Sports
Ill-timed National Sports Festival was a waste of time and money
By Reemus Fernando
Despite the pomp and pageantry associated with the top national competition and the state patronage it receives the National Sports Festival continues to mirror the lack of forward thinking by the organizers, the Sports Ministry. The Athletics Championship which takes the pride of place of the Multi-Sports event is generally conducted as the final event and this time too there was no exception. But the scheduling of the event was so ill-timed that it produced lackluster performances as most of the coaches rested their top athletes ahead of a crucial international event.
The Sports Ministry of the central government and Provincial Sports Ministries spend lavishly for the top national event and this time Sri Lanka Athletics had intervened to obtain World Athletics ‘E’ grade ranking for the event, meaning the results of this championship would help athletes improve their rankings. That was the right move as it adds real value to the money spent on the public purse. But top athletes had to skip the event in preparation for the Asian Games which commences on September 23.
Veteran runner Gayanthika Abeyratne, sprinter Nadeesha Ramanayake and long jumper Sarangi Silva were the only Asian Games hopefuls to take part in the three-day event. Incidentally, the coaches of these athletes are associated with the ministry in one way or another. More than half of the Asian Games track and field team were representing Sri Lanka at the World Athletics Championships in Budapest when the Athletics Championship of the National Sports Festival was being conducted at the Sugathadasa Stadium.
No organizer with an iota of knowledge on sports would conduct a major national event to coincide with a global event if the country’s top athletes were scheduled to take part in the latter. Would the sports minister encourage his subordinates to conduct a local cricket tournament involving national cricketers to coincide with the Cricket World Cup? There was a time when knowledgeable officials of the Sports Ministry persuaded the Minister, who gives the green light for the premier event, to schedule it at the right time. It doesn’t seem to be the case now a days.
Sri Lanka Athletics, which generally publishes its event calendar before the start of the year recently rescheduled a national event so that the athletes could benefit from it. Sports events are there for the benefit of the sportsmen and women. Coaches and officials planning to achieve the best results for their athletes prepare their training plans with an eye on the competition calendar. But Sri Lanka’s athletes remain in the dark with regard to the date of the country’s premier sports event conducted by the Sports Ministry. The scheduling of the National Sports Festival should be done in collaboration with the respective Sports Associations so the money invested in the premier event will not be in vain.
Virat Kohli brought up his 30th Test century and his 81st overall in international cricket before India declared their second innings at 487 for 6, setting a massive target of 534 for Australia. Yashasvi Jaiswal also scored his fourth Test century during the day with a massive 161. India continued to put Australia to the sword in the final session of play on Day 3 in Perth, firstly with the bat as Kohli registered an 89-run partnership with Washington Sundar and a quickfire 77-run partnership in just 8.4 overs with Nitish Kumar Reddy. India then picked up three wickets in the final 27 minutes of the day to leave the hosts tottering at 12 for 3 at Stumps.
Kohli, unlike the first innings, looked calm at the crease and left the ball alone outside the off-stump with ease on Sunday. He played some classic drives during his 143-ball knock and punished any loose deliveries and got to his fifty with a flick to mid-wicket. Sundar and Kohli continued to rotate the strike and managed to negate any tricks the pitch started to play before the former attempted a wild slog-sweep off Nathan Lyon but only saw his stumps rattled. Despite that, Australia were visibly weary having spent the better part of two days on the field under 34 degrees of heat in Western Australia.
This opened the floodgates for the Indians as Nitish came out with intent and whipped one for six over backward square off Mitchell Marsh before he punished him for three more boundaries in Marsh’s next over. This freed up Kohli as well who hit a six straight down the ground off Lyon. The two batters continued to find the boundaries regularly against a demoralised Australia until Kohli swept one to fine-leg for four which brought up his century.
India declared immediately and sent the hosts in to bat for a short stint of 27 minutes and immediately things went into disarray for the hosts. Nathan McSweeney’s miserable Test debut came to an end as he failed to pick a nip-backer by Jasprit Bumrah for nought, while Pat Cummins who promoted himself as night-watcher held his bat out to be caught by Kohli in the slips off Mohammed Siraj. In the last over of the day, Marnus Labuschagne was trapped in front of the stumps after he offered no shot to Bumrah. India now need seven wickets with two days to play to clinch victory.
Earlier during the day, KL Rahul and Jaiswal continued from where they left off as they brought up the first 200-run opening stand for India in Australia. Yashasvi Jaiswal brought up his fourth Test century with a ramp over fine-leg for six. Jaiswal learnt his lesson from the first innings admirably well, as he intercepted the ball in the second innings off his backfoot more often than not which allowed him to ride the bounce off the deck. Rahul was, however, caught behind off Starc on 77.
