Sports
Celebrating 75 years of cricketing excellence
by Rex Clementine
A new controlling body for cricket in Ceylon was formed on the 25th of June 1948 and was named Board of Control for Cricket in Ceylon. Today marks the 75th anniversary of the formation of the cricket board. At a meeting held at the Malay Cricket Club at Rifle Green, P. Saravanamuttu was elected as President of the board. The entity has over the years gone through name changes such as Board of Control for Cricket in Sri Lanka and its present name Sri Lanka Cricket.
The initial crest of the board contained two elephants, a coconut tree, a paddy field and Adam’s peak. Over the years this too has gone through significant changes. At a time when the country didn’t have full member status of the International Cricket Council, opportunities against international sides were few and rare and usually teams travelling to either Australia or England played a game or two as their ships docked at Colombo harbour. India and Pakistan of course engaged in regular contests called ‘unofficial Tests’.
Goonasena makes his mark
Several Ceylonese cricketers in the early days such as Dr. C.H. Gunasekara, F.C. de Seram, Gamini Goonasena, Laddie Outschoorn and Stanley Jayasinghe excelled in County Cricket in England. Goonasena among them made a name for himself having become the first Asian to captain Oxford or Cambridge. He completed the double of 1000 runs and 100 wickets for Cambridge in two seasons and repeated the feat twice at Nottinghamshire, which he represented for 11 seasons. Subsequently he became the first Ceylonese to be named as one of Wisden’s five cricketers in 1957.
Tissera’s remarkable captaincy
The year 1965 was a landmark one for cricket in Ceylon. The team had travelled to India for a three-match four-day unofficial Test series and they beat a strong Indian side skippered by Tiger Pataudi. The victory came in Ahmedabad and Tissera’s bold captaincy was hailed by all and sundry. It was the captain’s declaration with the team still trailing that set up the match. The victory had its rewards as later that year Ceylon were made an Associate member of the ICC. The proposal was brought forward by the Board of Control for Cricket in India and seconded by Pakistan. Tissera, a living legend richly deserves to have a trophy named after him in international cricket as West indies and – Sri Lanka play for Sobers – Tissera Trophy.
First ACC meeting in Colombo
In 1972, Sri Lanka hosted the Asian Cricket Council conference with the participation of key stakeholders of the region. Sri Lanka was represented by Shelly Wickramasinghe and Neil Perera.
ODI status for Sri Lanka
For the inaugural World Cup in 1975, the full members of the ICC took part and two other teams had been invited – East Africa and Sri Lanka. It was an historical event as Sri Lanka played their first major cricket competition and their batters had a decent outing with the world appreciating the efforts. Their first ODI was against West Indies. While there were 11 Sri Lankan debutants in that game, there were also two West Indies players who were making their debuts – a certain Vivian Richards and Andy Roberts.
Sri Lanka wins ICC Trophy
For the subsequent World Cup in 1979 there was too much interest and the ICC had to conduct a qualifying round. It was called the ICC Trophy and the two finalists were going through to the World Cup. Sri Lanka beat Canada in the finals of the ICC Trophy and shocked a strong Indian side during the World Cup at Old Trafford. They became the first Associate Member to beat a full member of the ICC. This win went a long way in the team being granted Test status two years later. Anura Tennakoon captained the Sri Lankan side
Muttiah Muralitharan holds the World Record for most wickets in Test match cricket and One-Day Internationals
Test status for Sri Lanka
With Gamini Dissanayake becoming the President of the board, there was an aggressive push to gain Test status. A powerful Cabinet Minister, he addressed key areas like new venues to host international games, sponsorships from the private sector, three-day cricket, indoor nets and trained coaches in a bid to make the nation’s cricket team a strong force. To his credit, in his first attempt Sri Lanka were granted Test status on July 22nd, 1981.
Impressive feats in international cricket
Sri Lanka played their inaugural Test match in 1982 against England and it took them just three years to win their maiden Test match – against India in 1985. The Asia Cup win came not too long after that and it was a feather in the cap of a young cricketing nation. Duleep Mendis skippered the side in both landmark victories.
Sri Lanka’s first overseas Test win came in 1995 in Napier against New Zealand. Just 15 years after gaining full membership of the ICC, the national team went onto win the ICC Cricket World Cup in 1996. Since then, the team has won a T-20 World Cup and reached two other 50 over World Cup finals and two more T-20 World Cup finals. They were also joint champions of the 2002 Champions Trophy when they shared the trophy with India.
