Sports
Has Education Ministry forgotten value of sports?
The Ministry of Education has suspended all sports competitions. If the Junior Nationals is not held hundreds of junior athletes who have endured unprecedented challenges in continuing the sport this year are likely to be without a single competition.
by Reemus Fernando
Sri Lanka Athletics is in two minds with regard to conducting the Junior National Athletics Championship as the number of Covid 19 positive cases has increased dramatically during the last few days. If it is held, the major junior event which was scheduled for November will be the only track and field event to be conducted for junior athletes this year. If it is not, hundreds of junior athletes who have endured unprecedented challenges in continuing the sport this year are likely to be without a single competition.
Palitha Fernando, the President of Sri Lanka Athletics told The Island: “It is too early to say whether we are going ahead with the Junior Nationals or not. The increasing number of covid 19 positive cases has ruined the prospect of conducting competitions. We will soon have to take a decision.”
Sri Lanka Athletics last week postponed the National Trials scheduled for this month, citing health concerns and kept postponing the decision to conduct the Junior National Championship and the National Championship.
A decision by the Ministry of Education to cancel all school competitions to be conducted by them for this year in the wake of the Covid -19 pandemic has already dealt a severe blow to the sport. However, it had granted permission for some schools sports associations to conduct their annual events, adhering to health guidelines. That was some respite for young track and field athletes who continued training in the belief that they would be able to compete in the Sir John Tarbat Athletics Championship conducted by the Sri Lanka Schools Athletics Association and the Junior Nationals conducted by Sri Lanka Athletics.
But last week, the Ministry of Education withdrew approval putting in jeopardy all sports competitions involving school athletes, although it went ahead with the Scholarship and A/L exams.
Like the A/L exam, which is vital for students pursuing higher education and entering the job market, competitions are vital for hundreds of school athletes in the higher age category.
“Competitions and rewards for victory are the stimulants that help athletes keep interested in the sport. When you don’t have competitions you can’t also expect performances to improve,” says a prominent coach who thinks that the impact of the pandemic will not be immediately felt.
Many who are in the Under-20 age category will miss their final competition as school athletes due to the current situation. Athletes’ achievements at national level earn them vital points for University admission.
Although many leading junior athletes are still training in the hope of competing, the track and field sport is in the danger of losing a strong second string in this pandemic.
“If you can’t conduct events with mass participation then you should look for some alternatives,” said the coach.
Sri Lanka Athletics decided to conduct a time trial for top athletes instead of the national trial during the same period they were scheduled to conduct the latter. Similarly, some form of competition should be make available for the junior athletes who trained hard this year.
Competitions are the exams that put to test the athletes’ speed, strength, power and endurance and determine how well they control their emotions in improving their performances in their respective disciplines. Athletes and coaches spend hours developing these skills and need competitions to test how successful their programmes have been. The absence of competitions will deny them that opportunity.
Global sports organisers are preparing to go ahead with the competitions planed for the year 2021 despite the prevalence of the virus. The International Olympic Committee is going ahead with the Tokyo Olympics. There are a number of junior and youth international events taking place in 2021. The World Governing bodies of sports are conducting these events in some countries worst hit by the pandemic.
According to health experts Covid 19 pandemic will not be over soon. Physical health, they say, is the key to survival during a pandemic. Certainly you can’t risk the health of young athletes, but local sports authorities including the Ministry of Education should explore the ways and means of overcoming this hurdle and providing competition opportunities. If there is no health risk in conducting exams in closed environs how will it be risky to conduct non-contact sports events like track and field sports outdoors? Health Authorities have not restricted or banned competitions. Sports activities can be continued with 50% of participation adhering to guidelines.
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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