Sports
Jaffna make solid start in LPL curtain-raiser
Defending champions Jaffna Kings had a smooth start in the Lanka Premier League curtain-raiser beating Colombo Strikers by 21 runs at RPS in front of 15,000 fans on Sunday.
Jaffna were without their two overseas signings – South Africa’s David ‘Killer’ Miller and Pakistani’s Shoaib Malik, who are yet to reach Colombo as they are still engaged in other T-20 franchise cricket. But that didn’t stop the three-time champions from making an impressive start to this year’s campaign.
Jaffna Kings have been the most organized team in the competition. They posted 173 for five batting first and then bowled out Colombo Strikers for 152 with two balls remaining.
The tournament’s most expensive signing, left-arm quick Dilshan Madushanka was used sparingly, and he accounted for Niroshan Dickwella in the middle overs before coming back for a final spell to dismiss Matheesha Pathirana to finish with two for 18.
Pathirana himself put up a show bowling with fire and finishing with one wicket and not many were scored off his four overs.
Jaffna’s bowling has been always formidable and the addition of Madushanka makes it sharper. It was leg-spinner Vijayakanth Viyaskanth who bagged the Man of the Match award finishing with two for 17 in his four overs.
South African Hardus Viljoen, the brother-in-law of former captain Francois du Plessis, claimed three wickets as Jaffna bowlers had complete control of things. Maheesh Theekshana was expensive with his four overs costing 39 runs for no wickets. But more often than not he makes it count during the business end of the competition.
Charith Asalanka being called up to bowl is a move in the right direction. The national cricket team at present doesn’t have too many batters who could bowl and Asalanka can turn out to be a handy bowler filling up a few overs.
He may have been sidelined from national duty, but Thisara Perera made his presence felt with a quick 14 off seven balls and then shared the new ball with Madushanka and accounted for the big wicket of Babar Azam.
Colombo Strikers were never in the hunt. Dickwella played a lone hand, scoring 58 runs that came off 34 balls with nine fours and one six. He finished with an impressive strike rate of 170.
Bangladesh top order batter Towhid Hridoy top scored for Jaffna with 54 runs that came off 39 balls with four fours and one six. More importantly, others batted around him to enable the defending champions to reach a match-winning total.
Brief Scores:
Jaffna Kings 173 for five in 20 overs
(Towhid Hridoy 54, Priyamal Perera 22, Dunith Wellalage 25; Naseem Shah 1-30, Matheesha Pathirana 1-32)
Colombo Strikers 152 all out in 19.4 overs
(Niroshan Dickwella 58, Chamika Karunaratne 23, Hardus Viljoen 3-31, Vijayakanth Viyaskanth 2-17, Dilshan Madushanka 2-18)
Result:
Jaffna Kings won by 21 runs
It is understood the ICC has told the BCB to inform the Bangladesh government that if Bangladesh continues to refuse to travel to India to play its matches in the 2026 T20 World Cup, then they will be replaced by another team at the tournament. That decision was followed by a vote, where the majority of the ICC Board was in favour of having a replacement.
BCB have been given one more day to come back to the ICC on its stance on playing in India.
If that is the case, then Scotland is likely to replace Bangladesh in Group C at the World Cup. Scotland had failed to qualify for the 2026 T20 World Cup, having finished behind Netherlands, Italy and Jersey at the European Qualifier.
[Cricinfo]
Harry Brook admits he was fortunate to keep his job as white-ball captain following a latte night alteraction with a nightclub bouncer in New Zealand, and says he is in the process of regaining the trust of his team.
Brook, now in Sri Lanka for England’s ODI series which gets underway on Thursday, was speaking for the first time since news broke that he had been disciplined for the incident in Wellington in October, for which he was fined £30,000 and put on a final warning for his off-field conduct.
“Obviously I made a terrible mistake,” Brook said. “Not only as a player, but as a captain. It’s very unprofessional and I should be leading from the front. “I’ve learnt from my mistakes, I’ve reflected a lot on what’s happened and I know it wasn’t the right thing to do. I want to say sorry to my team-mates, to all the fans that travel far and wide to watch, spend a lot of money on coming out to watch us play cricket and supporting us, and to the ECB for putting them in a tricky situation, and it’ll never happen again. I’m extremely sorry.”
