Sports

“You can’t take a break for education”-Lalith Priyantha

Published

5 years ago

2021/03/24

Sahan Weerasooriya

A table tennis legend speaks

by A Special Sports Correspondent

Table tennis was one of worst affected sports due to the pandemic. One reason for this could be that most players are also engaged in some kind of coaching; hence there being a loss in income.

Table tennis legend and veteran’s player Lalith Priyantha was one such player. He said that he survived a difficult period.

We can’t sometimes fathom as to how Priyantha stays in shape and contests the veterans’ events. Times were hard during the past one year without coaching and Priyantha looks back and can send a sigh of relief.

He coaches two schools and Methodist College, one of those schools, was good enough to release his salary in full despite table tennis activities coming to a standstill in the country. Life for table tennis coaches looked bleak for almost a full year because health authorities banned all sports in the island.

Exactly after March last year the table tennis players got an opportunity last February to access their growing skills when they contested the All Island Ranking Table Tennis Tournament conducted by the Western Province Table Tennis Association for the year 2020. Afterwards they played in another All Island Ranking Table Tennis Tournament in Kegalle which was conducted by the Sabaragamuwa Province Table Tennis Association, also of these being events in the table tennis calendar for year 2020.

Priyantha is one person who sought media attention for the sport during the pandemic. He organised press conferences and said table tennis would be one of the safest disciplines to conduct because the players positioned themselves at a safe distance during matches. He is of the opinion that the Table Tennis Association of Sri Lanka (TTASL) must be innovative and shouldn’t wait till the government or the Ministry of Sports clears the path for them.

The sport over the years lacked the involvement of former national players as administrators. The reason for this is a rule brought by the Minister of Sports that individuals involved in coaching can’t hold office in national sports associations. That literarily ruined the chances of Priyantha serving the TTASL; which he once did in the capacity of president. But he states that he is willing to serve the TTASL in an advisory role if he along with past national players are drafted into a committee to help the sport. He states that much can be done to take the game to schools which have not had the table tennis experience.

One thing that is to his advantage is that he still plays competitive table tennis and contests all the veterans’ tournaments. “This helps me to be in touch with the players. I can also relate to them because I also coach schoolgirl table tennis players. A coach must be able to be the sparring partner of players and play his shots” said Priyantha who is still fit for a 55 year old veteran player. For the record he is the present singles champ and has won the doubles and mixed doubles events at the national veterans’ table tennis tournaments.

Priyantha is happy about the present facilities the players enjoy. Most tournaments are now played on carpet and the players play with the best rackets and shoes. But it was not so many years ago. Priyantha remembers wearing t-shirts which were not stretchable; which made playing shots all the more difficult. But the sun shone on him in 1987-1988 when Butterfly company (Japan) sponsored him offering him rubbers, rackets and t-shirts. That was a boon, but he had other advantages. He was squint-eyed so opponents struggled to read his movements. He finished off his opponents with his forehand play; hence his backhand rubber was rarely wasted.

If there is one word that describes this man it’s ‘versatile’. Of course during his playing days he was known by the press by a gamut of names: Piranha, Dark Horse, King of Ping Pong and King Kong of Ping Pong. But after retiring in 1993 after the national players’ tour to Germany he stepped on his coaching and also served the association as an administrator and Sri Lanka coach.

Describing his career in table tennis he compared it to following a map and not as a venture where he was achieving one goal after another. He enjoyed playing table tennis and one of the benefits or fringe benefits he received was winning medals. He won on most days he played, but there were also days where he lost. Winning a tournament and waiting anxiously overnight to read about it in the newspapers the next day destroyed his sleep.

He is a coach who creates bridges so that the younger generation of players can reach him. Apart from coaching the players at the two schools he is coaching Priyantha also undertakes private coaching. He would be mindful when talking with youngsters and avoid saying, at any cost, words like, “During my time things were different and we did things differently’. That would, according to Priyantha, burn the bridges that would connect the present generation with the past. “I never compare people in different eras because the present generation wouldn’t relate to that. I just appreciate and acknowledge their skills and effort” said Priyantha who during his youth was rated as the island’s number one player and also became the Sri Lankan male player with the highest world ranking.

