Sri Lanka fly in standby players to Zimbabwe

In their bid to qualify for this year’s World Cup, Sri Lanka seem to be leaving no stone unturned and have flown in three standby players to Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, where the national cricket team is currently playing the World Cup Qualifiers.

Accordingly, left-arm quick Dilshan Madushanka, all-rounder Dunith Wellalage, who bowls left arm spin and batsman Sahan Arachchige have been sent to Bulawayo. They are expected to reach Bulawayo on Friday when Sri Lanka play their second game against Oman.

Fast bowler Dushmantha Chameera is carrying a niggle and missed the first game of the tournament and although he is expected to be fit for the next game, the authorities are not taking any chances.

They seem to have learned from their experiences last year during the T-20 World Cup in Australia where injuries to several players meant that urgent replacements had to be flown in from Colombo.

Unlike Australia, where the national carrier SriLankan has daily flights, it’s not easy to get to Bulawayo. The most preferred routes to Zimbabwe’s second largest city seems – Colombo-Bombay-Nairobi-Victoria Falls and Bulawayo or Colombo – Dubai – Harare – Bulawayo.

Lack of left-arm variety in the Sri Lankan attack has been discussed at several quarters and it is notable that both bowling options that they have called up as reserves are left-armers – Dilshan Madushanka and Dunith Wellalage.

Madushanka was a surprise omission from the original squad and fetched the highest price in the Lanka Premier League auction having been sold for a sum of US$ 92,000. Wellalage fetched US$ 56,000.

Sri Lanka Cricket will be bearing the costs for the three additional players.

Qualifying for the sport’s showpiece event later this year in India is the number one priority of SLC and the board had taken several measures to ensure that the team did not miss out. The board arranged a three match ODI series against Afghanistan as well lead up to the qualifiers and skipper Dasun Shanaka said that the three games helped the team immensely in their preparation.

Sri Lanka beat UAE comprehensively by 175 runs in their opening game and lead the points table in Group ‘B’. Their net run rate of 3.50 is quite enviable.

After Friday’s game against Oman, Sri Lanka will play Ireland on Sunday and Scotland next Tuesday. All their first-round games will be in Bulawayo.