisulu Botanical Gardens and lots more. The team will be in a bio-bubble during their three week stay and their contact with the outside world will be limited.
Following their stunning series win in South Africa during the last tour, Dimuth Karunaratne’s side can expect green tops this time around. The last series was played in Durban and Port Elizabeth with both coastal towns proving to be to Sri Lankans liking. The wickets at both venues are not the quickest in the country.
This time, however, it’s been a complete contrast. The tourists have been given two of the quickest tracks in the country – Wanderers and Centurion. The technical adjustments the players have to make are too many when they go from the sub-continent and it doesn’t help that the tour doesn’t include any warm-up games.
When Sri Lanka won in 2018 they didn’t have any warm-up games as well but on that occasion, they had flown directly from Canberra, Australia having been involved in a Test series. So the technical adjustments aren’t much. This time, however, they are going into Tests after playing a T-20 competition.
The health measures that South Africa have been put in place will be under the spotlight as well. Although cricket centers like England, UAE, Australia and even Sri Lanka conducted events successfully having created bubbles, England’s tour to South Africa was abandoned midway through after positive cases emerged within the bubble.
Last week a First Class game in South Africa was called off after a player tested positive for COVID-19.
Sri Lanka sent their Head Coach Mickey Arthur and a doctor three days ahead to South Africa to monitor the situation.
The final week of the year is like a Roman feast for the Test cricket fan, and Boxing Day this year promises mouth-watering contests in Melbourne and Centurion but look this way too, will you? Bulawayo is set to host Zimbabwe’s first Boxing Day Test 8n 28 years too, and with unpredictable Afghanistan on the other side, a real tussle is expected between the two teams, who despite their recent underwhelming performances, would feel like they’re favourites. After all, the last time either side won a Test was against each other.
But that was way back 8n 2021. Since then, they have not found a way to win. And one look at the Zimbabwe and Afghanistan squads for this two-Test series suggests that they’re both looking to change that by taking a different direction for 2025 and beyond. A splattering of Test debutants are expected – theoretically, there could be as many 15 debuts across the two XIs – and this series could very well be the one that births a new generation.
Under 19 Cricket
by Reemus Fernando
Mahinda College, Galle took firm control of their two-day Under 19 Division I Tier ‘B’ cricket encounter as they reached 213 for nine wickets at stumps after restricting Moratu Vidyalaya to 96 runs at Galle on Wednesday.
After Arosha Udayanga grabbed five wickets to trouble the visitors, the home team topped 200 runs thanks to a century by open batsman Dulsith Darshana and a half century by Senuka Dangamuwa.
While Darshana scored 13 fours and a six in his 106 which came in 143 balls, Dangamuwa hammered nine fours and a six in his 50 which came in 51 balls.
Mahinda are in search of their first outright victory in the tournament proper after having earned first innings points in two out of the three matches in their group.
Moratu Vidyalaya too have completed three matches and have scored first innings points on one occasion.
Scores
Moratu Vidyalaya
96 all out in 45.2 overs (Sanjana Senavirathna 31, Shehara Fernando 20; Arosha Udayanga 5/35)
Mahinda
213 for 9 in 52 overs (Dulsith Darshana 106, Senuka Dangamuwa 50; Isuru Nidharshana 2/64, Nishitha Fernando 5/45)
by Reemus Fernando
Sri Lanka Athletics has suspended track and field official S. W. Nimalsiri for four years after a three member committee appointed by the sports governing body found him guilty of manhandling leading athletic official G.L.S. Perera within the Sri Lanka Athletics premises in Torrington.
“The executive committee of Sri Lanka Athletics decided to hand Nimalsiri a four year suspension after the three member committee concluded that he was guilty of manhandling the respected official,” Saman Kumara Gunawardhana, the secretary of Sri Lanka Athletics told The Island.
At the time of the suspension Nimalairi was a committee member of Sri Lanka Athletics and is the president of the Ace Athletics Club and secretary of the Colombo District Athletics Association.
The three member committee that inquired the incident involving Nimalairi and Perera was headed by retired district court judge Upali Samaraweera. Others in the committee were former director of sports Padma Siriwardana and disciplinary committee chairman of Sri Lanka Athletics Chandana Ekanayake.
Nimalsiri has also been suspended from officiating in track and field competitions.
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