Sports
Kaushalya breaks national record, Thrushi wins senior 400 metres title
Sri Lanka Army athlete Kaushalya Perera lowered the women’s national pole vault record with a feat of 3.65 metres on day one of the Sri Lanka Athletics conducted 1st Selection Trial at the Sugathadasa Stadium on Thursday.
Perera improved on her own record which she established at the same venue in November. A former gymnast, Perera had cleared 3.60 metres in November.
On a day notable for the absence of several senior national athletes, Ratnayake Central middle distance runner Tharushi Karunaratne bagged the top honour of winning the women’s 400 metres in a time of 56.17 seconds. Instead of running in the junior category she was competing in the senior event. In the heats she returned a faster 55.73 seconds feat. Her senior training partner, Dilshi Kumarasinghe and 400 metres specialist Nadeesha Ramanayake were not competing yesterday due to injury.
In the corresponding men’s event Kalinga Kumarage (47.00 secs) was the winner as he finished ahead of Pabasara Niku. But both failed to clock sub 47 seconds. Aruna Dharshana, a leading contender for the title did not take part.
In the junior boys’ 400 metres Sithum Jayasundara was hardly challenged as he eased to a 48.24 seconds finish ahead of D.M. Dharshana who clocked 49.05 seconds.
There was a strong field in the women’s 100 metres with Amasha de Silva, Shelinda Jansen and Rumeshika Ratnayake making a final appearance. While de Silva retained her top position winning in a time of 10.63 seconds, Ratnayake settled for the second place in a time of 10.68 seconds and .Shafiya Yamick clocked 11.82 seconds to finish third. Jansen finished fifth behind Lakshika Sugandi.
The junior girls’ 100 metres final too witnessed an impressive finish with Lyceum sprinter Dulyana Suludagoda stopping the clock in 12.19 seconds in a wind assisted effort. Bandara Dela (12.23 secs) of Gateway and Sashika Sandepani (12.57 secs) of Visakha Balika, Makola finished second and third respectively.
The junior boys’ 100 metres was won by Mahinda College, Galle sprinter Ayesh Mihiranga (10.91 secs). Hirusha Hashen of Track Masters and Pasindu Gunawardena of Gateway finished second and third respectively.
With top sprinter Himasha Eshan serving a ban and national record holder Yupun Abeykoon based in Italy, the stage was set for a new champion to emerge in the men’s 100 metres. Chamod Yodhasinghe took the opportunity winning in a time of 10.53 seconds. C. S. Dharmakerthi and Yodhasinghe both returned 10.53 seconds and were separated by a photo finish analysis.
While Dilhani Lekamge won the women’s javelin throw with a feat of 63.66 metres, Chamini Herath (women’s 10,000 m), Dhanushka Sandaruwan (men’s 5,000metres), Samith Fernando (men’s shot put) and Sanjaya Bandara (men’s hammer throw) were the winners of their respective pet events held in the morning sessions.
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.
WTC winners to get USD 3.6 million in prize money
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