Sports
Sri Lanka will qualify, but can they reach semis?
by Rex Clementine
The cricket fans of Sri Lanka are truly amazing. They know pretty well that the chances of the team reaching the semi-finals in UAE is as low as that of Maithripala Sirisena winning a future Presidential election, but they keep believing that their team will deliver. It is only fair that the players come up with a decent show, unlike Maithripala.
If the IPL is any indication, there aren’t going to be too many high scoring games over the next four weeks and spin is going to play a huge part. That will certainly be a good indication for Sri Lanka’s bowlers.
Their batsmen, however, it remains to be seen what lessons they have learnt on sweeping. Grant Flower seemed to be having little tricks up his sleeve on the advantage of the sweep, both the conventional, paddle and reverse. Hopefully, now that Sri Lanka have a fine sweeper in their coaching staff in Mahela Jayawardene, the issue has been discussed at length.
Lack of smart options against spin has been one reason for Sri Lanka’s decline in the shorter formats of the game. Ours was a team where the sweep was the batsmen’s bread and butter and it’s quite perplexing how the current lot have forgotten to sweep and the coaching staff have failed to address the issue.
Avishka Fernando has been tremendous to watch. He has always been an exciting player and such a shame that he failed a fitness test in January and was banished from the team hotel. He was so close to making his Test debut against England and failing the fitness test was a bitter pill to swallow. But glad that the selectors and the coaching staff had the conviction to do it. They have spared the rod and spoilt too many young children. Avishka has bounced back; leaner, fitter, stronger and hungrier. IPL teams will be watching and the gut feeling is we are talking of a future billionaire in this space.
There is some school of thought that Avishka should bat at number four. He has come up with some consistent performances in that position this week. It’s true that he is Aravinda’s heir apparent, but Sri Lanka has to make the most of the Power Plays and Avishka should open batting with Kusal Perera to make most of the field restrictions. You sense that you have enough fire power in Dasun Shanaka, Wanindu Hasaranga and Chamika Karunaratne to take care of the death overs.
Oppositions will focus a lot on Hasaranga’s leg spin as he has had quite a bit of success in the lasts 12 months and ended up earning a contract in the IPL. World Cup is a superb occasion for him to stamp his authority as one of world’s leading wrist spinners.
Maheesh Theekshana, the new kid, has a bit of surprise element in him and could trouble teams that have not seen him much as he proved during his debut against Proteas last month. It will be interesting to see how teams that do not play spin that well handle him.
The last minute decision to include Akila Dananjaya while axing Praveena Jayawickrama hasn’t gone down too well with some supporters. But it’s a smart move. There’s no denying of the fact that Akila has looked a pale shadow of his former self since remodeling his action and in recent months has looked awful. But then, Sri Lanka have to qualify. The team is thin on experience after our selectors chased away half a dozen seniors and Akila has a surprise element about him and that could come in handy; particularly in the qualifying round.
The spin trio is not Sri Lanka’s only strength. Their main weapon is pace with Dushmantha Chameera picking up wickets with the new ball consistently and he will be their key weapon. Such a shame that the team will miss the services of Nuwan Pradeep, a clever bowler in death overs.
All hope is not lost for Sri Lanka though. One good thing is that they are not playing any Asian teams. India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan are all in Group ‘B’. Sri Lanka will have Australia, England, West Indies, South Africa and one more qualifier and if their spin fires, they could spring a few surprises. Can they go onto book a semi-final berth?
In T-20 cricket anything can happen. So don’t just rule out the Sri Lankan team. The same can be said of our voters. Don’t rule out Maithripala.
A land like no other!
Corbin Bosch has been served legal notice by the PCB, alleging breach of contractual obligations, after the South Africa allrounder signed for Mumbai Indians for IPL 2025, thus pulling out of PSL 2025.
This season is the first in which the PSL will be played concurrently with the IPL: The IPL will run from March 22 to May 25, and the PSL from April 11 to May 18. Bosch had been picked by Peshawar Zalmi, in the diamond category, at the PSL draft that was held in January. But on March 8, it was announced by Mumbai Indians that he would be replacing the injured Lizaad Williams in their squad.
The PSL franchises have been keen to take some sort of action on Bosch, as they are worried it could set a precedent for players signing up with the PSL but then switching to the IPL. The idea of an outright ban on such players has also been floated in informal discussions.