The team’s 952 for six declared in the 1997 Test match against India is a World Record. Sanath Jayasuriya scored a triple hundred and Sri Lanka had a triple centurion in Test match cricket seven years before India had one, although the big brother had been playing Test match cricket since 1936.
In 1998, Sri Lanka recorded their first Test win in England. Eight years later, they whitewashed England in their backyard 5-0 in ODIs. In 2014, the team won their first Test series in England.
In 2011 Sri Lanka won a Test match in South Africa for the first time and in 2019 they became the first Asian nation to win a Test series in South Africa. In fact, apart from Australia and England, no other team has won a Test series in South Africa.
Spin legend Muttiah Muralitharan is world’s highest wicket taker in Test match cricket with 800 scalps to his name. His 534 wickets in ODI cricket is also a World Record.Interestingly, Sri Lanka had two batsmen – Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara – scoring 10,000 Test runs, before anyone from England reached the milestone. England started playing Test cricket more than 100 years before Sri Lanka.In 2006, Jayawardene and Sangakkara added 624 runs for the third wicket against South Africa, a World Record for any wicket in Test match cricket.
At one point, Sangakkara was ranked world’s number one batter while Muralitharan held the number one rank for bowlers for a record number of weeks.In 2020, Sangakkara became the first non-British President of the Marylebone Cricket Club.
Twenty years before him, fellow Kandyan Ranjan Madugalle was made Chief Match Referee of the ICC ahead of other illustrious former players like Clive Lloyd, Gundappa Viswanath and Mike Procter.There are so many other individuals who have so generously contributed for the benefit of cricket in Sri Lanka and there are several other milestones in the sport that has brought credit to the country. It is regretted that we are not able to record each of those moments or mention all those individuals.
The first truly heavyweight clash of this expanded T20 World Cup format comes freighted with both history and subplots. A rematch of the 2010 World T20 final at Kensington Oval, the match pits Jos Buttler’s defending champions – who are aiming to become the first team to retain the trophy – against the Australian winning machine, victors at the 2021 edition and current world title-holders in Test and ODI cricket. And that’s before you throw in the Ashes for afters.
Already there is added pressure on England, after the rain in Bridgetown led to a share of the points in their opener against Scotland (and that having conceded 90 runs from 10 overs without taking a wicket in a tepid bowling display). Lose to their oldest rivals and it will leave their Super 8 prospects open to being waylaid by the perils of net run-rate calculations, or worse.
The Scotland match was the third abandonment in five suffered by England, after a rain-affected home series against Pakistan, which has clearly hampered their readiness for this campaign after almost six months without playing T20 together. It does not take much for a side to click in this format – and England looked in decent shape when they did get on the field against Pakistan – but Buttler will be anxious for things to go their way on Saturday, if only to avoid further questions referencing the team’s disastrous ODI World Cup defence last year.
Australia, under the laidback leadership of Mitchell Marsh would love nothing more than to add to the English sense of jeopardy – having helped bundle them out of the tournament in India on the way to taking the crown. Their head to head record is less impressive in T20 however, with England having won six of the last seven completed encounters, as well as that 2010 final.
Despite a wobble with the bat, Australia avoided mishap against Oman earlier in the week, the experience of David Warner and Marcus Stoinis shining through in difficult batting conditions. Surfaces in the Caribbean – not to mention those games staged in the USA – have already had teams scratching their heads; rather than the “slug-fest” England had prepared for, following a high-scoring tour of the Caribbean in December, it looks as if boxing smart may be the way to go.
Speaking of Warner, this could be the last time he faces up against England in national colours – and another match-winning contribution would likely reduce the chances of them meeting again in the knockouts. On the other side of the card is Jofra Archer, fresh from an emotional maiden outing at Kensington Oval and ready to take on Australia for the first time in any format since 2020. Can Mark Wood fire up England’s campaign, as he did during last summer’s Ashes? Will Pat Cummins be back to harass the old enemy once again? Seconds out, it’s almost time to rumble.
Cummins is set to return after being rested for the Oman game, which saw Mitchell Starc leave the field with cramp. Starc is understood to be fine and could keep his place – which would likely see Nathan Ellis miss out. Marsh is still not fit to bowl, with Australia likely to continue with the allrounder combination of Stoinis and Maxwell to give them cover.
Australia (probable XI): David Warner, Travis Head, Mitchell Marsh (capt), Glenn Maxwell, Marcus Stoinis, Josh Inglis (wk), Tim David, Pat Cummins, Nathan Ellis/Mitchell Starc, Adam Zampa, Josh Hazlewood
The one change England may consider is Reece Topley coming in for Wood, with the expectation that there will be some rotation among the seamers through the course of the tournament.
