Sports
Banda still keen on imparting coaching knowledge
Central Province Sports Department felicitated reputed coach S.M. Gnanasena Banda at the Central Province Sports Awards ceremony recently. The veteran coach receives his award from Central Province Governor Lalith U Gamage. Jagath Keerthi, Director of Sports of Central Province is also in the picture. (Pic courtesy Anurudhdha Herath Bandara)
Central Province Sports Department felicitates Gnanasena Banda
by Reemus Fernando
Reputed coach S.M. Gnanasena Banda was felicitated by Central Province Sports Department at the Central Province Sports Awards ceremony recently. The mentor behind many top national level athletes, who won international fame during the 90s, Banda is recovering from paralysis which he suffered nearly two decades ago. Although he is not actively involved in training he has spent the past two decades imparting his knowledge to deserving coaches who sought his help. Despite being confined to his home he is still keen on imparting that knowledge. In an interview with ‘The Island’ Banda said that the best way to felicitate him was to obtain his knowledge to educate the current crop of coaches.
“I told the director at the awards ceremony that the best they could do to felicitate me was to gain my knowledge,” Banda told The Island.
Regarded by athletic officials as one of the best coaches, Banda trained many an athlete win medals at regional international competitions and to reach Olympic qualifying standards in his heyday. Banda who once competed against the likes of Sunil Gunawardena as an athlete had Yogananda Wijesundara and Lakshman de Alwis as his peers in coaching.
Banda served during an era when Sri Lanka was looking to improve standards of athletic performances. He was different to many of his peers who specialised in specific disciplines.
Banda’s charges were athletes specialised in varying disciplines from sprints to marathons and hurdles to throws. When coaches opt to specialize in a selected group of disciplines (sprint & hurdles, middle & long distance, jumps or throws) Banda’s specialty was the ability to train almost any athletics discipline.
Sriyantha Dissanayake, a household name in athletics, was his charge when he won a medal double at the Asian Games. Dissanayake is the last Sri Lankan male athlete to have won a medal in an Asian Games 100 metres.
Banda had the knowledge to peak a sprinter as well as a marathoner at the right time. V.K.L. Samarasinghe, another of his trainees, was probably the best home-trained marathoner the country produced. Current national marathon record holder Indrajith Cooray in the UK and legendary distance runner S.L.B. Rosa at the Wisconsin Park Side University (USA) had foreign training when they reached their personal best performances and qualified for Olympics. Samarasinghe who was the closest to Rosa’s long standing record in his prime, slashed massive chunks off his personal best under Banda’s guidance to qualify for Olympics.
Long jumpers Sujith Rohitha and Anusha Kariyawasam reached national number one position under his guidance. The latter owned the women’s national record while Rohitha almost had it under his belt.
Olympic thrower Sumeda Ranasinghe’s coach Pradeep Nishantha was under Banda’s stewardship when he held the national record.
One of the longstanding records in athletics is the men’s 400 metres hurdles national record. Banda’s trainee Harijan Ratnayake established the record on his way to winning the Asian Championship silver in Jakarta. His 49.44 seconds feat still remains unshaken two decades after it was established. Banda’s charge was the last Sri Lankan male hurdler to have earned qualifying standards for Olympics.
His services were not limited to athletics. He was also involved in looking after fitness of up and coming cricketers in the 90s. Despite being handicapped Banda is eager to educate coaches who are willing to serve sports.
“I am keen on educating coaches who are willing to serve,” said the septuagenarian.
S.M.G. Banda suffered his first stroke just after the National Sports Festival in 2001. Some of the athletics disciplines have not witnessed an improvement since then. His absence in the field of coaching has left a huge vacuum hard to fill.
The third edition of the World Test Championship kicks off in the sweltering south with Galle set to host the curtain-raiser as Sri Lanka lock horns with Bangladesh on Tuesday. This time around, the Sri Lankans have the luxury of playing India and South Africa at home in addition to Bangladesh, while away tours to West Indies, New Zealand and Pakistan lie ahead. Its not a bad schedule at all.
In the last cycle which came to a climax at Lords this week with Australia squaring off against South Africa in the final Sri Lanka flirted with a spot in the big dance but ultimately fell short. Four straight losses two in the Rainbow Nation and two in their own backyard left them stumped. Most fans remember the defeats in Durban, Port Elizabeth and Galle, but few rewind to where it all unraveled.
It began with a home series against Pakistan in 2023, where Sri Lanka were caught napping and lost both Tests. From then on, they were playing catch-up cricket, chasing shadows instead of dictating terms.
This time, they can ill afford to hit the snooze button. In a competition where momentum is everything, its not just about starting well its about staying in the hunt and finishing like a freight train.
After the opener in Galle, the action shifts to Colombo, with the second Test scheduled at SSC. Sri Lanka will walk in as favourites.
This series also marks a changing of the guard. Dimuth Karunaratne, Sri Lankas most prolific opening bat, has called time on a storied career spanning for 15 years. A rock at the top, he leaves big boots to fill. And after the first Test, Angelo Mathews another old warhorse will bid adieu, bringing down the curtain on a career that began in 2009.
The selection conundrum now is who slots in where. Lahiru Udara has been knocking on the door with truckloads of runs in domestic cricket, but will the selectors hand him the key or stick with Oshada Fernando, whos been warming the bench as backup opener?
Then comes the Mathews question. Who takes over the No. 4 slot, the spine of any Test side? Pasindu Sooriyabandara and Sonal Dinusha have put their hands up with strong performances for the A team, and Pawan Ratnayake is now in the mix too. Of the trio, only one will get the nod but who has the temperament to wear that cap?
