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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