England (probable XI): Phil Salt, Jos Buttler (capt & wk), Will Jacks, Jonny Bairstow, Harry Brook, Liam Livingstone, Moeen Ali, Chris Jordan, Jofra Archer, Adil Rashid, Reece Topley/Mark Wood
[Cricinfo]
Once is coincidence, twice is a clue, and three times is proof.
To paraphrase Agatha Christie, that is the narrative around South Africa’s meeting with Netherlands at this T20 World Cup.
The Dutch beat South Africa at the 2022 tournament and ended their semi-final hopes in a match where South Africa appeared to be sleep walking, and then beat them again at the 2023 ODI World Cup, where they exposed South Africa’s vulnerability in the chase. If they to do the treble, not only will Netherlands take the lead in Group D, but they will offer conclusive evidence of the threat they pose to Full Members, especially South Africa.
Of course, it will take some doing after South Africa’s opening performance against Sri Lanka, where they reduced their opposition to their lowest T20I total and chased it down in fairly straightforward fashion thanks to the most stable middle-order of their white-ball era. In Aiden Markram, Tristan Stubbs, Heinrich Klaasen and David Miller, South Africa have bankers and big-hitters and, for this match, they also have the advantage of experience. They’ve already played at Eisenhower Park, and have first-hand knowledge that run-scoring doesn’t come easily;Klassen said they are prepared to use their “cricket brains” and play “smarter cricket”.
But the conditions could be good news for Netherlands, who are not naturally a line-up of big hitters and build their innings on a foundation of turning ones into twos. In other words, they tend to take a slightly more conservative approach to batting, which may work well here, but they’ll be wary of the uneven bounce of the surface and will have to come up with plans to counterattack especially against South Africa’s seamers. Their own bowlers were exemplary in Dallas and will look to build on that performance against a line-up that will likely be more proactive than Nepal’s, but who they have managed to keep quiet not once, but twice in the past. Third time’s the charm, they say.
Anrich Nortje’s stunning return to form against Sri Lanka means South Africa may not have to tinker with the bowling combination, and Gerald Coetzee and Tabraiz Shamsi may have to wait their turns to get a game. The batting line-up should be unchanged, with no space for Ryan Rickelton yet.
South Africa: Quinton de Kock (wk), Reeza Hendricks, Aiden Markam, Tristan Stubbs, Heinrich Klaasen (wk), David Miller, Marco Jansen, Keshav Maharaj, Kagiso Rabada, Ottneil Baartman, Anrich Nortje
Conditions in New York may tempt Netherlands to include an extra seamer and they have Kyle Klein in their squad. But it could come at the expense of a shortened batting line-up and they may not want to risk that.
Netherlands: Michael Levitt, Max O’Dowd, Vikramjit Singh, Sybrand Engelbrecht, Scott Edwards (capt, wk), Bas de Leede, Teja Nidamanuru, Logan van Beek, Tim Pringle, Paul van Meekeren, Vivian Kingma
[Cricinfo]
Nuwan Thushara’s last over brought Sri Lanka screaming back into the match,as he first bowled Rishad Hossain, and then nailed Taskin Ahmed in front of the stumps with a pinpoint swinging yorker. This left Bangladesh eight wickets down, with 12 runs still to get.
However, the experienced Mahmudullah was at the crease for Bangladesh, and despite some further nervy moments, pushed Bangladesh across the line off the last ball of the 19th over.
But this was a match chiefly decided by Bangladesh’s own outstanding bowling. Mustafizur Rahman was the best among them, using shorter lengths and his cutters efficiently, to claim figures of 3 for 17. Rishad Hossain’s three-for through the middle overs also kept Sri Lanka quiet.
Mustafizur was instrumental in Sri Lanka’s downward spiral through the middle overs, which culminated in a crash-and-burn end. Ultimately, their inability to find boundaries, or even rotate strike against good Bangladesh bowling resulted in their downfall. A score of 125 for 9 always seemed poor on a decent pitch, even if their bowlers made a match of it in the end.
Brief scores:
Bangladesh 125 for 8 in 19 overs (Towhid Hridoy 40, Litton Das 36; Dhanajaya de Silva 1-11, Nuwan Thushara 4-18, Wanidu Hasaranga 2-32, Matheesha Pathirana 1-27) beat Sri Lanka124 for 9 in 20 overs (Pathum Nissanka 47, Dhananjaya de Silva 21; Tanzim Hasan Sakib 1-24, Taskin Ahmed 2-25, Mustafizur Rahman 3-17, Rishad Hossain 3-22) by two wickets
[Cricinfo]
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