Sports
Memories down under
by Rex Clementine
There have been some sensational stories coming out of Australia during cricket contests. A recollection of some of them is not a bad idea at a time when the national cricket team is down under.
It is a tradition in Australia after a game for the losing team to visit the winning team and have a beer or just have a chat. This has been a practice that has been in place for decades and once at the SCG when the Sri Lankans were in the Australian dressing room, a message had come through that the Prime Minister of Australia John Howard was coming over to meet them.
As Howard entered the dressing room, straight away the Sri Lankans were on their feet to greet the PM, who was a cricket buff. From a corner someone raised his voice, ‘Hey John, come mate, come. Grab a beer mate!’ It was Matthew Hayden. And he was in his underpants. The Sri Lankans couldn’t believe it. One of them whispered to the team manager, ‘Imagine this happening in our country.’ John Howard did share a beer with the players.
Howard had a 11 year stint as the Australian PM and when he stepped down, there was move to make him the President of International Cricket Council. He had agreed to come on board provided member countries elected him unanimously. Sadly, SLC objected to him becoming the ICC chief on flimsy grounds. What most fans aren’t aware is that India was using SLC as a cat’s paw.
Several years later, in 2010 Julia Gillard had become the first female Prime Minister of Australia. This was half a century after Sri Lanka had elected a female Prime Minister. Gillard had been born in Wales in the UK before migrating to Australia and she loved her cricket too. She was not in the habit of walking into the dressing room like Howard but invited teams to her residence in Canberra for tea. The Sri Lankan team were her guests in 2012. Team Manager Charith Senanayake was introducing his players. The PM came up to a famous cricketer who recently retired. She shook his hands and asked, ‘How are you keeping.’ Our champion replied, ‘I am not keeper, I am an all-rounder.’ Poor Charith, a good man who loves a laugh, didn’t know where to hide.
The closest Sri Lanka came to winning a Test match in Australia was in 2012 in the final Test in Sydney. A rash shot from Tilan Samaraweera triggered a sensational collapse after several young players had fought bravely. It was a remarkable effort given the fact the team’s best batsman Kumar Sangakkara was out injured. It was an absorbing Test match but some of us remember it for the wrong reasons.
After second day’s play, late in the night, a social media post had suggested that spinner Rangana Herath and fast bowling coach Chaminda Vaas had met with a road accident and Herath had died on the spot. It was midnight in Australia but newspapers in Colombo had several hours to go to print. There were calls from editors asking reporters covering the series in Australia what’s going on and in the middle of the night the team manger had to be woken up. He eventually woke up Herath and confirmed that this was a false alarm. It turned out to be that both Herath and Vaas had not stepped out of the hotel that night. Poor Herath was being bombarded with phone calls and he had to keep up the whole night to tell family, friends and everyone who called him not to take what’s in social media seriously.
Marvan Atapattu was one of the finest gents to play the game and as Sri Lanka captain he set new standards. It was obvious that towards the tail end of his career he was getting a raw deal. After being overlooked for several home series, he was called up for the toughest assignment in cricket – tour of Australia in 2007.
At the Gabba after the first Test ended he vented his anger attending the press conference calling the selectors a bunch of puppets headed by a joker. This became headline news not just in Australia but all over the world. It was a rare indiscretion by someone who always played the sport in the right spirit.
The next Test match in Hobart was Marvan’s swansong. In his last innings in Test cricket, he produced a masterclass 80 with Sri Lanka chasing a huge target of 507. Marvan’s father was there too to see his son going out on a high. However, his knock was overshadowed by Kumar Sangakkara’s classy 192. Sanga had been wrongly given out by umpire Rudi Koertzen. Adam Gilchrist did not cover himself in glory as he was the first to appeal and the Aussies were in no mood to withdraw the appeal with the game at stake.
During the same game, Percy Abesysekara, the cheerleader was arrested by the police for ‘intruding’ the pitch. Now Tasmania is a tiny island and people are often laid-back including the cops. While Percy would have got away in any major Australian city or for that matter anywhere in the world, in Hobart they considered him an intruder.
Percy being Percy wasn’t grumbling. He reminded the cops that his friends included Bob Hawke to John Howard, two Australian PMs who frequented cricket. He also added that since his high profile political friends are unable to come down to Hobart in a hurry to bail him out, he would get two famous Tasmanians in David Boon and Ricky Ponting to get him out of trouble. Sanity prevailed and uncle Percy was let off. Percy continued to be cheeky. ‘When I applied for the Australian visa, they asked me whether I have a criminal record. Now, gentlemen, do you still require to have a criminal record to enter Australia?
Several Sri Lankan batsmen have come up with some memorable batting feats in Australia and some outstanding bowling efforts. The first century in Australia by a Sri Lankan stands out of them all. Aravinda de Silva scored a spectacular 167 in the Gabba Test of 1989 and his superb counterattack with the team in trouble made the world take note of his exceptional talent.
Aravinda has many friends and fans in Brisbane. When someone had asked for match tickets, he had kindly obliged. The friends had brought to his notice that there were tickets for only the first four days. Upon inquiring, Aravinda had got to know that the Australian board didn’t expect the Test match to go beyond day four. He needed little motivation after that. The Aussie bowlers were at the receiving end.
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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