Sports
Namal’s faux pas
by Rex Clementine
In an interview with a Sunday newspaper, Sports Minister Namal Rajapaksa had conceded that every time that an Interim Committee was in place that our cricket had slumped!
Now, there are few things that the Sports Minister is good at like for example playing rugby, driving fast cars and practicing law. In racing, Namal has so many tricks up his sleeve that at times he makes Ayrton Senna look ordinary. In rugby, Namal’s beloved Navy SC made the invincible Kandy SC eat humble pie. In the legal practice, Namal passed Law college exam with flying colours obtaining more marks than the great Lalith Athulathmudali. That all this he achieved while his father was the President of course is a different story.
Anyone who has followed Sri Lankan cricket knows why Interim Committees were put in place and what happened afterwards. The first Interim Committee headed by Rienzie Wijetilleke was appointed in 1999 when the sport had hit new lows. Sri Lanka as defending champions of the World Cup made a first round exit in England and there were many who had to pay the price – captain, selectors and the board.
The new selection panel headed by Sidath Wettimuny did sweeping changes and blooded in youth. The very first series after the changes were made Sri Lanka not only beat Australia in a Test match for the first time but won a tri-nation series beating Steve Waugh’s side in the grand final. This was less than two months after they had become World Champions.
Many young players were blooded in at that time, including one Kumar Sangakkara who sits on the Technical Advisory panel that the Minister of Sports has appointed. Maybe Namal will be better off learning from Sanga what Interim Committees have done for the sport.
There was a second Interim Committee headed by Vijaya Malalasekara in 2001. At that time, the national cricket team went onto win ten matches in a row, still a record.
The head of third Interim Committee was leading businessman Hemaka Amarasuriya, who was appointed in 2002. His crowning moment was successfully conducting the inaugural ICC Champions Trophy in Colombo 2002, the biggest sporting spectacle Sri Lanka had conducted at that point. Sri Lanka ended the competition in flying colours finishing as joint-champions along with India after the final was rained off.
Namal’s illustrious father himself appointed several Interim Committees. So when Namal says that the performances of the team suffered when Interim Committees were in place, he is in fact pointing figures at Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa. The truth is far from that. Someone seems to be taking the Minister on a ride and the sooner he realizes that the better it is.
Sri Lanka Cricket seems to be not having too many supporters these days given the blunders they have committed in recent weeks. But Namal seems to be their biggest fan. The other day, he misled the Parliament by taking Chaminda Vaas to task for not going on the tour of West Indies conveniently forgetting several lapses on the part of the men who are running cricket.
Some stakeholders of the game have pointed it out that the term of the office bearers of SLC who were elected on the 21st February 2019 had ended on the 20th of February 2021 and are not legally entitled to hold office as they have been appointed for a period of two years.
The stakeholders have demanded that either an Interim Committee is appointed or run the affairs of SLC through a Competent Authority like the Secretary of the Ministry as it has been done on previous occasions.
However, the Minister of Sports seems to be passing the buck on claims what are actually false; like Sri Lanka performing poorly when Interim Committees are in place.
The current administration cut a pathetic figure unable to answer questions at the COPE. More sickening details are expected to be exposed when COPE summons officials again. One question that everyone seems to be wondering is how a sum of US$ 180,000 disappeared to an offshore account in Mexico and who swindled that money!
The Minister of Sports needs to get his act together and information right before he tilts at windmills.
Young Pramod Madushan has become the talk in cricket circles after he scored 42 runs in an over for Mercantile Services Cricket Academy against Sigi Cricket Academy at Ambalangoda recently.
In an over that contained nine deliveries, including two no-balls and a wide, Madushan cut loose hitting three fours and five sixes. In all, the over bowled by Bihandu Sandiv went for 45 runs.
The young cricketer from D.S. Senanayake College, Colombo shares the same name as Sri Lanka fast bowler Pramod Madushan. However, the 19-year-old is a wicketkeeper batter.
His knock of 103 came in just 38 deliveries and contained eight fours and ten sixes.
Australia batter Usman Khawaja will retire from international cricket following the fifth Ashes Test against England in Sydney this week.
The 39-year-old will play his 88th and final Test on the ground where he made his debut against the same opponents in January 2011.
Khawaja was born in Pakistan and became the first Muslim to play for Australia when he took the place of Ricky Ponting at the end of England’s 3-1 series win 15 years ago.
The left-hander has made 6,206 Test runs at an average of 43.39, with 16 hundreds.
