Sports
Our confidence levels are high after Old Trafford – Sanath
Rex Clementine
in London
Sri Lanka’s coach Sanath Jayasuriya says the team’s confidence levels are high after the Old Trafford Test match where they tested England before going down by five wickets. Sri Lanka were written off in cold and gloomy conditions in Manchester but the batting recovered as the game progressed.
Kamindu Mendis was the standout performer with a hundred while four others chipped in with half-centuries. Asitha Fernando became an overnight sensation among the British press after an excellent bowling display while Prabath Jayasuriya troubled the Englishmen with accurate bowling.
“I had the confidence they would do well. I told the public to have faith in the players during the Indian series. It was tough coming into the Test series as they had only played one warm-up game. We need to play at least two warm-up games in order to settle down to the climate. But that’s the reality as the international calendar is tight.”
“In the first innings 236 was not enough but lower middle order showed character. After that we gained a lot of confidence.”
“You have to play with passion. I know I have a job to do for my country. I am answerable for the people in my country. Although I am doing a part time job I want to instill in them you are playing for your country and you need to play with passion. That’s what I did.”
Jayasuriya, the former Test captain who forced England to follow on when he captained the Lord’s Test in 2002 said he wanted the top order to fire in the second Test starting Thursday.
“I want the top order to bat well one of them at least need to get runs. Dimuth is batting well but unfortunately he is getting out in the 20s that’s not enough. I am not putting any pressure on them. I have given them the maximum confidence.”
The Sri Lankan side has three former captains and while Dimuth is yet to fire, Jayasuriya was happy the other two former skippers, Angelo Mathews and Dinesh Chandimal came good.
“Great to see the way Kamindu went about things. Super knock by Angelo as well. Chandimal showed character. After getting hit on the thumb, he took three pain killer injections before going to bat. That’s the attitude I want to see. Then others also learn from him.”
Sri Lanka will train at Lord’s on Tuesday and Wednesday and a full house is expected for the game although tickets are priced high.
“We have to start from scratch. We are taking the positives from Old Trafford. It’s totally different conditions at Lord’s. We can’t take things for granted. If somebody gets in I want another good 100 from one of those top order batsmen.”
There was some criticism when Jayasuriya took over as coach but he has done well having coached the team for a series win over India after 27 years.
“Constructive criticism I will always accept. Other things I take it off from my head. I have a job to do. SLC, support staff and cricketers have a lot of trust in me. In coaching the managing part is very important, managing players is not easy. I know my culture and we need to persevere with the Sri Lankan values.”
Can Sri Lanka win a Test match in England this time? “We have to play good cricket to do that. We need to win at least two sessions every day for five days then we have a good chance.
Egypt forward Mohamed Salah has signed a new two-year contract with Liverpool.
The 32-year-old’s previous deal was scheduled to run out in the summer and there had been doubts he would stay with the Reds following comments from him during the season and speculation linking him with a move to Saudi Arabia.
However, he is staying and will have the chance to add to his 243 goals and 109 assists for the club in 393 appearances.
“Of course I’m very excited – we have a great team now,” said Salah.
“Before also we had a great team. But I signed because I think we have a chance to win other trophies and enjoy my football.
“I have played eight years here, hopefully it’s going to be 10. I’m enjoying my life here, enjoying my football. I have had the best years of my career here.”
Salah has scored 32 goals in all competitions this season, including 27 in the Premier League as the Reds chase a 20th top-flight title. Liverpool are 11 points clear of second-placed Arsenal with seven games remaining.
Salah, who joined Liverpool from Roma in 2017, has won the Champions League, Premier League, FA Cup, League Cup and Fifa Club World Cup with the Reds.
He was one of three key Liverpool players who will be out of contract this summer, along with right-back Trent Alexander-Arnold and centre-back Virgil van Dijk.
Netherlands defender Van Dijk has said there has been progress on talks over a new deal but Alexander-Arnold has been heavily linked with a move to Real Madrid.
[BBC]
MS Dhoni will lead Chennai Super Kings (CSK) for the remainder of IPL 2025 after Rutraj Gaikwad was ruled out of the rest of the season with an elbow injury.
CSK head coach Stephen Fleming confirmed the development on the eve of the home game against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) on Friday. It is a significant blow to CSK, who have made a bad start to their campaign by losing four of their first five matches. They are currently ninth in the points table, above only Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH).
Gaikwad suffered the injury during CSK’s match against Rajasthan Royals (RR) in Guwahati on March 30. He was struck on his unprotected elbow after stepping out to fast bowler Tushar Deshpande and missing the ball in the second over of CSK’s unsuccessful chase, but continued batting and scored 63 in that game. He played two more games after that and made 5 against Delhi Capitals (DC) in Chennai on April 5 and 1 against Punjab Kings (PBKS) in Mullanpur on April 8. After five games, he was CSK’s second-highest run-scorer with 122 runs at a strike rate of 150.61; he was CSK’s highest run-scorer in IPL 2024.
“He [Gaikwad] got hit in Guwahati. He’s been operating with an amount of pain,” Fleming said in Chennai. “We got an X-ray, which was inconclusive, and we had an MRI, which revealed a fracture in his elbow, in the radial neck.
“So we’re disappointed, and feel for him. We appreciate the efforts that he’s gone to in terms of trying to play, but unfortunately, he’d be out of the tournament from now. We have an uncapped player, MS Dhoni, who will take over as captain for the remainder of the IPL.”
Dhoni, 43, had led CSK from 2008 until 2024, when he handed the captaincy to Gaikwad. He had also handed the captaincy to Ravindra Jadeja in 2022, but took back the leadership some way into the season after the team went through a bad run of results. Under Dhoni’s captaincy, CSK have won five IPL titles in 2010, 2011, 2018, 2021 and 2023 and two Champions League trophies as well.
“He [Dhoni] had no hesitation to step up and help guide us out of this if we can,” Fleming said. “So that was never a doubt. We’ll look at replacements. We’ve got some good players in the squad that have been with us a while, so we’ll look from within first. But yeah, there is an opportunity to see how we can enhance the squad probably moving forward into subsequent years.”
After their home game against KKR on today, CSK play two away games against Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) on April 14 and Mumbai Indians (MI) on April 20.
[Cricinfo]
Both the men’s and women’s cricket events at the LA 2028 Olympics are set to be six-team competitions, as approved by the Executive Board (EB) of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) on Wednesday (April 9). Further, a total of 90 athlete quotas have been allotted to each gender, allowing each nation to name a 15-member squad.
As reported earlier, T20 Internationals have been designated as the format of choice for the competition. The venues are yet to be confirmed although New York is in the fray to host the matches.
It is unclear how the six participating nations will be determined and the issue of representation, in the cases of Great Britain and the West Indies, is yet to be addressed as well.
Cricket was last part of the Olympic Games in 1900, when it was contested by just two teams – Great Britain and France. Great Britain went on to win the only cricket Olympics Gold Medal thus far by winning what was a 2-day game.
Cricket has recently been a part of other international multi-sport events. Both men’s and women’s cricket competitions were part of the Hangzhou 2022 Asian Games whereas the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games featured an eight-team women’s competition.
(Cricbuzz)
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