Sports
Boxing Day Test memories
by Rex Clementine
The Boxing Day Test match has become an integral part of the game of cricket as during the festive season people are hooked onto their televisions from morning to evening watching the proceedings at MCG before switching their channel to find out what’s happening at Centurion.
The Boxing Day Tests are well attended too. Most people are on leave in the week between Christmas and New Year and they make it a point to attend the Test match with families. Both MCG in Australia and Centurion in South Africa put on a grand show.
Although the term ‘Boxing Day’ is associated with sports events on the day after Christmas, it originated in Britian during the Victorian era. Servants used to work for their masters on Christmas Day and they were given a day off the following day and when they went home, the servants were given gifts put in a box to be shared with the family. Hence the term Boxing Day.
Although Sri Lanka has got no such traditions, cricket fans of the country know what it means in cricket and remember quite well some of the biggest Boxing Day events their team has been part of.
The no balling of Muttiah Muralitharan by Darrel Hair happened on Boxing Day in front of 55,000 people at MCG in 1995.
Nine years later, Sri Lanka were playing a game in Auckland when news reached of deadly flooding in the country despite there being no rain and it took hours for the players to figure out that what had struck the nation was tsunami and not floods. That tour was aborted, and Sri Lanka returned home as the fate of several players’ parents and loved ones, especially those who were in the south coast, were unknown.
The Boxing Day Test in 2011 in Durban is etched in all Sri Lankan fans’ memories as for the first time the team won a Test match in South Africa.
The first Test was played at Centurion and Sri Lanka had been blown away inside three days to lose by an innings. There was little hope for the team and a 3-0 series whitewash was looming large. Former South African captain Keppler Wessels had suggested in commentaries that South Africa were too strong for the islanders and maybe the selectors should think of playing the ‘A’ team. That made a few seniors angry.
Head Coach Geoff Marsh re-esembled the team back to the Centurion on day four and five and replicated a Test match atmosphere in which training was conducted. There was a nine day gap between the first and second Tests and in a team bonding exercise the coach paired a senior player with a junior.
Dinesh Chandimal was paired with Kumar Sangakkara, Lahiru Thirimanne was under the watch of T.M. Dilshan and Dimuth Karunaratne was put along with Mahela Jayawardene. The seniors were supposed to take juniors out for meals and coffee and the day before the second Test; on Christmas Day, the players were supposed to present gifts to each other. While this was an excellent team bonding exercise, for the younger players this was a great learning experience too.
By the time the second Test came, the players were raring to go. The team had gelled well.
Thilan Samaraweera was making a comeback to the side. He had been controversially axed from the side earlier and went onto showcase what the team had been missing with a back to the wall hundred. He celebrated his century folding his bat to the armpit making the bat look like a gun and shooting towards the dressing room. Shaun Pollock in commentaries said that he may well have been shooting at the selectors.
Chandimal was on debut and made twin half-centuries stitching some valuable partnerships with the tail.
Left-arm seamer Chanaka Welegedara is the sort of bowler who can make life difficult for batters with angles he creates. South Africa found themselves at 119 for eight with Welegedara accounting for the big four – Jacques Kallis, Graeme Smith, Hashim Amla and A.B. de Villiers. He finished with a five wicket haul.
Sri Lanka couldn’t believe themselves that they had a first innings lead of 170. Kumar Sangakkara had been dismissed for a duck in the first innings but he wasn’t going to miss out on a golden opportunity to beat South Africa and cashed in with a second innings hundred.
A target of 450 proved to be beyond South Africa’s reach as Sri Lanka created history with a 208 run win with Rangana Herath claiming a five wicket haul. Among his victims were Jacques Kallis, dismissed for a duck, the only time the great man had collected a pair in Tests. Mind you he featured in 166 Test matches in a career that spanned across 18 years.
The nation was celebrating. T.M. Dilshan had a tough initiation as captain but he was beginning to turn things around for the team. But little did he know that less than a month later he will be sacked as captain. There had been a coup. A bloodless coup!
Shammi Silva has once again taken guard at the top of Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC), securing a fourth consecutive term as President at the Annual General Meeting, held amidst much fanfare at Colombo’s Cinnamon Grand Hotel yesterday.