He wants the present players to do well and bring glory to the country. According to Priyantha winning a medal outside South Asia is extremely difficult for Sri Lankans, but not unthinkable if the right contributions and exposure are provided for the players. In one rare instance of comparing eras Priyantha said that players during his time played in about 10 domestic tournaments while the present generation players are contesting as little as 3-4 domestic tournaments per year; hence lesser opportunities for the present players to grow and much easier to secure player rankings.

He is also concerned about education clashing with table tennis in a country like Sri Lanka. “Players in this country think very differently and take a break from the sport to pursue exams. This is an unhealthy practice and something of great concern. In other countries players manage both table tennis and education and this method of balancing sports and studies continues throughout their sports careers till they complete their degrees,” reminded Priyantha.

The veterans table tennis player wishes to work with the younger generation of players for many more years. He wants a player to come up from the present set of players and make Sri Lanka proud. He wishes them to be better players and at the same time be educated individuals. But he wishes them to see the thin dividing line that separates those who receive an education and end up as average performers and those who receive the same education and become extremely successful and to be in that second group he wishes his chargers to cultivate intelligence.

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Sports

Time to close the Dickwella chapter

Published

3 hours ago

2025/12/28

Thilina Walpola

Niroshan Dickwella

Sri Lanka’s selectors have a long history of springing surprises that leave the public blinking in disbelief. Some in the present generation may find it hard to imagine that in 1968, three members of the national selection panel picked themselves for a tour of England, dumping popular Ceylon captain Michael Tissera in the process. All hell broke loose. Chandra Schaffter resigned in protest, calling out an unprecedented farce. The government stepped in, introduced the Sports Act and mandated that every national team required Sports Ministry approval — a necessary set of checks and balances to stop cricket from becoming a self-selecting club.

Fast forward to 2025 and the preliminary squad for the upcoming T20 World Cup has once again raised eyebrows. Dasun Shanaka, who not too long ago was struggling to hold onto his place, is now Sri Lanka’s captain. You can just about live with that call. After Charith Asalanka’s excesses in Pakistan, his position as skipper had become untenable, and Shanaka emerged as a Hobson’s choice. But the bigger takeaway is damning: Sri Lanka have done a poor job grooming leaders over the past five years. When Plan A collapses, there is no Plan B and the selectors are left scrambling.

What truly stopped people in their tracks, however, was news that Niroshan Dickwella is closing in on a comeback. That alone suggested the selectors care two hoots about public sentiment.

We have seen enough of Dickwella over more than a decade. The wicketkeeper-batter showed us his ceiling and his limitations. Having been discarded, there is little logic in reopening that chapter.

With Kusal Mendis doing a commendable job behind the stumps in white-ball cricket, there is no need to get carried away with Dickwella’s inclusion, especially when backups like Kusal Janith Perera and Kamil Mishara are waiting in the wings. What the selectors owe the public is an explanation: why exactly was Dickwella needed in the preliminary squad?

Instead, they could have tipped the cap to an up-and-coming player and signalled a shift towards the future. Sri Lanka have moved on from Dickwella; there is no point dragging the past back to the crease.

After 54 Test matches, the absence of a single hundred tells its own story. Dickwella had ample chances to break three figures but repeatedly threw his wicket away, reinforcing the impression of a player who often seemed to play without a care. Talent alone doesn’t win matches; temperament does.

Some may argue that Test numbers are irrelevant in the T20 format. Fair point, except that T20s are where Dickwella has struggled the most. Clearing the ropes has never been his strength. Yes, his sweeps and reverse sweeps allow him to milk spinners, but the negatives far outweigh the positives. With Kusal Mendis as wicketkeeper, Sri Lanka’s DRS record has been impressive; with Dickwella behind the stumps, it has been downright horrendous.

More worrying is the distraction Dickwella brings to the dressing room. The selectors should have learnt their lesson after the bio-bubble breach in England, which saw him sent home along with two others. A retired judge who conducted the inquiry recommended a one-year ban, only for authorities to play soft hands and reduce it to barely three months.

If that wasn’t enough, alarm bells should have rung louder when he was appointed captain of a Lanka Premier League side, only for it to emerge that he had tested positive for drugs in August last year, earning another suspension. That should have been the last straw.

Yet, remarkably, Dickwella keeps finding his way back into the frame.

