Sports
When a cricket writer met the don of Bombay
Rex Clementine in Bombay
During Sri Lanka’s first Test tour of India in 1982, not following protocol when the team met former Indian President Zail Singh created quite a stir. Apparently, Board President Gamini Dissanayake was very angry. Some say that the players weren’t aware who Zail Singh was while others say they were too jaded after a long flight.
The post of Indian President is a five year term. Zahil Singh was President from 1982 to 1987. He had succeeded Neelam Sanjiva Reddy. There is a joke that for Zahil Singh’s inauguration when the photographers asked, ‘Mr. President are you ready,’ Zail Singh had replied, ‘I’m not Reddy. I’m Zahil Singh.’
Security is tight in Bombay the day before Sri Lanka’s game against India. The reason being the Chief Minister of Maharashtra Eknath Shinde is expected to be here. He is not coming here to interact with either of the teams. He is here for the unveiling of a statue of Sachin Tendulkar at the Wankhede Stadium.
Tendulkar began his Test career as a 16-year-old and it stretched for 24 long years. His batting exploits are well documented although his captaincy wasn’t spectacular. Some of Sri Lanka’s cricket highlights came when he was leading the Indian team.
During the famous 952 six declared game at RPS, Tendulkar graciously declared, ‘I haven’t seen Don Bradman, but I have seen Sanath Jayasuriya.’
The same year during the Asia Cup final, when Sri Lanka chased down India’s target with plenty to spare, Ravi Shastri at the post-match presentation asks Tendulkar what is a safe total against Sri Lanka. Tendulkar wonders around and declares, ‘Maybe 1000’.
Time was when India feared Sri Lanka like the plague. Many of their bowlers like Manoj Prabhakar and Venkatesh Prasad suffered at the hands of Jayasuriya and Aravinda de Silva.
India in fact had not beaten Sri Lanka in a World Cup fixture until 1999.
You can only reminisce about those glory days and desperately hope that good times will come back. The locals keep asking what ails Sri Lankan cricket. Someone who is really worried for Sri Lankan cricket is G. Viswanath, who has made many visits to Sri Lanka as the chief cricket correspondent of English daily The Hindu.
Many Sri Lankan players are Viswanath’s friends, and he keeps in touch with them regularly.
Viswanath is a curious reporter. Although he writes on sports alone, he keeps himself busy exploring other interesting subjects happening in the city.
Born and bred in Bombay, once in 1982 he had gone to meet Varadarajan Mudaliar, a powerful mob boss. He was adored by the locals, but the law enforcement was after him.
Viswanath had visited the underworld kingpin around lunch time. So Varadarajan requests him to come with him to feed his dogs. As they are feeding the dogs, one of his accomplices turns up to inform that two cops had come to see him. Varadarajan then tells his confidante, ‘I will feed these dogs. You go and feed those dogs.’ Apparently a reference to cops who had come to collect bribes.
There is a movie made on the life of Varadarajan Mudaliyar titled ‘Nayagan’. Leading Indian actor Kamal Hasan plays the role of Varadarajan in the film directed by Mani Ratnam, and it goes onto win several national awards.
To this date, Varadarajan is adored in Bombay by a certain section of the public for he looked after their interests. It’s hard to think that someone who was born and raised in south India will go onto become the leading don of India’s financial capital. And to this date, ‘Nayagan’ remains the best movie of Kamal Hasan.
As for Viswanath, he is still very active writing some fine stories on cricket. If you get to know him, he will kill you with his love. However, you need to make sure that you don’t go on unscheduled trips like the visit to Varadarajan.
The press box in Bombay is named after Bal Thackeray, a local politician and a right-wing Hindu nationalist. He had nothing to do with cricket and that’s why you keep telling the locals that the Bombay press box should be named after Viswanath and not after a politician.
For the World Cup, the Indian board had provided each cricket ground a donation to refurbish facilities at venues. Bombay looks fabulous but the problem with Indian grounds is that they don’t maintain these facilities. That’s where Sri Lanka is far ahead of India as our grounds are very well maintained.
For each match that the grounds host during the World Cup, the ICC gives US$ 700,000. So, if a venue hosts five games, they are walking away with a cool US$ 3.5 million.
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
