Sports
Tharusha shatters two decade old record, Sithuli qualifies for Asian event
Sir John Tarbat Senior Athletics Championships
by Reemus Fernando
Holy Cross College, Gampaha triple jumper Neha Hettiarachchi and Lyceum International Wattala high jumper Tharusha Mendis established new meet records and Samudradevi Balika, Nugegoda high jumper Sithuli Sadithya reached qualifying standards for the Asian Youth Championships as they compensated for the frustrations in track events on day two of the Sir John Tarbat Senior Athletics Championships at Diyagama.
For the second consecutive day, the officials struggled to complete the scheduled events and when this story was field from Diyagama around 6.30 pm on Wednesday, track events were still being conducted under fading light. In a bid to save time the organizers opted to select the fastest from heats straight to the finals in hurdles events. Yet many events were held behind schedule. Athletes had to wait for hours after warming up and completing their call room procedures for their events to start.
Hettiarachchi, Mendis and Sadithya compensated for this gloom in track events with impressive field event performances.Hettiarachchi cleared a distance of 12.79 metres in the Under 20 girls’ triple jump to break Vidusha Lakshani’s 2014 meet record as she matched Asia’s fourth-best performance this year.
The day’s most stunning performance belonged to Tharusha Mendis of Lyceum. Mendis who failed to be among the top eight at the Junior Nationals in April registered a stunning 1.96 metres jump to establish a new record in the Under 16 boys’ high jump. “I struggled to clear even 1.65 metres. But today I managed to win,” Mendis told The Island. Mendis erased a record that had stood unchanged for 20 years (2002 – 1.95m by Isuru de Silva of Joseph Vaz College) In the Under 18 age category, Samudradevi Balika, Nugegoda high jumper Sithuli Sadithya reached locally set qualifying standards for next month’s Asian Youth Championships as she cleared a height of 1.67 metres to win the Under 18 girls’ high jump. Her closest rivals cleared 1.50 metres.
Incidentally, Sadithya commenced her competition with a height of 1.55 metres. She needed just one attempt to clear both the 1.55 metres and 1.60 metres. She had to make a second attempt to clear 1.64 metres before overcoming the height of 1.67 metres in her first. Sanuka Mihisara Gunaratne of Central College, Badulla came almost close to matching the qualifying standards for the Asian Youth Championships to be held in October as he won the Under 18 boys’ 2000 metres steeplechase in a time of 6:18.2 seconds. In the corresponding girls’ event P.S. Kumari of Ratnayake Central, Walala was the winner (8:00.9 secs). In the Under 18 boys’ triple jump, favourite, Senura Hansaka Sandeepa of Lyceum International School, Wattala had to fight hard to win as H.K. Dissanayake of Gnanodaya Central, Wariyapola cleared a distance which was just two centimetres short of the title-winning distance of 14.29 metres. P.S. Pawan of Bandaranaike College, Meerigama too cleared the 14 metres mark to win third place.
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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