At some point, authorities must draw a firm line. The game is not short of talent, but it is short of accountability. And until selectors learn to value both, the same old mistakes will keep being replayed, like a bad highlight reel no one wants to watch again.

by Rex Clementine ✍️

Latest News

India’s chance to test themselves and their bench strength

Published

9 hours ago

2025/12/27

Priyan

Shafali Verma has made 157 runs in three innings and has only been dismissed once in this series [BCCI]

All the three games in this series have followed a similar pattern so far. India have won three tosses – yup, you read that right – elected to bowl, and then used dew to their advantage to chase down modest totals unchallenged.

With a T20 World Cup around the corner, and an unassailable 3-0 lead in their pocket, it would be prudent for India to start challenging themselves and look to set totals if their luck with the toss continues.

They’d also want to perhaps find a way to expand their squad depth a bit more – the lower-order firepower seemed lacking in the 2024 tournament. G Kamalini brings with her the same big-hitting promise Richa Ghosh did as a teenager in 2020. Maybe it’s time to unleash her?

For Sri Lanka, simply being able to challenge India for long enough has been quite a task. They continue to be heavily reliant on Chamari Athapaththu – it’s a bit like how Mithali Raj carried India’s batting for nearly a decade before Smriti Mandhana and Harmanpreet Kaur took centre stage.

Sri Lanka continue to mix and match to find their own versions of Mandhana and Harmanpreet and, while there has been promise here and there, consistent performers have been hard to find.

After Radha Yadav, Tanuja Kanwar, Saika Ishaque and N Shree Charani, 20-year-old Yaishnavi Sharma is the latest to break into India’s left-arm spin club. But, she’s the only one among the five to do so without the WPL giving her a leg up. Vaishnavi finished as the leading wicket-taker in the Senior Women’s T20 Trophy with 21 wickets in 11 matches at an economy rate of 6.47. She backed it up in the inter-zonal tournament and again in these three games against Sri Lanka. Her composure has been striking. So too the courage to keep tossing the ball up.

When Sri Lanka stunned India to win last year’s Asia Cup final, top-scorer Harshitha Samarawickrema seemed a player of immense promise. But in the 17 months since, such moments have been rare. Coach Rumesh Ratnayake continues to back her and believes a turnaround is imminent, and she’ll be keen to repay the faith. Since the start of the T20 World Cup in the UAE last year, she is yet to score a half century in nine innings.

With a T20 World Cup just six months away, this is India’s chance to expand their talent pool and to that end, they may want to bring 17-year-old wicketkeeper Kamalini into the mix and see what she can do.

India (probable): Smriti Mandhana, Shafali Verma, Jemimah Rodrigues, Harmanpreet Kaur (capt), Richa Ghosh/ G Kamalini (wk), Deepti Sharma, Amanjot Kaur, Renuka Singh/Arundhati Reddy, Kranti Gaud, Vaishnavi Sharma, Shree Charani

As a response to their batting needing more support, Sri Lanka made three changes in the last game and ended up posting just 112. There may be more changes on Sunday.

Sri Lanka (probable): Chamari Athapaththu (capt), Hasini Perera, Harshitha Samarawickrama, Imesha Dulani, Nilakshika Silva, Kaushini Nuthyangana (wk), Kavisha Dilhari, Malki Madara, Inoka Ranaweera, Malsha Snehani, Nimasha Meepage

[Cricinfo]

Latest News

Wobbly England register first Test win in Australia in 15 years

Published

10 hours ago

2025/12/27

Priyan

Jacob Bethell scored 40 in a chase of 175 [Cricinfo]

For the first time in 19 matches, and nearly 15 years, England’s men experienced a Test victory in Australia as the MCG raced to the second two-day finish of the Ashes series. On a tough surface which will continue to come under the spotlight in the aftermath, England’s top order met their target of 175 with aggression and they eventually got home with four wickets in hand.

It was only the fifth time in Test history that a series had included multiple two-day finishes, and before this summer, there had only been two in history in Australia. Although more than 186,000 had attended the match across two record-breaking days, it left Cricket Australia facing another significant financial loss – the Ashes has proved a costly affair, and Ben Stokes acknowledged it was far from ideal, but England have avoided the risk of another whitewash down under.

Jacob Bethell who was recalled for this match, compiled 40 to give a glimpse at his potential, but his dismissal meant this would be the first Test in Australia without an individual half-century since 1932 and just the fifth overall. Bethell’s wicket was followed by a little wobble with the winning line in sight. Joe Root was lbw to Jhye Richardson and Stokes carved an edge off Mitchell Starc with ten need, but four leg byes finished the job to roars from the travelling support, although more muted celebrations from England.

