Sports
Celebrating 75 years of cricketing excellence
by Rex Clementine
A new controlling body for cricket in Ceylon was formed on the 25th of June 1948 and was named Board of Control for Cricket in Ceylon. Today marks the 75th anniversary of the formation of the cricket board. At a meeting held at the Malay Cricket Club at Rifle Green, P. Saravanamuttu was elected as President of the board. The entity has over the years gone through name changes such as Board of Control for Cricket in Sri Lanka and its present name Sri Lanka Cricket.
The initial crest of the board contained two elephants, a coconut tree, a paddy field and Adam’s peak. Over the years this too has gone through significant changes. At a time when the country didn’t have full member status of the International Cricket Council, opportunities against international sides were few and rare and usually teams travelling to either Australia or England played a game or two as their ships docked at Colombo harbour. India and Pakistan of course engaged in regular contests called ‘unofficial Tests’.
Goonasena makes his mark
Several Ceylonese cricketers in the early days such as Dr. C.H. Gunasekara, F.C. de Seram, Gamini Goonasena, Laddie Outschoorn and Stanley Jayasinghe excelled in County Cricket in England. Goonasena among them made a name for himself having become the first Asian to captain Oxford or Cambridge. He completed the double of 1000 runs and 100 wickets for Cambridge in two seasons and repeated the feat twice at Nottinghamshire, which he represented for 11 seasons. Subsequently he became the first Ceylonese to be named as one of Wisden’s five cricketers in 1957.
Tissera’s remarkable captaincy
The year 1965 was a landmark one for cricket in Ceylon. The team had travelled to India for a three-match four-day unofficial Test series and they beat a strong Indian side skippered by Tiger Pataudi. The victory came in Ahmedabad and Tissera’s bold captaincy was hailed by all and sundry. It was the captain’s declaration with the team still trailing that set up the match. The victory had its rewards as later that year Ceylon were made an Associate member of the ICC. The proposal was brought forward by the Board of Control for Cricket in India and seconded by Pakistan. Tissera, a living legend richly deserves to have a trophy named after him in international cricket as West indies and – Sri Lanka play for Sobers – Tissera Trophy.
First ACC meeting in Colombo
In 1972, Sri Lanka hosted the Asian Cricket Council conference with the participation of key stakeholders of the region. Sri Lanka was represented by Shelly Wickramasinghe and Neil Perera.
ODI status for Sri Lanka
For the inaugural World Cup in 1975, the full members of the ICC took part and two other teams had been invited – East Africa and Sri Lanka. It was an historical event as Sri Lanka played their first major cricket competition and their batters had a decent outing with the world appreciating the efforts. Their first ODI was against West Indies. While there were 11 Sri Lankan debutants in that game, there were also two West Indies players who were making their debuts – a certain Vivian Richards and Andy Roberts.
Sri Lanka wins ICC Trophy
For the subsequent World Cup in 1979 there was too much interest and the ICC had to conduct a qualifying round. It was called the ICC Trophy and the two finalists were going through to the World Cup. Sri Lanka beat Canada in the finals of the ICC Trophy and shocked a strong Indian side during the World Cup at Old Trafford. They became the first Associate Member to beat a full member of the ICC. This win went a long way in the team being granted Test status two years later. Anura Tennakoon captained the Sri Lankan side
Muttiah Muralitharan holds the World Record for most wickets in Test match cricket and One-Day Internationals
Test status for Sri Lanka
With Gamini Dissanayake becoming the President of the board, there was an aggressive push to gain Test status. A powerful Cabinet Minister, he addressed key areas like new venues to host international games, sponsorships from the private sector, three-day cricket, indoor nets and trained coaches in a bid to make the nation’s cricket team a strong force. To his credit, in his first attempt Sri Lanka were granted Test status on July 22nd, 1981.
Impressive feats in international cricket
Sri Lanka played their inaugural Test match in 1982 against England and it took them just three years to win their maiden Test match – against India in 1985. The Asia Cup win came not too long after that and it was a feather in the cap of a young cricketing nation. Duleep Mendis skippered the side in both landmark victories.
Sri Lanka’s first overseas Test win came in 1995 in Napier against New Zealand. Just 15 years after gaining full membership of the ICC, the national team went onto win the ICC Cricket World Cup in 1996. Since then, the team has won a T-20 World Cup and reached two other 50 over World Cup finals and two more T-20 World Cup finals. They were also joint champions of the 2002 Champions Trophy when they shared the trophy with India.
