When Asfan Thajudeen ghosted languidly over for the try that gave St. Thomas’ Preparatory School the lead that that would not be assailed by S. Thomas’ College Mt. Lavinia, there was something poetic about it. Both brothers, Wasim and Asfan, share physical characteristics. Tall, handsome and long of limb, one wiry full back could easily have been mistaken for the ...
I wrote my last blog post well before I knew what the match situation was on the fifth day. I wrote it after seeing Sri Lanka bat on the final session of the fourth day and the first session of the morning. We laboured to lose. Let’s get one thing clear. I can take defeat. I haven’t supported the All ...
Mahela Jayawardena is a Gemini. Also known as the twins, symbolised by two faces looking in opposite directions. Also reminiscent of the Roman god Janus (where we get January), whose two heads look forward at the new year and back at the old year. Geminis therefore are often two people in one. The twins are not looking in the same ...
Honestly the Sri Lankan media is becoming more and more like their former colonial masters, and most of us are also becoming like a bunch of whingeing Poms. Seriously, guys! It’s a game of cricket and sometimes a guy gets in a zone. Like Gilly in 2007 and Rohit Sharma yesterday. It happens. It’s shit when it happens against us, ...
Today I posted up something about Kumar Sangakkara and Kieran Read sharing a birthday. And how they are the best players in the world at their sport. Immediately, I was asked whether I was fraped and whether I was being sarcastic. That’s when I realised this whole Kumar Sangakkara thing needs a bit of clearing up. And what better day ...
The international rugby fraternity has been all agog with Sri Lanka featuring highly in the exodus of Fiji’s champion sevens players from the Fijian Rugby Union. Only yesterday, the Championship winning captain Setefano Cakau has confirmed his arrival in the Sri Lanka to play domestic club rugby, turning his back on the team that he led a couple of years ...
So the DM has struck again portraying Sanath Jayasuriya, the Chief Selector, as being entirely miffed at the so-called ‘leaking’ of team plans to the press. Sangakkara and Mahela have previously fallen foul of the establishment for their utterances, but the due have had a peaceable relationship with Sanath upto now, after the whole ‘retirement’ saga was dealt with. You ...
I know and love Feroze Kamardeen. He’s a pioneer in the theatre field and has done some ground-breaking stuff. He has also done Pusswedilla, which people love. I don’t, and he knows that, but that won’t be the first time I’ve not liked things that ‘people’ love. As political satire it was – in its original form – new, fresh ...
Can’t remember the last time a cricket match hasn’t put me to sleep before 3am. This one didn’t. Thanks Sachithra, for bringing some entertainment back into cricket. What happened? Bowling the 44th over of the innings, the beleagured Sachithra Senanayake, who has warned Jos Buttler twice for straying out of his crease, knocked the bails off the non-striker’s wicket and ...
Chasing in a ODI game is tough. But on the plus side, unlike the side batting first, there’s the advantage of knowing exactly how much you need to get. This is a sword which has the double edge of ‘scoreboard pressure’ as well as ‘certainty of target’. The Uncertain Target Syndrome, when batting first, is what dictates the innings’ velocity. ...
The much anticipated video of Isipatana’s violent conduct in the game against Royal College finally arrived. Given that I wasn’t at the match and had heard so much about the criminality of the proceedings, mainly from my Royalist friends, I was anxious to see this for myself. if you haven’t seen it yet, here it is…http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCu0C-tgvjA First things first. The ...
I felt the need to raise my lone and often vilified voice when Scotland beat Japan in their first Group game, by 45 – 10. The try that broke Japan was scored with Mark Bennet’s foot crossing the deadline. It took a 17 – 10 lead to 24 – 10 and effectively sealed Japan’s fate as they missed the losing ...
There’s been quite a response to the ‘Maxwell ponnaya’ signboard. I’ve been also accused of not having a sense of humour, which to me is an insult far worse than being called fat, ugly and/or stupid – all of which are true in varying degrees. Let’s make one confession. I’ve used ‘ponnaya’ on people often enough. Mostly under my breath ...
In the last few days I’ve been somewhat critical of the behaviour of those involved indirectly with the Bradby. The trend is alarming. And as one of my friends remarked on FB in response to something I’d said, the two schools need to be above the ‘yakkoness, in the age of the yakkos’. Clearly this discourse has hit home, and ...
“The meek shall inherit the earth? Maybe, but they don’t win Test matches” – Angelo 2: Day 5, Session 3 The immediate aftermath of the second Test match at Headingly wore shades of Edgbaston of 2005, where a distraught (and not out) Jason Gillespie was comforted by Andrew Flintoff. Leeds, just under a decade later, was not anything less dramatic, ...
When the Sri Lankan media and public were getting on Lasith Malinga’s back I wrote this post, http://ballhandling101.wordpress.com/2014/02/26/ye-of-little-faith/ [I don't know how to embed shit, yet] which was also published on this website http://www.islandcricket.lk/opinion/editorial/32756030214. Yesterday, when Malinga walked out to captain the game, he was not the obvious choice. Angelo Mathews is Sri Lanka captain in the other two formats and ...
The Colombo weather this morning reflects the gloom that hangs around schools rugby in general. The gloom caused by the ugly, dark, cloud of crowd violence. Just this weekend we’ve seen clashes at the Royal v Wesley game, a stoppage for a bottle thrown at the SPC v Kingswood game, an attempted attack on the referee in at the STC ...
Yesterday, the Sri Lankan team under the captaincy of Dinesh Chandimal and the stewardship of Chandika Hathurusinghe and Asanka Gurusingha, the coach and manager respectively, refused to take the field for the third day of the second Test match against the visitors at St. Lucia. Sri Lanka were fighting to stay in the series after losing the first test against ...
Serena Williams’ second round game against Carina Witthoft two Wednesdays ago, was a summary dismissal of the German, in front of a packed and adulatory Arthur Ashe Stadium. On a sweltering New York night – the warmest since 1948 – I listened as Laine and Anya sitting next to me on the Loge level, fawned and clapped at every ...
A bit of both actually. The good thing is that selection changes have been made. And that was necessary because the squad that went to India certainly wasn’t going to win us a world cup. It’s good to see that as much as I’ve been banging on about it for 18 months now, it needed a debacle for any action ...