He has played in six Ashes series – winning two, losing two and drawing two.
He was also part of the Australia team that won the World Test Championship in 2023.
The final Test at the SCG starts on Sunday (23:30 GMT, Saturday).
Alongside Steve Smith, Khawaja is one of two remaining members of the Australia team beaten by England in their most recent series win in this country in 2010-11.
He needs 30 runs in his final Test to go above Mike Hussey and into 14th on Australia’s all-time run-scorers list, behind the great Donald Bradman in 13th.
Khawaja played the last of his 40 one-day internationals in 2019, having scored 1,554 runs at 42. He played in nine T20 internationals, scoring 241 runs at 26.77.
Now playing domestically for Queensland, Khawaja will end his career on the ground that was his home when he first played professional cricket for New South Wales in 2008.
Often in and out of the Australia team during his Test career, he found a home at the top of the order during the previous home Ashes in 2021-22.
However, his place has come under scrutiny during this series after he suffered back spasms in the first Test that prevented him from opening.
Travis Head took Khawaja’s place in the second innings and made a swashbuckling century to lead Australia to an eight-wicket win.
Khawaja subsequently missed the second Test with the back problem and was due to be left out of the third, only to receive a late call-up when Steve Smith fell ill.
He made 82 and 40 in Adelaide to retain his place for the fourth Test. Australia lead the series 3-1.
After the Ashes Australia will not play another Test until August, by which time Khawaja will be almost 40.
[BBC]
India were pushed more than they had been at any point in this series but still ran home victors in the final T20I at Trivandrum to complete a 5-0 series win over Sri Lanka – the first time they have swept a bilateral T20I series of this length at home. Besides a stronger performance from their opponents, the hosts faced sterner challenges – the rare failure of their top order, a dewy ball in defence but managed to overcome them all as they ran home winners by 15 runs.
The win was set up by the skipper Harmanpreet Kaur, who hadn’t crossed 21 in the four previous innings of this series but come a tricky situation, she stepped up with a 43-ball 68. After being put in to bat, India found themselves in early trouble at 27 for 2, with debutant G Kamalini, coming in for the rested Smriti Mandhana, following the in-form Shafali Verma back to the hut. Inside the 10th over, India also lost Harleen Deol and Richa Ghosh and were struggling for any kind of momentum.
But Harmanpreet rose to the moment with a commanding knock that mixed caution with aggression. She hit nine fours and a six and was particularly effective playing the field against the left-arm spinners. Even with Harmanpreet providing the backbone of the innings, India needed a late push from Arundhati Reddy and Amanjot Kaur, who scored a pair of useful 20s to push the score forward. Arundhati, in particular, smashed 27 off 11 balls as India found 66 runs in the final five overs to get to 175.
Chasing 176, Sri Lanka produced their best batting performance of the series, built around an excellent 79-run partnership off just 56 balls between Hasini Perera and Imesha Dulani for the second wicket. Perera, playing her 81st T20I, finally brought up her maiden half-century in the format, while Dulani also reached the milestone as the visitors raced to stay within touching distance of the target.
The momentum shifted dramatically when Amanjot Kaur struck with her very first delivery to dismiss Dulani, breaking the dangerous stand. Perera continued to fight, threatening to pull off an unlikely heist. But after clubbing a four and a six off Sree Charani, she was cleaned up by the left-arm spinner with a full delivery that slipped under Perera’s bat to knock out the stumps. Between that, Deepti Sharma trapped Nilakshi Silva to pass Megan Schutt as the format’s leading wicket-taker.
Those late wickets meant, Sri Lanka were left needing 34 runs from the final two overs. They got close, but ultimately not close enough to cause India enough jitters on the night.
Brief scores:
India Women 175 for 7 in 20 overs
(Gunalan Kamalini 12, Harleen Deol 13, Harmanpreet Kaur 68, Amanjot Kaur 21, Arundhati Reddy 27*; Nimasha Meepage 1-25, Kavisha Dilhari 2-11, Rashmika Sewwandi 2-42, Chamari Athapaththu 2-21) beat Sri Lanka Women 160 for 7 in 20 overs (Hasini Perera 65, Imesha Dulani 50, Rashmika Sewwamdi 14*; Deepti Sharma 1-28, Arundhati Reddy 1-16, Sneh Rana 1-31, Vaishnavi Sharma 1-33, Shree Charani 1-31, Amanjot Kaur 1-17 ) by 15 runs
[Cricbuzz]
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