Sports
Anjalika is back with a bang after a break for studies
by A Special Sports Correspondent
Young tennis sensation Anjalika Kurera has returned to tennis with a bang after a break for studies and bagged two major women’s open singles titles thus far.
She is one of those players who knows where she is going, has a plan and works her plan. Stopping to complete her GCE O’ Levels was intentional because she is hell-bent on balancing both studies and sport. And she agrees it was hard to comeback after the layoff because she had little practice and hardly any time for physical training.
She beat two of the most competitive players in the women’s circuit Neyara Weerawansa in the Colombo Championships and Janali Manamperi in the ongoing Nationals. “It was really hard for me to win because all the players are playing well,” said Anjalika in an interview with The Island.
She is modest, humble and values her beginnings and the people who helped her in her tennis journey; where she aims at playing in the Wimbledon and becoming world number one hopefully. These are her thoughts and she is willing to work hard because tennis is a demanding sport where talent needs to be supplemented with financial backing if one aspires to reach great heights.
She hails from Negombo and was first coached by one Pahirathan before receiving input from several other reputed coaches. Sudantha Soysa, Sylvester Francis, Renuk Wijemanna, Barathi Pillai, her school tennis teacher Miss Pushpa Perera and Niranjan Casichetty, as her present coach, have contributed immensely towards her tennis achievements.
Away from the tennis court’s hustle and bustle and excitement there is another source of strength where she draws inspiration and strength from. As a devout Christian she also spends time in prayer and said “I’m small made, but God has given me the talent to play tennis”.
She is a member in a closely knit family and receives the backing from her mom, dad, sister and brother. But she has chosen an individual sport and that makes it harder for her to keep playing and pursue more glory. Her commitment for the sport is such that she travels daily to Colombo from Negombo for training. That could be because she knows that the tennis hub is in Colombo and she has to be rooted in the island’s business capital where sports and other exciting and money spinning activities take place.
Tennis is an expensive sport and it would be lovely if a sponsor comes her way and boosts her career like it happens in other parts of the tennis world. According to Anjalika there have been occasions where financial constraints have come in the way of her participating at ‘women’s future tournaments’.
All this has been achieved by age 17. And the demands of the game have perhaps had a toll on her thus far. She said she has a troubling back injury at present, but she managed to overcome all the challenges in the present tournament she is competing in. Perhaps every player will encounter a back injury sometime during his/her career and it seems Anjalika has faced it rather prematurely. Looking on the bright side of it such injuries teach valuable lessons and make you a better player; example Wasim Akram in cricket. The good news for her is that she is quite young hence with proper conditioning of the back muscle and strength training she could have complete recovery of the injury.
She has contested many overseas tournaments as a national player. Anjalika was ranked 575 in the world among under 18 girls by the ITF in 2019. She hopes to play in ITF tournaments lined up for the coming year.
She needs guidance, exposure and to maintain her will to become the top contender at all future tournaments here in Sri Lanka. No challenge at a tournament played here in Sri Lanka is complete without the participation of Anika Senewiratne. “I love playing against Anika because she is so talented. She is the toughest player to beat from the ones around and I managed to overcome her in past tournaments at the Colombo Championships and Nationals,” said Anjalika.
She praises her school Ave Maria Convent in Negombo, its Principal Sister Shirmila Jayawardena, teachers and her best friends for the constant support and encouragement extended to her during her career in tennis.
She said that she constantly judges herself because she wants to make improvements. And most importantly she believes in the fact that she was born to play tennis and has the talent to pursue the sport. She concluded by saying “I love tennis. Tennis is my life”.
The winners of the Woorld Test Championship [WTC] final, to be played between South Africa and Australia at Lord’s starting June 11, will secure a prize money of USD 3.6 million, more than double of the winners in the last two cycles. The runners-up, meanwhile, will bag more than USD 2.1 million, while the prize for the same in the previous editions was USD 800,000.
The winners in the last two cycles — New Zealand and Australia — had earned USD 1.6 million each.
“The increase in prize money exhibits the ICC’s efforts to prioritize Test cricket as it looks to build on the momentum of the first three cycles of the nine-team competition,” the ICC said in its release.
India, who finished third on the table, will receive over USD 1.4 million, while fourth-placed New Zealand get USD 1.2 million. Even the prize money for teams finishing fifth (USD 960000) and sixth (USD 840000) — England and Sri Lanka — is more than what it was for the runners-up in the previous editions.
South Africa topped the table in the 2023-25 edition with eight wins from 12 games, and were the first team to seal a final spot with a dramatic two-wicket win over Pakistan. Defending champions Australia got through by pipping India to the second spot after winning the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 3-1 at home.
