Dammika forwarded a link to this article on Murali, a must read for anyone who as an opinion on Murali’s bowling action. I would love to see the documentary on him that was shown on Channel 5 (or has it been already shown?).
[Updated: Link]
Chaminda Vaas showed the South African’s how to bowl
with some exhilarating bowling and took six for 29 today to help us to a
313-run victory and our very first series win over South Africa.
I feel sorry for
Smith, hope they will try to put up a better fight at the one days starting on
the 20th.
fifth place on the Test Championship Table while
ranking ever to #6.
src="http://www.merill.net/wp-content/uploads/contentbinary/image001123.jpg">
FYI:
Lanka
src="http://www.merill.net/wp-content/uploads/contentbinary/image0021.jpg">
Dammika mailed me this article from The
Island.
The English are often referred to as “The whining Poms,” particularly by the Australians,
but the term seems to be fitting them too. After Australia lost the second One Day
International narrowly to Sri Lankans by one run, the Australian captain Ricky Ponting
was seen in an angry mood, a complete contrast to the mood he was in when the Aussies
won the first ODI. On Friday, after the game, Ponting was seen sipping a cool Foster’s
Beer in the dressing room after Australia had won, but on Sunday, he was seen smashing
his pads down.
When the Tasmanian came down to speak to the media he passed a crude remark at the
Sri Lankan journalists when he said, “a huge contingent of Sri Lankan journalists
today,” Ponting was passing an obvious remark as after the first ODI only a few Sri
Lankan journalists showed up at the press conference. However, little did Ponting
know that at around 10 in the night after the first ODI some of them were working
on tight deadlines unlike on Sunday.
And when he spoke, he had a few complaints as well. “I was disappointed to get the
same wicket today. There hadn’t been a lot of cricket here and I would have
thought that there was plenty of time for the curator to bring up two wickets for
these two games,” he said. Over the years, when touring the sub-continent, the Australians
have complained about food, water, dust, security and so on and on this occasion Ponting
was blaming the wicket.
Speaking further Ponting hailed the performance of his players, whom he said would
take a lot of confidence to the next games after playing on a “very worn Sri Lankan
wicket.”
Meanwhile, paceman Glenn McGrath, who wasn’t picked for the series, too has
come up with a list of complaints on Sri Lanka in a column he writes for The Australian,
a hardcore nationalist newspaper back in Australia. In the column, McGrath says that
“conditions in the country can be harsh…..” and singles out security as one of the
major problems.
Among his complaints are, “Our other mode of transport is the coach and I always get
a bit of a laugh when they call it a luxury coach. To me, it’s an old bus with
vinyl seats that get hot and appear to be placed right on top of a bar that’s
uncomfortable,” he writes.
Probably it’s time to replace the idiom, it’s no more “whining Poms,”
but it’s “the whining Aussies”.
World cricket woke up stronger on Monday morning. Not just because it had witnessed
a pulsating game of one-day cricket between Sri Lanka and Australia in Dambulla –
a rarity for such a formulaic version of the game – but because an ancient spirit
of the game was awoken in the fierce heat of battle. Sportsmanship, an endangered
concept in all modern day sport, blessed international cricket.
Australia had lost a flurry of wickets, slipping from 148 for 1 to 190 for 4. But
with Andrew Symonds and Adam Gilchrist at the crease and Michael Bevan, finisher extraordinaire,
still padded and waiting in the wings, Australia were odds on winners, needing a modest
56 at a run-a-ball with six wickets to spare. Kumar Dharmasena was pinging down his
flat off-breaks and Symonds edged an attempted pull onto his pads. Both bowler and
wicketkeeper appealed instantaneously and Peter Manuel raised his finger. Sri Lanka
had struck a crucial blow.
Symonds was shocked but kept his cool and walked. Gilcrhist, the non-striker, was
equally appalled, his reaction tight-roping the definition of dissent. Sri Lanka celebrated
in a huddle but they knew it was not out. “It was an obvious nick to most of us and
it was awkward for a moment,” said Marvan Atapattu, Sri Lanka’s one-day captain. “I
mean …it was not a bump ball or something like that. We did not really know
what to do.”
But seconds after raising his finger, doubt had spread across Manuel’s face. He consulted
first with Billy Bowden, his eccentric but cool-headed partner, and then turned to
Atapattu. “He told me that he believed that he had made a mistake and that he wanted
to call Symonds (now over half way back to the pavilion) back. He asked me whether
I would have a problem with that and I said no. It was obvious to us he [Symonds]
had hit the ball and this is a game after all – we have to look after its spirit.
We were all happy with the decision.”
What goes around comes around, they say, and perhaps it was Gilchrist who sowed the
sporting seed when he walked during the 2003 World Cup semi-final against Sri Lanka,
a remarkable decision that was greeted with stony silence upon his return to the dressing
room. Now Atapattu has followed up with a return gesture, which in turn presents us
with an intriguing possibility: will the players of both teams now play the rest of
the series as graciously and fairly? [CricInfo]