Australia managed to bounce back for a short passage of play as they picked up four wickets in fairly quick succession. First to go was Devdutt Padikkal who held his bat out first ball after Lunch to be caught behind. Jaiswal survived two run-out chances during his innings and then managed to convert his 100 to 150. Jaiswal’s terrific knock came to an end when he found the point fielder after throwing his hands at a loose delivery by Mitchell Marsh. Rishabh Pant and Dhruv Jurel then fell in back-to-back overs for one each. Pant had charged Marsh first ball but missed a big heave. The witty Lyon bowled one wide as he expected Pant to charge forward again, which he did, and allowed Carey to quickly whip the bails off the stumps. Jurel was given LBW off Cummins, and DRS went on to show that the ball was just clipping the stumps.
Brief Scores:
India 150 and 487/6 dec (Yashasvi Jaiswal 161, Virat Kohli 100*, KL Rahul 77; Nathan Lyon 2-96) lead Australia 104 and 12 for 3 (Usman Khawaja 3*, Marnus Labuschagne 3; Jasprit Bumrah 2-1, Mohammed Siraj 1-7) by 521 runs
Shreyas Iyer shatterd the IPL record to become the most expensive player at an IPL auction when Punjab Kings [PBKS] out bid Delhi Capital and paid 26.75 crore for him.
A maiden Test century for Justin Greaves headlined a dominant day for West Indies against Bangladesh on day two of the Antigua Test. After his 115 helped West Indies post 450 for 9, West Indies bookended the day with two Bangladesh wickets, leaving the visitors 410 behind with eight wickets in hand.
It was a fine recovery after slipping to 261 for 7 despite an overnight score of 250 for 5. Greaves shared a 140-run eighth wicket stand with Kemar Roach, who batted for more than four hours for 47, his highest Test score in his 15-year career.
Greaves’ unbeaten 115 justified his Super50 form, where he struck three consecutive centuries earlier this month. He made a patient effort, striking just four boundaries in his 206-ball stay. It was the perfect follow-up to the nineties that Alick Athanaze and Mikyle Louis had scored on day one to lay the foundation.
Bangladesh continued to give away strong positions with the ball, toiling for 144.1 overs, but unable to bowl out the home side. Hasan Mahmud took three wickets, all of them on the second day. Taksin Ahmed toiled hard and even found the edge of Greaves’ bat once but nobody appealed. The spinners, stand-in captain Mehidy Hasan Miraz and Taijul Islam, shared three wickets from their combined 73.1 overs.
West Indies declared with Bangladesh needing to bat out a maximum time of an hour and 45 minutes. But there was no respite for them against the four-man West Indian pace attack. Zakir Hasan fell for 15 after he under-edged a Jayden Seales delivery onto his stumps. The left-hander struck three fours in his short stay, all off Seales, but was slightly unlucky with the ball shaving the leg-stump. Mahmudul Hasan Joy edged Alzarri Joseph for 5, shortly after he was dropped on the same score.
It was a long way from the start of the day for the visitors, having started the day in the best possible way by taking two early wickets.
Mahmud removed Joshua Da Silva with the fifth ball of the morning session, trapped lbw with a delivery that darted into his front pad. This was Mahmud’s first wicket in the game despite bowling well on the first day. It was also his 24th wicket this year, making him the highest wicket-taker in a calendar year among Bangladesh’s pace bowlers.
That number became 25 when Alzarri fell in Mahmud’s next over. Zakir took a superb two-handed catch at gully, reminiscent of how he opened the Pakistan tour with Abdullah Shafique’s catch at gully in August. If Bangladesh sensed they had their opening to bowl out West Indies for under 300 runs, that was blunted by Roach.
He was the right type of foil for Greaves, who was willing to grind out the Bangladesh attack. Greaves handed the strike to Roach from time to time, as the pair didn’t allow any more wickets in the first session. There were only two boundaries in those 26 overs too, but that hardly bothered the home side who needed a recovery.
Greaves started the second session with his third boundary when he pulled Taskin through midwicket. He, however, survived a caught-behind chance on 77 with neither Taskin nor wicketkeeper Jaker Ali (who was deputizing for Litton Das after the first session) hearing a faint nick. it was only a replay on the big screen that showed what Bangladesh missed out on.
Shortly afterwards, a Roach single brought up the team’s maiden century partnership for the eighth wicket against Bangladesh. It was followed by a rain break of seven minutes, after which Roach slammed Mehidy over his head for his first boundary. Mahmud finally removed Roach with a fine angling delivery, clipping the top of his middle-stump. Their 140-run stand was West Indies’ third-highest for the eighth wicket.
Greaves soon reached his century with his fourth boundary shot, driving Taijul through the covers. It was potentially his best shot of the innings and the landmark was only his second first-class ton.
West Indies declared in the 145th over of their innings, after their tail-enders Seales and Shamar Joseph struck some meaty blows. That left enough time for the bowlers to have a crack, which they successfully did.
Brief scores:
Bangladesh 40 for 2 in 20 overs (Alzarri Joseph 1-2,Jayden Seales 1-15) trail West Indies 450 for 9 in 144.1 overs (Justin Greaves 115, Mikyle Louis 97, Alick Athanaze 90, Kemar Roach 47, Kavem Hodge 25, Kemar Roach 47; Hasan Mahmud 3-87, Taskin Ahmed 2-76, Mehidy Hasan Miraz 2-99) by 410 runs
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