Brook, along with a number of other England players, had been out drinking the night before the third ODI against New Zealand, with the match the final competitive fixture for England before the Ashes began three weeks later.
Brook, who says he then went on his own to a nightclub, says he was “clocked” by a bouncer when attempting to get in.
“We went out for a couple of drinks beforehand and then I took it upon myself to go out for a few more and I was on my own there,” Brook said. “I was trying to get into a club and the bouncer just clocked me, unfortunately. Like I said, I shouldn’t have been in that situation from the start. I wasn’t absolutely leathered, I’d had one too many drinks.”
Brook reported his actions to the management mid-game the next day, and came close to being sacked from his position as captain as a result.
“It was definitely going through my mind,” Brook said of the potential that he would lose his job, before adding that he had not at any stage considered resigning. “Never came into my mind. I left that decision to the hierarchy and, look, if they’d have sacked me from being captain, then I’d have been perfectly fine with it, as long as I was still playing cricket for England.
“Probably, yeah,” he added, when asked if he felt lucky to keep his job. “I think I’ve got a little bit of work to do to try and regain the trust of the players. I said sorry to them yesterday. I felt like I needed to say sorry for my actions. It’s not acceptable as a player, but as a captain it’s really not acceptable to do what I did in New Zealand. I’ll be the first person to say that. I hold my hands up.”
In the aftermath of the incident, which was kept private by England until after the Ashes had concluded, Brook sought help from Test captain Ben Stokes, who himself was involved in a high-profile nightclub fight in 2018.
“He obviously wasn’t best pleased at what I’d done,” Brook said. “But he tried to help me through it and he knows exactly what it feels like to be in this situation. We had a few conversations, but we quickly moved on.”
The news broke amid allegations of a drinking culture in English cricket, after players were regularly seen drinking alcohol during England’s tour of Australia.
“No, there’s no drinking culture at all,” Brook said. “Like I said, everybody has the ability to say no. If you want a drink, if you don’t want a drink, you’re allowed to make that decision yourself.
“It wasn’t just drinking [in Australia]. We weren’t just going out and getting leathered every day. We were having a few drinks here and there. We were playing plenty of golf, going to nice cafes, having coffees but we had a few drinks here and there. I don’t think that’s a bad thing. It’s just what human beings do.”
Despite this, England have introduced a curfew for their tour of Sri Lanka, with playing staff not allowed out past midnight.
“That’s been made as a group decision,” Brook said. “We think that it’s the best thing going forward, for the time being, to be able to put us in situations where we can win games of cricket and perform to the best of our ability.”
England play three ODIs against Sri Lanka, starting on Thursday in Colombo, before playing three T20Is ahead of next month’s World Cup. England have struggled of late in the 50-over format, losing 11 of their past 15 matches. That poor run of form will add extra pressure to the position of head coach Brendon McCullum, whom Brook threw his support behind, calling him “the best head coach I’ve had by a million miles”.
England have made a number of changes to their team since their last outing against New Zealand three months ago, with the return of Zak Crawley to the top of the order the most noticeable change. Crawley replaces Jamie Smith as opener, and will play his first List A game in over two years, having last played for England in December 2023. Elsewhere, Liam Dawson has been selected as the second spinner to accompany Adil Rashid in the middle-overs.
England : Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Joe Root, Jacob Bethell, Harry Brook (capt), Jos Buttler (wk), Will Jacks, Sam Curran, Jamie Overton, Liam Dawson, Adil Rashid
[Cricinfo]
Charith Asalanka (Captain), Pathum Nissanka, Kamil Mishara, Kusal Mendis, Sadeera Samarawickrama, Pavan Rathnayake, Dhananjaya de Silva, Janith Liyanage, Kamindu Mendis, Dunith Wellalage, Wanindu Hasaranga, Jeffrey Vandersay, Maheesh Theekshana, Milan Rathnayake, Asitha Fernando, Pramod Madushan, Eshan Malinga.
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