Both teams have named their squads for the final. The focus for South Africa will be on their pace spearhead Kagiso Rabada after his one-month ban for failing a drug test, while Cameron Green makes his return to Australia’s Test side after undergoing a lower spine surgery last year.
Sri Lanka wicketkeeper-batter Kusal Mendis will replace Jos Buttler in the Gujarat Titans squad for the IPL 2025 playoffs.
Kusal Mendis had been at the Pakistan Super League (PSL) with Quetta Gladiators until last week, playing as their wicketkeeper-batter. He’d last played for them on May 7. But ESPNcricinfo has learned he will not travel to Pakistan for the remainder of the PSL due to perceived safety concerns, and has now pivoted to playing in the IPL, a league in which he has never previously appeared.
Buttler’s unavailability for the playoffs is down to his having been named in England’s ODI squad for the home series against West Indies, which starts on May 29. The IPL’s playoffs begin the same day.
GT have two other wicketkeeping options in their squad, in Anuj Rawat and Kumar Kushagra. However, Kusal Mendis has been in good form for Gladiators, hitting 143 runs at a strike rate of 168 in five PSL matches.
Merely being approached by an IPL franchise as a replacement is something of a career fillip for Kusal Mendis, who had entered his name in the IPL auctions repeatedly, but had never been bought. He is understood to be currently awaiting his India visa, and is likely to join the GT squad on Saturday.
GT currently sit atop the IPL table, equal on points with Royal Challengers Bengaluru, but with a better net run rate. They need only one more win to confirm their place in the playoffs.
[Cricinfo]
Cricket West Indies (CWI) has implored the ICC to provide a fair and transparent pathway for at least one of the Caribbean’s sovereign nations to represent West indies at the Los Angeles Olympics.
The heart of the problem here is that while in cricket many countries compete under the name the West Indies are administered by the same cricket board (CWI), the Olympics only allows sovereign nations to contest. There can be no team in which for instance, Barbadans, Jamaicans, Trinidadians, Guyanese, St. Lucians play in the same team, even though that is how regular cricket is organised.
So in the Los Angeles Olympics in 2028, an event in which six nations will compete in cricket, the region hopes to have at least one of its sovereign states in play. Currently, West Indies women are ranked sixth on the T20I ICC rankings, and the men are fifth. West Indies men have won the T20 World Cup twice, and the women once. It is up to the ICC to nominate the teams that will participate in the Olympics.
There is also the additional complication that the United States, as the host nation of these Olympics, may be a frontrunner to gain automatic qualification despite their low rankings, though that has not been confirmed by the ICC. This means only five further spots are available.
“The Caribbean has always punched above its weight at the Olympics, inspiring the world with our athletic brilliance,” CWI president Kishore Swallow said. “Cricket’s return to the Games in 2028 must not exclude our young cricketers from the same dream that has inspired our athletes. The Olympic Charter emphasizes fairness, transparency, and universality. We are simply asking that these principles be upheld–not just in spirit, but in structure. West Indies cricket must have a pathway, and fully deserves an opportunity to compete.”
CWI has provided the ICC with two possible ways forward. To quote from the CWI release:
- If rankings are used and West Indies men and women teams technically qualify, an internal qualifying tournament among its Olympic affiliated member countries will determine which country represents the West Indies; or
- A global qualifying pathway that includes associate ICC members in the five ICC Development Regions plus member countries of the West Indies.
The first of these options would have the CWI, through domestic tournaments, pick their champions for the LA Olympics. The second would involve a more rigorous selection process, in which the sovereign nations that are members of the West Indies board compete alongside a host of other nations for Olympics spots.
What the CWI board stresses to ICC, however, is that qualification criteria must be “fair and transparent”, citing a bylaw in the Olympic Charter. Caribbean nations are accustomed to Olympic success, as several of them are frequently atop Olympics leaderboards for medals per capita. Their collective achievements in track events in particular, are recognised almost universally as extraordinary.
CWI CEO Chris Dehring said: “Our nations have proudly flown their individual flags atop Olympic podiums as perennial gold medalists. Now, with cricket’s inclusion, we must ensure that our cricketers are not shut out of history. We are ready to collaborate. We are ready to compete. But above all, we are asking for fairness.”
The ICC has made no announcement on what the Olympics qualification process will be, so far.
Cricket has only once been played in the Olympics, way back in 1900. On that occasion, France and Great Britain competed, with Great Britan winning the two day match by 158 runs. The highest individual score for France in the second innings was 8.
[Cricinfo]
The development of a country depends on the productive contribution that its people make towards the nation. — Prime Minister
The Prime Minister participated in the 77th commemoration of AL- NAKBA for Palestine.
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