The team’s 952 for six declared in the 1997 Test match against India is a World Record. Sanath Jayasuriya scored a triple hundred and Sri Lanka had a triple centurion in Test match cricket seven years before India had one, although the big brother had been playing Test match cricket since 1936.
In 1998, Sri Lanka recorded their first Test win in England. Eight years later, they whitewashed England in their backyard 5-0 in ODIs. In 2014, the team won their first Test series in England.
In 2011 Sri Lanka won a Test match in South Africa for the first time and in 2019 they became the first Asian nation to win a Test series in South Africa. In fact, apart from Australia and England, no other team has won a Test series in South Africa.
Spin legend Muttiah Muralitharan is world’s highest wicket taker in Test match cricket with 800 scalps to his name. His 534 wickets in ODI cricket is also a World Record.Interestingly, Sri Lanka had two batsmen – Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara – scoring 10,000 Test runs, before anyone from England reached the milestone. England started playing Test cricket more than 100 years before Sri Lanka.In 2006, Jayawardene and Sangakkara added 624 runs for the third wicket against South Africa, a World Record for any wicket in Test match cricket.
At one point, Sangakkara was ranked world’s number one batter while Muralitharan held the number one rank for bowlers for a record number of weeks.In 2020, Sangakkara became the first non-British President of the Marylebone Cricket Club.
Twenty years before him, fellow Kandyan Ranjan Madugalle was made Chief Match Referee of the ICC ahead of other illustrious former players like Clive Lloyd, Gundappa Viswanath and Mike Procter.There are so many other individuals who have so generously contributed for the benefit of cricket in Sri Lanka and there are several other milestones in the sport that has brought credit to the country. It is regretted that we are not able to record each of those moments or mention all those individuals.
Before the first T20I against Zimbabwe Women, Ayesha Zafar had hit just one six in 28 T20 innings, with her career strike-rate in the early 80s. On Tuesday (May 12), she hit two sixes and 15 fours, smashing the joint third-fastest Women’s T20I hundred in a record-filled win for Pakistan Women.
Her unbeaten 47-ball 102 propelled Pakistan to 237/5 – the first time they crossed 200 in the format – paving the way for a whopping 153-run win in Karachi, their biggest ever margin by runs in T20Is. By the time she was done, Zafar’s career strike-rate had gone up to 97.
The 31-year-old Zafar, who made a comeback to the side in March after nearly two years away, put on a fine show dominant with leg-side hits, notching up her first T20 fifty and converting it to three figures.
At the crease in the second over, Zafar repeatedly shuffled to the backfoot and targeted the leg-side against spinners, pulling any remotely short deliveries to the midwicket or square leg fence. On 20, she got a reprieve playing that shot, with square leg shelling a catch. But Zafar continued to play that stroke, also punishing anything too full by hitting it firmly down the ground.
Gull Feroza, meanwhile, departed for a 19-ball 37, having given them an early push. Zafar raced to 40 off 18, but slowed down a bit thereafter, reaching her fifty in 29 balls.
From the 16-over mark, Zafar picked up again, showcasing her power-hitting against quicks, particularly with shots in the V and towards midwicket, using the crease well to make room. A 67-run stand off 35 balls with Aliya Riaz (48) and a 70-run partnership off just 27 balls with Fatima Sana ensured they easily crossed 200 for the first time. A last-ball four ensured Zafar crossed her three-figure mark.
In reply, Zimbabwe couldn’t really match the run-scoring, pegged down by a flurry of wickets in the Powerplay. Sana prised out Beloved Biza and Kelly Ndiraya off back-to-back balls in the third over to leave Zimbabwe at 14/3. Despite three boundaries in the sixth over, they had slipped to 30/5 at the end of the Powerplay.
There was very little resistance thereafter, with opener Natasha Mtomba top-scoring with 24 and staying put until the tenth over. No other player crossed 20.
Sana finished with 3-7, becoming the highest wicket-taker among T20I quicks for Pakistan Women (46). Zafar won the Player of the Match award and is now the only other Pakistan Women’s T20I centurion besides Muneeba Ali.