Another twist in the tale: will the replacement bat at four, or will the selectors reshuffle the deck? Kamindu Mendis, the elegant left-hander with a golden 2024 behind him, has steadily climbed the order and seems the frontrunner for that prime real estate.
Meanwhile, skipper Dhananjaya de Silva is under the pump. Hes clung onto the captaincy largely due to the absence of viable alternatives, but his leadership has lacked bite. With four straight Test losses under his belt and a batting slump thats seen him go ten games without a century, his place is under the scanner. Waiting for things to happen wont cut it anymore its time he grabbed the game by the scruff of the neck.
Sri Lanka s spin department has its own selection headache. Prabath Jayasuriya is a shoo-in, but who will partner him? Offies Nishan Peiris and Ramesh Mendis have both been given the ball and the benefit of the doubt but neither has nailed it. Peiris, with just three caps, still has room to grow. Mendis, on the other hand, after 16 Tests, is still struggling to bowl six balls in the same postcode.
by Rex Clementine ✍️
Records Asia’s fastest time in U20 category
With a week to go for the Thailand Open Athletics Championship, Ambagamuwa Central athlete Ayomal Akalanka flexed his muscles with a new Sri Lanka National Junior record time in the 400 metres hurdles at the Junior National Athletics Championship at Diyagama on Friday.
One of the brightest prospects to emerge from the schools set up in recent years, Akalanka clocked 50.20 seconds to win the Under 20 400 metres hurdles. The athlete trained by veteran coach Anura Bandara broke his own National Junior record.
Akalanka is the youngest athlete picked in the Sri Lanka team for the Thailand Open Athletics Championship which will be held from June 22.
Shavindu Avishka won the Under 18 boys’ 800 metres
The record breaking feat is the fourth fastest time in the world this year in his age category and the fastest time in Asia.
His 51.33 seconds time clocked in March this year was the sixth fastest time in Asia untill he reached his personal best on Friday to take the top spot in the region this year.
Akalanka became the senior national champion in the 400 metres hurdles last year and has maintained his supremacy beating veterans at senior level this year as well.
Sri Lanka will field eight athletes at the Thailand Open and it will be a big opportunity for Akalanka to brush shoulders against seniors. It is an opportunity his former training partner Dhanuka Dharsana did not get when he accomplished similar achievements turning tables on seniors while competing at junior level.
by Reemus Fernando ✍️
At 12.45pm on a sunny Saturday at Lord’s, South Africa secured the most significant moment in their cricket history with the World Test Championship title. It was not without nerves – how could it be? – but this time there was no agony at the end. Aiden Markram took them to the brink with an epic 136, an innings that will go down as the country’s most important in Tests, before the winning runs were driven through the covers by Kyle Verreynne to spark the celebrations.
No longer was the 1998 ICC Knockout, with its various names and caveats, the only reference point for South Africa’s global success. After so many near misses, they had a crowning moment. It will be a hugely popular victory, too, as the underdog story so often is, and as part of the wider narrative around the health of Test cricket outside of the Big Three.
For all the success Australia have gathered over the years, this will be a bruising experience given they had managed to take a 74-run first-innings which had been extended into three figures before collapsing to 73 for 7 on the second evening. The lower order repaired some of the damage, and the bowlers gave it their all, but for once they finished second.
Resuming on 213 for 2 needing 69 more for victory and eight wickets in hand would not normally be a scene for great uncertainty, but this was no ordinary occasion. The first run of the day, a push into the covers by Temba Bavuma, was cheered loudly by a crowd heavily in favour of South Africa – as it had been throughout the game.
Bavuma had fought through the pain of a hamstring strain he picked up early in his innings, and left the team management contemplating retiring him hurt at tea yesterday, but instead he went on to forge the match-defining stand of 147 with Markram.
There was no fairytale ending of Bavuma being there when the winning run were scored as he edged an excellent lifting delivery from Pat Cummins that just opened the door for Australia. The celebrations certainly suggested they still believed – while no one needed reminding of South Africa’s history – and the tension was palpable with runs hard to come by.
Markram was able to relieve the pressure with occasional boundaries, including a square drive off Cummins the ball after being beaten on the drive and an even more authoritative pull.
However, Australia made them earn every run. Mitchell Starc continued his outstanding match with a superb delivery to remove Tristan Stubbs with 41 still needed, which probably felt like 141 to anyone of a South African persuasion.
Australia’s desperation led to them burning their three reviews – two for lbws that weren’t especially close and another for a glove down the leg side against Stubbs the ball before he fell to Starc – and ironically, with scores level, Verreynne would glove an attempted scoop off Starc that wasn’t given out.
An on-drive by David Bedingham off Cummins brought the requirement down to under 20 and the chants from the crowd grew again.
Australia managed to stretch the game out to give them a brief burst with the second new ball but Josh Hazelwood’s first delivery with it was pinged off his pads by Markram with the next being worked away for three to bring the countdown to single figures.
Markram was aiming leg side again when he picked out midwicket, but this time nothing was going to stop South Africa. As he started to walk off, a number of the Australians congratulated him. They knew they had been beaten by one of the great innings.
Brief scores:
South Africa 138 in 57.1 over (David Bedingham 45, Temba Bavuma 36; Pat Cummins 6-28) and 282 for 5 in 83.4 overs (Aiden Markram 146, Temba Bavuma 66, David Bedingham 21*; Mitchell Starc 3-66) beat Australia 212 in 56.4 overs (Brau Webster 72, Steven Smith 66; Kagiso Rabada 5-51, Marco Jansen 3-49) and 207 in 65 overs (Mitchell Starc 58, Alex Carey 43 Kagiso Rabada 4-59, Lungi Ngidi 3-38) by five wickets
[Cricinfo]
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