Sports
VVIPs still backing Danushka
Rex Clementine
in Sydney
Sri Lanka cricketer Danushka Gunathilaka was denied bail yesterday in Sydney after being charged with four counts of sexual assault. The alleged incident took place in Sydney a day after Sri Lanka’s penultimate Super 12 game against Afghanistan in Brisbane. The arrest was made a couple of hours after Sri Lanka’s last game against England as the team returned to the hotel to pack their bags. The team was scheduled to leave the hotel at 3:30 am on Sunday. The arrest was made around 1am.
With bail denied, Danushka will remain in a correction center and his lawyers intend to appeal to the Supreme Court for bail. He was denied bail on the basis of being a foreign national and police argued that they can not guarantee the player being at the said Sydney address given to the court.
Although Sri Lanka Cricket had initially taken a firm decision to distance themselves from the embarrassing incident, the board was allegedly told by a VVIP politician from SLPP to bear the players’ legal costs. Another prominent politician, formerly with SJB, is believed to have helped out with the Sydney address to appeal for bail. However, a source close to the player said that a famous cricket fan had intervened to get a Sydney address of a Sri Lankan living in Australia.
The board yesterday suspended Gunathilaka. This is the fourth time he had been suspended by SLC. His most recent suspension was last year when he breached the bio bubble in the UK. He was sent home from the tour along with two other players. Although he was handed a suspension of one year, it was later reduced to six months. He was advised to seek counseling.
On previous occasions that he had been suspended, there have been interventions from higher-ups to go soft on the player.
Sources in Australia told The Island that if proven guilty, Gunathilaka faces a lengthy jail sentence, a minimum of six years.
Gunathilaka featured in Sri Lanka’s opening fixture of the World Cup against Namibia in Geelong, but was withdrawn from the squad after he sustained a hamstring injury.
The team management decided not to send the player back home as his injury was not serious. They were hoping to draft him into the squad if there was any injury to another batter. Sri Lanka were knocked out of the World Cup with just two wins in the Super 12 stage against Ireland and Afghanistan. The team suffered defeats against New Zealand, Australia and England in the second round.
Officials, team management, and the national selection panel have been blamed for not putting their foot down on previous instances when Gunathilaka had got into trouble.
The team management comprises of gentlemen who are well respected in cricket circles and no doubt they have the best interests of Sri Lankan cricket. But there are question marks on whether they have the firmness to deal with troublemakers like Gunathilaka. It needs a Duleep Mendis or an Asanka Gurusinha to take the bull by the horns.
The current selection panel has been a disappointment. Their much-publicized fitness regime was welcomed by all and sundry when it was introduced last year. But it appears now that it was an unkind move to sideline half a dozen seniors.
The Island
learns that players were exempted from fitness tests before they came over for the World Cup. Although they have failed to provide answers to why so many injuries happened, the answer could be in the fact that fitness was compromised in the last two months. The selectors perhaps thought that everything was tickety-boo after the team won the Asia Cup. They were proven wrong.
The selectors have been way too lenient in dealing with misbehaving players. The current panel in fact appointed someone who was on bail after a road accident as the vice-captain of the national team. Given their lack of firmness against players who misbehaved, just in case Gunathilaka were to get out of trouble in Australia and returned home, there is a high probability of him being appointed as the next T-20 captain of Sri Lanka. Such is the reputation of the national selection panel; no integrity and no accountability. What’s going on is simply not cricket.
With just one round left in the group stage, Dambulla hit the top of the National Super League (NSL) table like a runaway train, pulling off a breathtaking run chase that left Kandy shell-shocked at the R. Premadasa Stadium. In a high-octane encounter that had lot of twists, Dambulla played out of their skins to snatch victory from the jaws of what looked like certain defeat.
Chasing a towering 392 in just 69 overs, the Dambulla batters threw caution to the wind and came out swinging. They crossed the finish line with 25 balls to spare, making the improbable seem routine.
At the top of the order, Nishan Madushka dropped anchor and played the sheet anchor role to perfection, compiling a masterful 126 off 153 balls. He stitched together a solid 136-run opening stand with Ron Chandraguptha, who chipped in with a stylish 64, laying the perfect foundation for the fireworks to follow.