A PCB statement said: “The legal notice was served through his agent, and the player has been asked to justify his actions of withdrawing from his professional and contractual commitments. The PCB management has also outlined the repercussions of his departure from the league and expects his response within the stipulated time frame. The PCB will not make any further comments on the matter.”
The statement did not specify what the time frame was for Bosch to respond.
The PCB had shifted the PSL window with a view to improve the quality and availability of overseas players whom the league would be able to sign. When the PSL was in the February-March window, it also had to compete with the SA20, ILT20 and the BPL for players. ESPN Cricinfo had reported last year when the window was changed that holding the PSL draft after the IPL auction had also been discussed, to have greater clarity about the availability of overseas players for the league. Leading into this season, the IPL auction was held in November 2024 and the PSL draft in January 2025.
The PSL draft duly attracted a large number of high-profile players, including David Warner, Daryl Mitchell, Jason Holder, Rassie van der Dussen and Kane Williamson.
[Cricinfo]
By A Special Sports Correspondent
Kandy Sports Club crowned themselves as ‘Cup Championship’ winners in the inter-club league rugby tournament when they overcame their final hurdle by beating Havelocks Sports Club by 50 points to 24 at Nittawela last evening.
Kandy SC was anyway assured of the title this season before this final game of the season even began, given that they were unbeaten thus far in the league tournament. Kandy SC collected their points through seven tries, six conversions and a penalty while Havelocks Sports Club responded with a three converted tries and a penalty.
Kandy SC set the pace for the game from the kick off itself and recorded first half tries through Dinal Ekanayake, Srinath Sooriyabandara, Kenula Hettiarachchi and Dahan Wickremaarachchi and all four conversions were slotted in by Tharinda Ratwatte. Havelocks SC got most of their points in the first half through Sandesh Jayawickreme who scored a try and booted through a conversion. The penalty for the Park Club was kicked right by Samuel Maduwantha.
Kandy SC faced some resistance from Havies after the turn around, but the side from Nittawela found the try line by breaking through a barrage of tackles from the men wearing the pink and chocolate jerseys.
Dahan Wickremaarachchi started the ball rolling for Kandy with a try after the turn around which took the side’s score to 38 with the conversion. Havies played in patches thereafter and scored through Jayathu Rajaratne and Janidu Fernando. Jayawickreme was spot on with the conversions.
Kandy’s Ethen Schneider Loos smashed his way through for the side’s sixth try which was converted by Ratwatte. Kandy had the game in the bag despite Havies playing attacking rugby whenever they had possession. But the score line deference that Kandy maintained throughout the game made it hard for Havies to make a real comeback into the game.
The Nittwala side erupted in jubilation when Ekanayake punted ahead and sent crowd favourite Nigel Ratwatte for the seventh and final try. There was speculation throughout the game that this would be Nigel’s final game for the Kandy SC side. Surprisingly Tharinda missed the conversion.
At the awards presentation ceremony after the game, Kandy Sports Club’s Tharinda Ratwatte was named as the highest points scorer for the 2024/25 league rugby season. He has accumulated 139 points this season.
Havelocks Sports produced the highest try scorer for the season. That award went to Jayathu Rajaratne of Havies. He has had 16 touchdowns this season. Havelocks Sports Club had to be satisfied with the runners-up trophy at the awards presentation. Players from both sides including the coaching staff were presented with medals by the organisers of the tournament.
Meanwhile CR&FC did well in their last outing in the Cup Championship segment of the league tournament when they beat Air Force by 31 points to 16 at Longden Place.
In the two Plate Segment matches, Sri Lanka Navy beat Sri Lions by 41 points to 38 at Race Course.In the other match of the Plate segment, Police SC beat Army SC by 24 points to 17. The match was played at Police Park.
Mutthusami Sivarajan and Rasara Wijesuriya won the men’s and women’s Cross Country Championships of the National Sports Festival conducted in Nuwara Eliya.
Sivarajan representing Central Province returned a time of 34 minutes and 21 seconds to finish ahead of Samantha Pushpakumara and Damith Hemantha Kumara.
In the women’s category, Wijesuriya from Eastern Province clocked 38 minutes and 41 seconds finish ahead of Madhushani Herath and Chamini Herath.
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