Sports

Sri Lanka in shambles in second Test

Published

5 years ago

2022/03/14

Rex Clementine in Bangalore

India have not just got the world’s best franchise tournament, they also have a robust Test team and Sri Lanka with a bloated First Class system were no match for the hosts as they were heading for a heavy defeat in the second Test here in Bangalore inside three days.

You can pardon Sri Lanka’s players for not being fit to hold a candle to the Indians as their opponents’ skill levels are far superior. But what is unpardonable is their mindless selections and sloppy cricket.

Niroshan Dickwella and Kusal Mendis are making a comeback since being suspended and a close look would tell you that they have learned little although they have been doing time for more than six months.

On the first day’s play, Mendis walked out to the field wearing a floppy hat although it’s a tradition for players to wear their Test cap on the first session of a Test match. It’s a tradition started by one of the nation’s exemplary leaders by the

name of Marvan Atapattu and maybe we should not expect lesser mortals like Mendis to follow suit. It is a man of Mendis’ stature the current selection committee appointed as vice-captain in May last year giving us a clear indication that here’s a future Test captain. Just in case that doom’s day dawns, Sri Lanka’s team meetings will be happening at the Cheers Pub. To their credit, the rest of the Sri Lankan players were wearing their Test caps.

Sri Lanka have done some bizarre things this tour and they opened batting with Mendis on day one and that experiment lasted less than three overs. Then there’s Niroshan Dickwella, his partner in crime.

Dickwella’s reviewing has been horrendous for many years but Sri Lankan captains continue to depend on him. His counterpart Rishab Pant has been excellent giving skipper Rohit Sharma sound advice. In India’s first innings, Dickwella prompted his captain to review leg before wicket decisions on three occasions and on all three occasions it emerged that the batsmen had nicked the ball. The only advice you should be getting from Dickwella is which restaurants in Colombo have free corkage.

India’s lower middle order batsmen have cleverly farmed the strike from the tail-enders and helped the team score significant totals. Dickwella meanwhile is happy to give the strike back to the lower order batters. He is more content in finishing not out to boost up his average. The suspension has meant nothing for Dickwella. He continues to be impulsive, impatient, incompetent and incorrigible.

On a track where the bowlers had lot of assistance, India managed to score 252 runs having won the toss. Sri Lanka had reduced them to 126 for five but the last five batsmen contributed another 126 to help the team to a competitive total.

Sri Lanka were shot out for 109 runs in their first innings and at one stage were in danger of being bowled out for their lowest score against India. None of the batters managed a half-century as Jasprit Bumrah was on the money finishing with five wickets.

India declared their second innings on 303 for nine. Rishab Pant was like batting on a different wicket as he smashed 50 off 27 balls with six fours and two sixes. He broke Kapil Dev’s Indian record for fastest half-century in Tests. Kapil had scored in 30 deliveries against Pakistan 40 years ago. Pant’s record means nothing much against this hapless bowling attack.

Sri Lanka finished day two on 28 for one chasing an improbable target of 447. They still need 419 runs with nine wickets in hand.

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Sri Lanka bowl first in semi final clash against India

Published

39 mins ago

2026/10/1

Priyan

Sri Lanka won the toss and elected to bowl first in the Asian games semifinal clash against India.

Sri Lanka XI: Lasith Croospulle, Sineth Jayawardene, Sohan de Livera (wk), Ashen Bandara, Sahan Arachchige (c), Nuwanidu Fernando, Chamika Karunaratne, Wanuja Sahan, Tharindu Rathnayake, Binura Fernando, Vijayakanth Viyaskanth

India XI: Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson (wk), Shreyas Iyer (c), Ishan Kishan, Tilak Varma, Shivam Dube, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Ravi Bishnoi, Jasprit Bumrah

Sports

New constitution puts SLC under greater public scrutiny

Published

5 hours ago

2026/10/1

Sahan Weerasooriya

President’s Counsel Dinal Philips emphasized that the new SLC constitution will modernize the sport.

by Rex Clementine

President’s Counsel Dinal Phillips has defended a key provision in the proposed new constitution for Sri Lanka Cricket that allows one of the appointed members, rather than an elected representative, to serve as Chairman of the Board. There have been concerns that a former cricketer will not be able to be appointed as Chairman of SLC if the new constitution comes to effect, but Philips said that the country needed to move on with times.