But the real show-stopper was none other than Dasun Shanaka. Despite being courted by a slew of T20 leagues flashing big bucks, Shanaka stayed loyal to red-ball cricket — and he makes it count. He walked in with the scoreboard ticking and turned the game on its head with a whirlwind century off just 56 deliveries. It was a blitzkrieg that featured nine sizzling boundaries and six towering sixes. When Shanaka’s in the zone, bowlers might as well be bowling with a bar of soap.
From 286 for 1, Dambulla had a minor hiccup, losing quick wickets and stumbling to 326 for 5. But the damage had been done — Shanaka’s thunderous assault had knocked the stuffing out of the Kandy attack. All that remained was for the tail to wag, nudge a few singles, and coast home with room to spare.
Akila Dananjaya, meanwhile, continued to turn heads with a match bag of ten wickets. But while his performance was eye-catching, any talk of a national recall should come with a pinch of salt — his action, having been under the microscope before, will need a clean bill of health before selectors roll the dice.
Down south in Hambantota, Galle all but booked their ticket to the final, thanks to a first-innings win over Jaffna. Unless they somehow manage to shoot themselves in the foot in their last group game, they should be packing their bags for the final.
Ramesh Mendis played the unlikely hero, batting at number eight and top-scoring with a gutsy 124 to take Galle to 374, well past Jaffna’s 305.
Jaffna’s response in the second innings was spirited, with Angelo Mathews rolling back the years and crafting a classy century as they made 354 for five.
Rain played spoil sport with only 6.4 overs possible on day one and a further 55 overs on day two and that left little room for a result.
North Korea has held the Pyongyang International Marathon for the first time in six years, welcoming some 200 foreign runners to the streets of the reclusive country’s capital.
The marathon, which was launched in 1981, took place annually in April to celebrate the birth of its founding leader Kim Il Sung.
Before Sunday’s marathon, the race was last held in 2019, wherein 950 foreigners participated. North Korea sealed itself off the following year, when the Covid-19 pandemic hit.
North Korea has been slow to reopen since, allowing only Russian tourists into its capital since last year.
Runners have had to enter the country as part of an organised tour group, as was the case before the pandemic.
Koryo Tours, a Beijing-based travel agency listed as an “exclusive partner” on the event website, offers six-day marathon tours at 2,195 euros ($2,406) including flights to and from Beijing.
“The Pyongyang Marathon is an extremely unique experience as it provides an opportunity to interact with locals,” the agency wrote on its website.
Sunday’s marathon route took participants past landmarks across the city, including the Kim Il Sung stadium, the Arch of Triumph built to commemorate Kim Il Sung’s role in resisting Japanese rule, and the Mirae Future Scientists’ Street said to be a residential district for scientists and engineers.
Pictures online show the stadium – where runners start and finish their race – filled with spectators, many of them cheering and waving gold-coloured paper flags.
Pak Kum Dong, a North Korean runner, told Reuters news agency: “The eyes of our people on me helped me to bear the difficulties whenever I feel tired.”
There is no publicly available information on race results.
North Korea had only statred to scale back Covid-19 restrictions in the middle of 2023.
In Feburary, it allowed some Western tourists into the remote, eastern city Rason, but suspended those tours just weeks after.
[BBC]
Noor Ahmad, the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) left-arm wristspinner, continues to head the Purple Cap table with ten wickets from four games. His spell of 4 for 18 in CSK’s first game against MI, remains his best so far.
DC’s Mitchell Starc who picked up his maiden five-for in T20s, against SRH remains second on the list with nine wickets in three games.
GT’s Mohammed Siraj equalled Starc’s tally on Sunday night with his own IPL best, albeit he has played four games to Starc’s three. Siraj picked up 4 for 17 against SRH to hand them their four successive loss, and was named the Player of the Match.
Sun directly overhead Nainamadama, Sandalankawa, Kundasale, Mahiyanganaya and Kalmunanai at about 12:12 noon today [08]
Showers or thundershowers will occur in Western and North-western provinces and Galle and Matara district in the morning and at most places of the island during the afternoon or night
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