Sri Lanka basks in glory: as Dialog Jazzes up the win
What
a wonderful week it has been for Sri Lanka, one that Sri Lankans and
fans will savour for years to come. Historians will use this as a
milestone that the rest of the cricketing world tried to reach but Sri
Lanka was first to the post! Our performance was super in every
department of the game including the psychological victory we scored
against the highly tipped-to-win Indian team. That we did this in style,
with class and such distinction is a matter of of great pride and an
inspiration to the thousands of budding cricketing greats that this
country can and should produce.
It was fitting that there was such a rousing and warm celebratory
reception given to the team from the Airport through to the City. And
Dialog, the sponsors of first class cricket trumpeted a frenzied musical
extravaganza to fit the occasion. The entire country was truly Jazzed
up!
One cricketer, and a gentleman of class and grace I would add, who
took the trials and tribulations that go with being a skipper was Dinesh
Chandimal, who was a sacrificial lamb. He took his disappointment of
being dropped with grace, a grace that should be upheld as an example of
sportsmanship.
Sure, there will have been inner pain that the regular Captain of the
Sri Lanka Twenty20 team Dinesh Chandimal suffered. Although he is
managing to keep his chin up and show cheerfulness we should not
underestimate the impact. It would have been galling to him to lead the
team in the early games and put them on track and to suddenly find
himself being penalized and sin binned for his side bowling one over
short and have the axe fall on him being benched for one match for no
fault of his alone.
And with the cruel law enacted by the Sheiks in Dubai the
International Cricket Council, poor Chandimal had to sit on the bench
and watch vice-captain Lasith Malinga leading and beating New Zealand
and moving on.
Tour selectors in a dilemma
With having to play the mighty West Indies in a must win game the
semi-final and with left hander Lahiru Thirimanne who replaced Chandimal
grabbing the opportunity and performing, the selectors on tour were in a
dilemma.
The selectors would have burnt the midnight oil, wracking their
brains in deciding how to keep the inform Thirimanne out and how to
tinker with the winning combination.
Today winning is not the thing, it is the ONLY thing. With big money
changing the face and the game and winning at whatever cost being the
name of the game, sympathy on a player is no one’s concern.
The selectors may have felt for Chandimal. But it cannot be helped
and there are stories doing the rounds. One side of the coin has it that
Chandimal volunteered to stay out and the other side of the coin has it
that he was dropped.
Sensitive topic
Whatever the reasons and not having been at the scene we would not
want to further comment on this sensitive topic. However, Sri Lanka took
the field unchanged against the Windies won and moved into the bottom
line the final with Duckworth and Lewis batting for us.
And Sri Lanka went in to the final against India with the same team
and no Chandimal. The selectors had no option and Chandimal would have
understood and taken his absence in the spirit it was made.
Now Chandimal had to suffer because of the Draconian Law framed by
the International Cricket Council. That Law has put the young man’s
career on the line. Chandimal must be a disappointed man. Hopefully
though it would not have shattered his confidence,nor broken his spirit.
Only those who have played sport, in this instance cricket and been in
similar situations will know.
ICC must see reason and rethink
It is time that the ICC see reason and rethink, re-do and remove this
cruel law. This law has gone to undo Chandimal. Let the ICC take
Chandimal’s fate as an example and rethink the law and introduce a law
that will be a deterrent for bowling an over short and not penalize only
the captain.
Now we would like to bat a little for the stylish batsman with great
potential with a good cricketing brain and with a good future as a
captain Dinesh Chandimal. He is only 24 and has lots of more cricket in
him. The likes of him don’t come easy. And when they do come Sri Lanka
Cricket has a responsibility. A cricketer can get better only with
continuity and experience. Now talk has it that he is to be axed as
Twenty20 captain. His poor form with the bat has been his jinx. To quote
a proverb -to remove him as captain will mean to push him from the
frying pan to the fire.
The Cricket selectors have all been top class cricketers and know
what it is to have a bad run with the bat, ball or captaincy. Chief
selector Sanath Jayasuriya had a bad captaincy experience once on a tour
of Australia and let him explain that nasty experience to his
co-selectors before dropping the axe on Chandimal.
Leg spinners in vogue in T20 WC
When limited-over cricket came into being, indications were that it
was going to sound the death knell of spin bowlers and that this game
was going to see medium pace bowlers ruling the roost. But as this game
gained in popularity and progressed, teams took chances and introduced
spin bowlers, which was good for the game and it encouraged tweakers,
getting among the wickets and now being indispensable. That leg spin/googly
bowling is the most difficult art in every style of bowling need not be
reiterated. Ask the ‘sheik of tweak’ Shane Warne and he will tell you.
Hours of sweat and toil
Hours of sweat and toil goes into making a difficult to ply and match
winning leg spinner. A leg spinner has a variety of deliveries which he
must master and once a finished product he is a batsman’s nightmare and
a sight to behold when bowling and pitching right. Not many young
cricketers will show an eagerness to take to leg spin bowling. And not
many captains show confidence in having a leg spinner in the eleven.
That is because a leg spinner is expected to buy his wickets.
In limited-over and Twenty20 cricket which is best described as a
close your eyes and hit, swing and make runs game, hit and run which
game is not for the purists or the connoisseurs it is encouraging to see
countries going in with leg spinners. The Twenty World Cup in Bangladesh
saw many leg spinners. India had Amrit Misra, Australia James Muirhead,
Pakistan Sahid Afridi, South Africa Imran Thahir, West Indies Samuel
Badree and Sri Lanka Seekugge Prasanna. This must be encouraging to leg
spinners who will take to it which is good for their breed.
TV Commentators
We have nothing against TV cricket commentators, but the greatest
admiration and regard for the good work they are doing under difficult
circumstances describing the action that is happening out in the middle
to their millions of viewers. But of late we have been receiving calls
from viewers who have noticed some biased commentators and wanting us to
suggest to TV broadcasters that they employ neutral commentators.
Meaning that when two countries are playing, especially in tournaments
conducted by the International Cricket Council that the broadcasters not
allow commentators from the two playing countries to describe the
action.
Cricket fans opine that neutral umpires have done wonders to the game
and that allegations of bias could be bowled out if neutral commentators
are batted. As for us that we feel is a good suggestion and that TV
Broadcasters would take note.
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