Successive governments have promised sweeping reforms at the cricket board but delivered precious little. The NPP government, however, has taken concrete steps towards overhauling the administration, with a new constitution now in the public domain.

The proposed constitution has been gazetted and will be debated in Parliament, while the Supreme Court will determine whether its provisions are consistent with the laws of the country. Stakeholders will also have an opportunity to challenge provisions they consider contentious.

Once the legal and parliamentary process is completed, the new constitution will come into force, making SLC answerable to Parliament and by extension, to the public.

“The Chairman of the Board will be from among the appointed individuals because there needs to be a great deal of independence on the Board. You are talking about a Rs. 16 billion organisation,” Phillips told reporters at SLC headquarters yesterday.

Phillips has been a prominent figure in cricketing circles in recent years. He represented his Royal College schoolmate Kusal Janith Perera during the legal battle that eventually cleared the batsman following a doping suspension. He is also a former President of Tamil Union, one of SLC’s controlling clubs.

“You have to have people with sound accounting backgrounds, legal expertise, marketing and IT knowledge involved in running your cricket board. All those areas are covered in this structure,” Phillips said.

“The powers will also be vested in the CEO of SLC and he will run the business of the organisation. The Board of Directors will execute policy.”

Phillips, together with fellow legal expert Upul Kumaraperuma, played a key role in drafting the proposed constitution.

“Look at other parts of the world. We don’t want to be left behind; we want to move with the rest of the world. These are serious, long-term steps. We are trustees for 20 million people. We have been asked questions about what is happening to our cricket. We want to raise the bar,” Phillips added.

SLC chief Eran Wickramaratne was also present at the briefing and faced questions over the national team’s disappointing tour of England, where Sri Lanka were whitewashed 3-0 in the T20I series before enduring an inconsistent ODI campaign.

“We want to see the team winning, no doubt about that. But we don’t have concerns about individuals, say, for example, Gary Kirsten. It requires time to build,” Wickramaratne said.

“In 2011, we were ranked number four in Tests, number three in ODIs and number three in T20s. If you look at where we are now, we are towards the lower end; seven, eight or nine.

“That decline has happened over a period of ten to 15 years. You have to be realistic. Any coach who comes in cannot change things overnight. But we are on the right road.”

Sports

Gold winner Tharanga gets brand-new Honda Vezel from SLAAJ

Published

5 hours ago

2026/10/1

Sahan Weerasooriya

Rumesh Tharanga received a brand-new Honda Vezel during a felicitationceremony held in Nagoya Japan.

by Reemus Fernando

‎

The Sri Lanka Automobile Association in Japan (SLAAJ) awarded a brand-new Honda Vezel to gold medallist Rumesh Tharanga at a felicitation ceremony held for the Sri Lankan team that competed at the Asian Games in Nagoya, Japan.

‎The gift was presented at a ceremony, held on the eve of the track and field team’s departure from Nagoya.

Sri Lanka’s team captained by Thranga concluded the track and field campaign on Tuesday.

‎Tharanga’s gold was the solitary medal won by the team.

‎”We decided to reward every Sri Lankan athlete who wins a gold medal with a brand-new vehicle. We invited all Sri Lankan athletes taking part in the Games to the felicitation, and at the time of the event, only Tharanga had won gold,” Nishantha Meegalla, Vice President of the Nagoya Prefecture of the Sri Lanka Business Council of Japan, told The Island.

‎Nishantha said that Tharanga will be able to get his vehical from the Hambantota Port.

‎He said that sea freight charges up to Hambantota port will be taken care of on behalf of Tharanga and it would be incumbent upon the government authorities to decide to waive off any taxes for the newly crowned Asian champion to receive the gift.

‎Tharanga, the world’s top-ranked javelin thrower this season, won Sri Lanka’s first-ever javelin medal at the Asian Games on Monday, sealing the historic victory with a throw of 88.55 metres.

‎With his Asian Games triumph the 23-year-old capped a remarkable season where he claimed multiple global titles including the Diamond League title, Commonwealth Games gold and the Ultimate Championship trophy.