Sports
Badminton king Buwaneka sees his shuttlecock going off the court
by A Special Sports Correspondent
Seasoned campaigner Buwaneka Goonathilleka beat the odds against him at the recent 71st Badminton Nationals held in Colombo and won a triple crown. But according to him the sport he loves the most is at present generating enough thoughts in him to consider whether to continue his association with badminton.
Speaking to ‘The Island’ he said that he sees the road that took him so far in the sport nearing an end; largely because he doesn’t see playing full time sport giving him the desired financial security. “My close associates from Galle see my progress as a player and my move to shift to Colombo and inquire whether I’m living the rich life that other sportsmen in Colombo enjoy. They are really mistaken. My future in life looks very bleak at present,” he said.
Goonathilleka created sensation this year at the nationals when he won the men’s open singles and then doubled up with Viren Nettasinghe to bag the men’s doubles. His third title came when he teamed up with Natasha Gunasekare and won the mixed doubles. At 28 years of age he is playing his best badminton and is looking for more exposure at overseas tournaments and a better pay cheque at the end of the month. But he is a long way from creating that dream life.
It has been a long trek for Buwaneka Goonathilleka in the sport of badminton
Knowing that badminton won’t shower him with money he has started to catch up on his postponed education and is now following a degree in IT at the SLIIT Academy. He tells budding badminton players to balance doing sport with education and warns of the repercussions one would have to face in life if one neglects classroom work. Goonathilleka is a person who quit school prematurely to start earning so that he could be based in Colombo and finance his badminton dream. He was employed in his first job at MAS Holdings when he sat for the A Level Examination.
He also served the Army as a sports recruit and now works for B&D Solutions PVT Ltd. He took the responsibility of looking after himself early in life, but that early start has not given him any advantage, he complained. He is a national champion that only a few know; because badminton is not a sport that’s marketed well like cricket and rugby in this country. If not for the encouragement and blessings he gets from his loved ones and friends during these last few years in the sport it would have been a harder grind for him.
He had his humble beginnings in the sport at Richmond College Galle and won his school colours for badminton in 2014. Thanks to the rich badminton culture at school and the commitment shown by his school coaches Goonathilleka made good progress and even emerged as a schoolboy badminton champion.
In the years he has invested on badminton he has made three trips to the Commonwealth Games, been twice to the South Asian Games and once to the Asian Games. He spoke fondly about training under foreign coaches Shankar Annamalai (Malaysia) and now Indonesian coach Tony Wahyudi. At present he comes under the tutelage of Wahyudi at Rising Star Badminton Academy. A fact that must be underscored here is that Goonathilleka and his doubles partners are all from this academy and they managed to beat national poolists in these events at the nationals.
“Right now I’ve decided to stick to my pet event which is the singles because I don’t have a good doubles partner” said Goonathilleka. Till very recently Goonathilleka’s men’s doubles partner was Sachin Dias. These two players enjoyed great success together and even made it to the semis of the Commonwealth Games in the year 2018. The duo enjoyed a world ranking of 72 as at 2022-11-15. At present Goonathilleka and Nettasinghe don’t have a world ranking in the doubles event. Goonathilleka’s world ranking now in the singles event is 349. His best world ranking in the singles was 190 as at 2022-12-13.
His close associates in badminton opine that he has another five good years of badminton left in him. For the record he is 28 years old now; that was the same age when Niluka Karunarathne, Sri Lanka’s best product in badminton to date, made his debut appearance at the Olympics. With no worthwhile competition to talk about existing in the local scene for Goonathilleka this champion strangely sees himself in a position where he has to drag himself to the sports stadium for training.
But before this depressing period he used to train a maximum of three times a day with his total training hours for the day reading between 6-8 hours. A national player must have his head clear to train and dream of getting ahead in the sport of his choice. But for Goonathilleka he is lost between raising the lion flag abroad through his performances in badminton and giving the assurance to his family that he can find a way to survive the thirty days of the month without getting into financial difficulties.
He has been forced to distance himself from Sri Lanka Badminton (SLB) for reasons best known to both these parties. He was not a member of the Sri Lankan contingent that went for the last big event for badminton in the world and he is a bit bitter about what had happened. May be, at times, his decent ways are looked upon as one his weaknesses by the sports authorities. Goonathilleka said that he has experienced the thrill of victory at home to the core. “I just want to be remembered as humble player” he concluded.
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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