Sports
Selling your skippers down the river
by Rex Clementine
Last month, Kusal Janith Perera was made to look like a superstar. Sri Lanka’s selectors got him to captain the side, keep wickets, and open batting. Not even the ice cool M.S. Dhoni had been saddled with that many responsibilities.
This month, however, it has dawned onto the selectors that KJP is no superstar. Not only has he been sacked as the captain, he is also likely to be relieved of wicket-keeping duties. Don’t be surprised if they tell KJP to bat in the middle order during the ODIs.
Every defeat needs a scapegoat. We found a good one in KJP. Selling your skipper down the river, however, is nothing new. It is an age-old practice that successive establishments have used to make ends meet or even teach people lessons. Politicians have a lot to learn from our cricket.
We all know that Bandula Warnapura is not the mastermind of the rebel tour to South Africa. Those who plotted got away but Warnapura bore the brunt of it all. The commonly known fact is that he was banned for 25 years but there are lesser-known factors. For example, the second tour to South Africa that Dr. Ali Bacher had promised when he wooed the unsuspecting Sri Lankans never happened. That left the players high and dry. Warnapura had taken on a powerful government minister by taking the team to South Africa and he was made to suffer as the government made sure that his appeal for electricity was repeatedly turned down.
Simply because being the nephew of Bandula, young Malintha suffered too as he couldn’t get a school admission. None wanted to associate with the name of Warnapura.
Marvan Atapattu was an exemplary leader. He was destined to lead the team for a few years but a back injury forced him out of the side. When he returned, the captaincy was never given back to him. He was in fact ridiculed. Picked for the 2007 World Cup but wasn’t given a game and instead made to carry drinks. His persecutors today are legends of the game. Cricket is a funny game they say.
T.M. Dilshan took up the captaincy at a time when nobody wanted it. With Murali retired, Dilshan’s bowling resources were thin. He was in for a rude shock when the team’s premier fast bowler announced his retirement from Test cricket at the age of 27. Two of our captains on IPL duty in India justified the fast bowler’s retirement from Test cricket. The script and the plot had been written and planned at Perera Gardens. It was nicely executed too.
With limited resources Dilshan was rebuilding the team. Then the unthinkable happened. Usually when Sri Lankan teams go to South Africa Test matches barely last three days and often the tourists lose by an innings. But under Dilshan, Sri Lanka recorded their first Test win on South African soil in 2011. Before the tour was over, he was sacked as skipper. There had been a coup. A bloodless coup.
Poor Dinesh Chandimal was caught between the devil and the deep blue sea during contract negotiations ahead of the 2014 ICC World T-20 in Dhaka. He turned his back on the administration showing solidarity with seniors. Cricket’s bigwigs promised to teach him a lesson. Some seniors sensed the opportunity to settle old scores. So they slowed down the over rate. That resulted in Chandimal being suspended. The poor bloke suffered in silence and ever since has been a reluctant leader.
Angelo Mathews is a smart kid. He knew what some of these chaps were up to. So when he was captaining he told one of our legends that unless he finished his six balls in a stipulated number of minutes, he is not going to get a bowl again in the game. The fast bowler behaved. No more slower over rates.
Mathews, however, couldn’t win all his battles. He got fed up and gave up the captaincy in July 2017. Six months later there was a change in team management. They pleaded with Mathews to take up captaincy again. Reluctantly, he took it up and soon realized that it was a poisoned chalice with the very people who requested him to take up the role accusing him of under-performing. It’s just not cricket.
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]
US sports envoys to Lanka to champion youth development
Rahuman questions sudden cancellation of leave of CEB employees