Already calling the shots as President of the Asian Cricket Council, Silva’s crowning achievement in recent years has been bringing the 2026 ICC T20 World Cup to Sri Lankan shores. The marquee tournament will be co-hosted by Sri Lanka and India next year, a feather in the cap for the country’s cricket administrators.
Silva’s administration has made a concerted effort to bridge the yawning gap between domestic and international cricket. One of the bold strokes in this innings has been trimming the number of First-Class teams – a move aimed at upping the quality and sharpening the edge of domestic cricket.
SLC Ex-Co also played a straight bat when it comes to developing cricket beyond Colombo’s city limits. High Performance Centres have sprung up across the outstations, rolling out the red carpet for raw talent from the hinterlands, who had previously been left in the pavilion.
The school cricket circuit too has been given a shot in the arm, with infrastructure development and skill enhancement taking centre stage. By strengthening the grassroots, the current administration hopes to widen the talent pool and unearth future stars of the game.
SLC’s balance sheet tells its own story – healthy and in the black. Over the past five years, the board’s financial stability has not only benefited cricket, but has also allowed it to lend a helping hand to other sports disciplines, at the request of the Ministry of Sports.
With over three decades of experience under his belt as a sports administrator, Shammi Silva is the long-serving President of the Colombo Cricket Club (CCC), one of the game’s oldest institutions in the country.
The 64th AGM was largely a case of “same XI, new season,” with only one notable change to the playing field – Secretary Mohan de Silva making way for seasoned campaigner Bandula Dissanayake. No stranger to the inner workings of SLC, Dissanayake has previously chaired the Tournament and Umpires Committees, and brings a wealth of experience to the table.
Dr. Jayantha Dharmadasa and former First-Class player Ravin Wickramaratne retained their Vice-President slots, while Sujeewa Godaliyadda continues to hold the Treasurer’s post. Chryshantha Kapuwatta and Lasantha Wickremasinghe will once again don the hats of Assistant Secretary and Assistant Treasurer, respectively.
The election, part of SLC’s biannual cycle, was overseen and greenlit by the Election Committee chaired by retired Court of Appeal Justice Malani Gunaratne.
Vidyaloka College fought back on the back of a valuable century by Nimesh Aavinda to pull off two wickets victory over Kingswood in the Under 19 Division II Tier ‘B’ cricket tournament final played at Saliyapura, Anuradhapura on Monday.
Vidyaloka had a deficit of 36 runs in the first innings but a combined effort helped them restrict Kingswood to 161 runs in the second essay. They were left with a target of 198 runs to chase. And they achieved it with Nimesh Aavinda top scoring with 115 runs.
Scores
Kingswood
227 all out in 83.3 overs (Chanul Kodituwakku 33, Aadil Sheriff 69, Kavija Gamage 25, Nikeshala Nanayakkara 56; Seniru Ninduwara 4/74, Lidula Nuwanga 2/58, Nimesh Aavinda 2/48, Pulindu Chamuditha 2/19) and 161 all out in 65.3 overs (Kavija Gamage 57, Nikeshala Nanayakkara 45; Seniru Ninduwara 2/45, Pulindu Chamuditha 2/07)
Vidyaloka
191 all out in 79.3 overs (Lidula Nuwanga 81, Seniru Ninduwara 34, Tharusha Jayamith 23; Kavija Gamage 4/63, Upadi Jayawardane 2/41) and 200 for 8 in 48.3 overs( Nimesh Aavinda 114, Lidula Nuwanga 34, Seniru Ninduwara 28; Kavija Gamage 3/80, Dominsara Peiris 2/51)
by Reemus Fernando
There was a growing sense of uncertainty surrounding the hosting of the 120th edition of the Lovers’ Quarrel Big Match after Richmond College raised concerns over an attempt by Mahinda College to field a newly recruited player in the team at the historic match which was scheduled to commence on Thursday.
Richmond College authorities have informed Mahinda that they would pullout from the match if the newly recruited player who played for St. Aloysius’ in the just concluded Under 19 cricket tournament is included in the Big Match team.
According to sources Mahinda College have recruited St. Aloysius’ skipper Charya Paranavithana at the end of the Under 19 cricket tournament and are yet to register him under their name with Sri Lanka Schools Cricket Association. They have included the player in the Big Match squad.
A source close to Mahinda said that though the player is included in the squad he was not certain to be in the playing XI.
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