Brief scores:
Pakistan Women 237/5 in 20 overs (Gull Feroza 37, Ayesha Zafar 102*, Aliya Riaz 48, Fatima Sana 21*; Precious Marange 1-39, Nomvelo Sibanda 2-59, Beloved Biza 1-33, Michelle Mavunga 1-23) beat Zimbabwe Women 84 all out in 18.2 overs (Natasha Mtomba 24, Beloved Biza 10, Adel Zimunu 18; Fatima Sana 3-07, Sadia Iqbal 2-14, Rameen Shamin 1-18, Natalia Pervaiz 2-03) by 153 runs.
[Cricbuzz]
Kagiso Rabada and Mohommed Siraj could have been wearing their Test whites. By the end of the powerplay, they had bowled three overs each, and Sunrisers Hyderabad were reduced to 34 for 4. Somehow, they had outdone the Gujarat Titans batting line-up from the first innings – they had been reduced to 34 for 2 themselves. Wickets in hand allowed B Sai Sudarsan (61 off 44) and Washington Sundar (50 off 33) to mount a comeback for GT. On the other hand, SRH let a tricky chase of 168 slip from their grasp, folding for 86 in 14.5 overs.
At the toss, GT captain Shubman Gill said that the pitch in Ahmedabad looked like “a better wicket than we have had in the past couple of matches.” He was dismissed in the third over, off a rare mistimed swipe across the line. He had misjudged a pitch that turned out to be one of this IPL’s most treacherous ones: deliveries stuck in the surface, the new ball jagged both ways, and scoring options were hard to find square of the wicket.
An endless battery of tall GT fast bowlers – rounded out by Jason Holder and Impact Player Prasidh Krishna in the middle overs – kept striking in the chase. At the end of it, GT rose to the top of the table with 16 points.
Pat Cummins unlocked the secret to bowling on this surface early: he pushed it in on a hard length, and kept swinging the new ball away from both Sudharsan and Gill. But the first two wickets for SRH came from elsewhere. Praful Hinge found himself back in the SRH side, in place of Harsh Dubey to give them an extra pace option.
Hinge mimicked the Cummins line-and-length early on, and tempted Gill into a misjudged on-drive. In the final over of the powerplay, Jos Buttler realised he could not go big in the ‘V’, so he tried to scoop Hinge behind the wicket instead. All he managed was an edge to the keeper.
Hinge’s twin strikes consigned GT to 34 for 2, their lowest powerplay score this season.
If ever there was a pitch suited to Sudharsan’s brand of T20 batting, it was this. He kept pouncing on the deliveries that erroneously landed in the slot, and pushed the others around to turn over the strike. Nishant Sindhu, who made 22 off 14, kept him company at the other end through the middle overs. Sindhu stayed deep in his crease and played drives and cuts, both batters biding their time.
Sensing a breakthrough, Cummins brought himself back into the attack in the 10th over to bowl his third. He rifled in a delivery outside off, full but rearing off the pitch at Sindhu. He could only mistime a lofted drive to long-off.
Cummins ended with figures of 1 for 20 in the 16th. Just an over later, Sai Sudharsan – who had brought up his sixth half-century of the season – opted for another scoop off Sakib Hussain. The full delivery took off the bottom of his bat, and Hinge gobbled it up at short third.
Washington starred in the final overs of the GT innings. He jumped on top of deliveries too high for most others to cut, and sent them off to the ropes by rolling his wrists over them late. He saved his best shots for the end of the 19th over, off Eshan Malinga, who had a rare off-day and gave away 46 runs. He fell down on successive deliveries, first scooping a yorker down over short fine, then attacking a full toss by rolling his wrists, once more, for a shovel over deep square leg.
At the midway mark, GT’s total was the Schrodinger’s par score – neither quite par but also just, with Sudharsan hesitating to call it enough for their bowlers between innings. Siraj and Rabada then bowled through the powerplay for the fifth match in a row. Nineteen balls into the innings, they had dismissed Travis Head, Abhishek Sharma and Ishan Kishan.
Rabada, in particular, kept hitting the hard length close to 150kph, slanting deliveries away from the left-handers to have Kishan driving at one away from his body, Abhishek chopping one into his stumps, and No. 4 R Smaran mistiming one to Gill in covers. He finished his spell in one go, returning 3 for 28.