Australia, who had earned a first-innings lead of 42 on the manic opening day which brought 20 wickets, could only manage 132 the second time around as Stokes and Brydon Carse shared seven wickets, while Josh Tongue added two more to his impressive match tally. It meant they were able to overcome the loss of Gus Atkinson to a hamstring injury early in the day.

Still, the target was comfortably the highest total of the match. But the intent from Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett was clear and they wiped off 51 inside seven overs. Duckett pinged Starc through the leg side first ball and Crawley launched Michael Neser down the ground in his first over to set the tone. Starc produced some gems, especially to Duckett, and came within fingertips of getting to a return catch from a leading edge.

Tellingly, though, the first ball that Alex Carey came up to the stumps against Neser, Crawley launched him straight down the ground for six and followed that with a blazing drive through the covers. Duckett also took on Neser, a top-edged hoick flying to deep third and then, most stunningly, a scoop going for six. Perhaps there was life in Bazball, after all.

The ball after Duckett cracked his fourth boundary behind point, Starc speared a full delivery through him, but the openers had shifted the mood. England pulled a trick, promoting Carse to No. 3, but he sliced down to deep third, which opened the door for Bethell to play what could prove a significant innings.

Bethell got away with a leading edge first ball, then drove Scott Boland confidently down the ground. He started the final session by reverse-scoping Boland over Carey, then nailed a cover drive.

Boland, who curiously had not been introduced until the 11th over by when England already had 70 on the board, conjured thoughts of another MCG burst from him when he trapped Crawley lbw and had Bethell caught at cover, but Australia didn’t have quite enough runs to play with.

Australia had resumed one over into their second innings with Boland having survived amid heady scenes the night before. He hung around for five more overs before Atkinson found the outside edge to remove a potential frustration for England. However, Atkinson’s day – and potentially series – was soon done when he walked off holding his hamstring at the end of his fifth over, leaving three frontline quicks.

The captain took on the task, Stokes striking in his first over when Jake Weatherald misjudged a delivery from around the wicket which he left alone at the last moment and was bowled. After his excellent first innings in Brisbane, returns have been lean for Weatherald, who faces a big outing in Sydney next week before Australia’s lengthy gap in Test cricket.

By now, the pitch was offering some uneven bounce as well as sideways movement. Marnus Labuschagne took two blows on the gloves before being drawn into poking outside off stump, edging to first slip in a manner that suggests his game is still not in top working order, although conditions provided some caveat.

Travis Head was playing as well as anyone had all game, latching onto anything loose but not breaking into the full-blown attack seen in the second innings in Perth. However, even someone who had survived more than an hour and a half could do nothing about the delivery from Carse, which jagged off the seam to take the top of off stump.

Three balls later, Usman Khawaja top-edged a well-directed short ball from Tongue to long leg. There was no rescue act from Carey this time as he steered a delivery to second slip, where England’s catching continued to be secure.

Either side of lunch, Steven Smith and Cameron Green held firm for nine overs, adding 31 runs, to tip the balance once again. Without ever looking entirely secure, Green again got himself set, as he had in the first innings before running himself out, but flashed an edge to second slip when he drove at a short delivery.

In the absence of Atkinson, Carse lifted impressively and clutched a sharp return catch, full stretch to his left, to remove Neser. Then, with the seventh delivery of the over after a no-ball, he had Starc edging to slip.

Smith showed no inclination to shield No. 11 Richardson (who has a first-class average of 20.70) and a crunched straight drive suggested it was a fair call, but Richardson carved Stokes into the off side to leave England with their target. The pubs, golf courses and Boxing Day sales around Melbourne could get an unexpected boost.

Brief scores:
England 110 in 29.5 overs (Harry Brook 41; Michael Neser 4-45, Scott Boland 3-30, Mitchell Starc 2-23) and 178 for 6 in 32.2 overs (Zak Crawley 37, Ben Duckett 34, Jacob Bethell 40; Mitchell Starc 2-55, Jhye Richardson 2-22, Scott Boland 2-29) beat Australia 152 in 45.2 overs (Michael Neser 35; Josh Tongue 5-45, Gus Atkinson 2-28) and 132 in 34.3 overs (Travis Head 46; Brydon Carse 4-34, Ben Stokes 3-24) by four wickets

[Cricinfo]