Kusal Mendis has turned a corner

by Rex Clementine

We are very quick to learn from the big brother. Sri Lanka’s first game of this ICC Cricket World Cup in Delhi was played at Arun Jaitley Stadium, named after their former Finance Minister. Sri Lanka’s last game was played in Hyderabad at Rajiv Gandhi Stadium while their next game in Lucknow will be played at Athal Bihari Vajpayee Stadium, both Prime Ministers of India. The final of the World Cup of course will be played in Ahmedabad at Narendra Modi Stadium, the current PM.

MCG was boasting all this while that they could host 110,000 fans for a game. But now Ahmedabad can host 138,000 fans and it is the world’s biggest stadium. Narendra Modi Stadium will be the place to be on the 19th of November, but the chances of us making there are slim.

We have also named Test cricket grounds after two of our former leaders – R. Premadasa and Mahinda Rajapaksa. India by the way has nine grounds named after Jawaharlal Nehru, their first Prime Minister.

Strange that in our part of the world we don’t name cricket grounds after players. India at least has named stands after their former greats. There is Gautam Gambhir Stand, Bishan Singh Bedi Stand and Mohinder Amarnath Stand in Delhi while Hyderabad has Mohammad Azharuddin and VVS Laxman stands. We also should follow suit and name some stands after our greats. At least we should have a stand named after late Gamini Dissanayake if not a ground after him.

Sunil Gavaskar has a stand in his beloved Bombay. But he doesn’t seem to fancy the idea. The reason being that many people in his hometown think that simply because there’s a stand named after him in Wankhede, he gets free tickets for the game. If that’s the plight of Mr. Gavaskar, one of the true greats of the game, imagine the plight of poor reporters who get bombarded with calls during match days requesting for tickets.

Lucknow where Sri Lanka will play Australia and Netherlands is one of India’s new cricket grounds. Some fans are worried that after Sri Lanka’s poor campaign in the World Cup so far, they might struggle in rest of the games and even the Dutch could expose some of the chink of their armour.

Some others claim that the Dutch were not at full strength during the World Cup qualifiers and with five of their players returning from County Cricket, they will be hard to beat. However, Sri Lanka should cruise past them. If the Australia – South Africa game is any indication, the Lucknow venue is not a patch of Delhi or Hyderabad, which were belters. It is more like Madras and there will be some assistance for spin. Sri Lanka should beat the Dutch and could beat the Aussies as well as conditions are expected to suit them.

The biggest plus point in this World Cup has been the form of Kusal Mendis. The stunning knocks that he made against two good bowling attacks gives you the assurance that this World Cup will mark his journey towards becoming one of the greats of the sport.

Kumar Sangakkara’s batting feats are hard to match leave alone breaking them. On Tuesday, Mendis scored the fastest hundred in World Cups by a Sri Lankan off just 65 balls, five deliveries fewer than Sanga.

From his school days there was little doubt that he was going to be the future of Sri Lankan cricket. There has been the occasional stunner but consistency has been missing. Babar Azam and Kusal Mendis are the same age; 28. Babar is averaging 47 in Tests and 57 in ODIs while Kusal’s average is lingering around 30s.

But becoming a father seems to have helped him to settle down. He’s become more responsible now and rash strokes have been cut down drastically and are only played when he is set.Wicketkeeping has probably helped him too as he sees the ball better. He is also contributing to the team by means of setting fields and these are all good signs.

Still a few doubts remain though. Why he didn’t turn up for the national anthem before the start of the game against South Africa in Delhi and was cramps a good enough reason to be away from the whole fielding innings against Pakistan in Hyderabad pose interesting questions. But we should give him the benefit of the doubt. After all, there is no saint without a past and no sinner without a future!