Holder’s entry to the GT side has given them another tall, accurate bowler to go to in the middle overs. In their previous game, against Rajasthan Royals, he had plucked out the final three wickets in the space of five balls. Here, he took 3 for 20 as he mopped up SRH’s lower order.
The wicket had worn down as the evening went on, so Holder resorted to slower balls in the back-half of the innings. First, he effectively finished the contest by taking out Heinrich Klaasen, who swiped at a ball lacking in pace over his head, to keeper Buttler running to his left. Nitish Kumar Reddy was his next victim, courtesy an edge from the extra bounce Holder kept extracting from the surface, while Shivang Kumar was the final batter to fall off a misadventurous scoop.
Our final tall bowler of the day – in the cohort of Cummins, Holder, Rabada and Siraj – also had the highest release point of all: Prasidh Krishna. He went back-of-a-length in his spell to finish with figures of 2 for 23 of his own.
At the end of a fast-bowling buffet, GT marched to their biggest victory in the IPL. Their W in the last match – a 77-run win against RR – had been their previous best. They finished this night on top of the table, suddenly the team to beat this season.
Brief scores:
Gujarat Titans 168 for 5 in 20 overs (Sai Sudharsan 61, Nishant Sindhu 22, Washington Sundar 50, Jason Holder 11*; Pat Cummins 1-20, Praful Hinge 2-17, Sakib Hussain 2-37) beat Sunrisers Hyderabad 86 in 14.5 overs (Ishan Kishan 11, Heinrich Klassen 14, Salil Arora 16, Pat Cummins 19; Mohammed Siraj 1-11, Jason Holder 3-20, Kagiso Rabada 3-28, Prasidh Krishna 2-23, Rashid Khan 1-03) by 82 runs
[Cricinfo]
After years of disappointing returns, off-field controversies, lengthy suspensions and a bad-boy image among cricket fans, Kusal Mendis seems to have finally turned a corner. With a young daughter now at the centre of his world, Mendis appears to have realized that there’s more to life than pubs and nightclubs. The hours in the gym have increased significantly and so has his commitment to the game.
The turning point came in England last year. Every player dreams of playing a Test match at Lord’s, the Home of Cricket. Mendis, one of the senior players in the side, was dropped for the big game and it hurt him deeply.
Not many approved of the move. Former captain Duleep Mendis called it a poor decision and several others echoed similar sentiments. But the selectors knew exactly what they were doing. They wanted to prick Mendis’ ego and jolt him out of his comfort zone.
He returned for the next Test in a new role as wicketkeeper-batsman and Sri Lanka went onto win the game. Pathum Nissanka’s century grabbed most of the headlines, but it was Mendis who laid the platform. Chasing only 219, he counter-attacked aggressively, forcing England to spread the field and eventually playing right into Sri Lanka’s hands.
Since then, he has been a revelation in limited-overs cricket as well, forging a formidable opening partnership with Nissanka. His wicketkeeping too has been spotless.
People may have plenty to say about Mendis, but one thing that has never been in doubt is that he is a team man. He has been more than willing to do the hard yards while younger players like Pathum Nissanka, Charith Asalanka and Kamindu Mendis enjoy the limelight.
Such has been his form in the PSL that he finished as the tournament’s second highest run scorer, playing a major role in helping his franchise win the title.
Against that backdrop, the national selectors are contemplating handing him the white-ball captaincy. But Mendis already has enough on his plate as opener and wicketkeeper. Why burden him further with captaincy responsibilities?
Charith Asalanka, meanwhile, has been groomed for leadership since the age of 17. The selectors already blundered by taking the T20 captaincy away from him. Now, with the 50-over World Cup a year away, they seem keen to strip him of the ODI captaincy too.
Their previous choice for T20 captaincy, Dasun Shanaka, proved uninspiring. True, Asalanka can sometimes get under your skin with his excesses. During the recent NSL final, he was reportedly fined a significant portion of his match fee following an altercation with the umpires. But if you have entrusted a man with a job, then back him to do it.
One is reminded of what happened during the 2023 World Cup. Mendis began the tournament in blazing fashion with scores of 76 and 123 in the first two games. From the third match onwards, however, he was handed the captaincy after Shanaka’s injury and his form nosedived. He failed to score a single half-century in the next seven innings.
Ironically, the same man who now chairs the selection panel was the architect of that decision as well. Some lessons, it seems, are never learnt.
by Rex Clementine
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