Sports
Hasaranga suspended but World Cup not in danger
by Rex Clementine
Fingers are being pointed at the Sri Lanka team management for smartly including Wanindu Hasaranga in the Test squad against Bangladesh so that he could finish serving his suspension and will be available for the T-20 World Cup in June.
Hasaranga had been charged for dissent during the third ODI in Chittagong and once he pleaded guilty, he was going to get suspended for four games. He had missed the first two ODIs on this tour for a similar offence during the third T-20 International against Afghanistan in Dambulla.
Sri Lanka do not have any white ball cricket lead up to the World Cup which meant Hasaranga would have missed the first four games of the World Cup.
Hasaranga had last year retired from Test cricket but was included in the Test squad against Bangladesh, which means he can serve his sentence during the Test series. Missing two Tests is equal to four limited over games according to ICC Code of Conduct.
Many felt that he was deliberately included in the Test squad so that he could be fully available for the World Cup. However, The Island learns the T-20 captain had written to Sri Lanka Cricket about his desire to play Test cricket again.
Although Hasaranga has been prolific in white ball cricket, he has not had the same impact in Test match cricket as proved by his four appearances in the longer format of the game.
The leg-spinner had also not featured in a First Class game since March last year.
Looking things in another perspective, in the day and age of T-20 franchise cricket where players want to play less longer format games, Hasaranga’s return to Test cricket is a welcome move, but whether it will be a bluff shall be known in a few months down the line.
Some give credit to the Sri Lankan management for thinking out of the box especially as they felt that Bangladesh Head Coach Chandika Hathurusinghe was instrumental in pushing the match official for charging Hasaranga.
Bangladesh and Sri Lanka are in Group D in the T-20 World Cup and will be facing each other and not having Hasaranga would have been a blow for the former champions.
Debates and assumptions apart, what is known for sure is that Hasaranga needs to get his act together and if he continues to behave like a spoilt brat, he is going to face bigger problems in the game moving forward.
The first Test of the two-match series starts on Friday.
It’s taking longer than most expected, but Bangladesh are inevitably moving towards history. Bangladesh and Pakistan will go into a fifth day in Sylhet, with Bangladesh on the cusp of another 2-0 clean sweep of Pakistan. They need just three wickets to get there, with Mohammed Rizwan, unbeaten on 75, the final, valiant point of resistance for a visiting side who still need an improbable 121 for victory.
It was thanks primarily to Rizwan, and his 134-run partnership with Salman Agha in the final session, that kept Bangladesh waiting for so long when they appeared to be on course to finish Pakistan off. But two crucial wickets from Taijul Islam – who bowled more than a third of the overs on Tuesday – in the final half hour saw that partnership broken, and the hosts burrow deep into Pakistan’s tail.
Rizwan and Agha got together off the back of three quick wickets, and a resurgent Bangladesh sniffing for a quick knockout. Instead, they held them at bay for over three hours, counterattacking early on before seeing off wave after wave of spin and seam from Bangladesh. Even as Bangladesh attacked with the field, the duo kept run-scoring front and centre of their survival strategy, using their feet against spin and timing the ball expertly when pace returned.
That the stand had begun to frustrate Bangladesh became evident when tempers flared in the final hour, with Litton Das taking exception to Rizwan slowing play down after disturbances from the sightscreen. The contest took on a distinct edge, but the Pakistan pair did not lose focus, inching their way towards stumps.
No more wickets might have given Bangladesh a sleepless night, but Taijul put them at ease. With Nahid Rana operating with a new ball from the other end, Taijul produced an arm delivery that skidded through Agha’s defences and knocked back his stumps, prompting wild celebrations from the hosts, who understood the importance of the moment. Hasan Ali, whom Rizwan curiously decided against shielding from the strike, posed little resistance, leaving Bangladesh just three wickets adrift.
Brief scores:
Pakistan 232 and 316 for 7 (Shan Masood 71, Babar Azam 47, Salman Agha 71, Mohammad Rizwan 75*; Taijul Islam 4-113, Nahid Rana 2-58) need another 121 runs to beat Bangladesh 278 and 390
[Cricinfo]
Sri Lanka Cricket’s new transformation committee has had “cordial and constructive” discussions with Imran Khwaja, the ICC’s deputy chair, according to a member of the new SLC committee.
Khwaja had been in Ari Lanka over the last few days to gather information as the ICC decides what its response to the sweeping government-led changes at SLC should be. During the course of that visit, Khwaja not only spoke with members of SLC’s transformation committee, but also met with Sri Lanka’s president Anura Kumara Dissanayake, whose government had installed the committee after ousting the previous board.
Sidath Wettimuny one of the committee’s nine members, said SLC’s new administrators were hopeful the ICC would continue to treat the board as a regular Full Member.
But the ICC has a track record of reprimanding SLC because of perceived government interference. In 2023, SLC was suspended over “extensive government interference” and, in 2015, the ICC had also frozen payments over a previous “interim committee” having been appointed by the then government.
This current committee, however, has said its goals were to replace SLC’s archaic constitution, before making way for a new set of elected officials.
The ICC has so far made no comments on the change of administration at SLC.
The committee, formally unveiled on April 30, has nine members, including Kumar Sangakkara, Wettimuny and Roshan Mahanama. The majority of the members, though, hail from corporate, legal, and political spheres, with former member of parliament Eran Wickramaratne appointed as chair.
“Our immediate priority is a total overhaul of the governance framework at SLC,” Wettimuny had said after the committee members were named. “The cornerstone of this effort will be the implementation of the new constitution, ensuring it serves as a robust, modern foundation for the sport.”
The committee’s second priority would be to ensure “excellence on the field,” Wickramaratne had said. “We will focus on establishing the structures, world-class facilities, and incentive models necessary to empower our national teams. Our goal is to enable our players to consistently deliver world-class performances and elevate Sri Lanka back to the top tier of international rankings.”
[Cricinfo]
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