SL Cricket is competitive, but not yet complete
The greatest of all Sri Lankan cricketers is yet to arrive. This sounds less refined and harsher than it is meant to be. All due respect, and more, must be given to Muttiah Muralitharan, their greatest cricketer yet, and to Arjuna Ranatunga, who turned them into winning men. And to others such as Duleep Mendis, [...]
Test cricket here to stay: Sri Lankan cricket novelist
Test cricket is here to stay despite the swing in its fortunes brought on by the growing popularity of the shorter ties and the Twenty20 matches, believes Shehan Karunatilaka, the award-winning Sri Lankan writer and the author of"Chinaman: The Legend of Pradeep Mathew". "I am a purist. I think test cricket will endure. The shorter [...]
invincibles of roy
Success finally arrived at the Tamil Union Cricket and Athletic Club last week. It took 12 years, with a couple of near misses, but the spoils of their victory – a division one under-23 title – were well-deserved. Having won all six matches (four outright and two on first innings) in their preliminary round Group [...]
Hettiarachchi a free man finally or is he?
Beleaguered national rugby player Nuwan Hettiarachchi is a free man. The formal release processed yesterday in effect means that Hettiarachchi shall have no connection with the Sri Lanka Navy in future. The controversial solitary confinement of one of country’s brightest rugby prospects by the Sri Lanka Navy came to an abrupt end when President Mahinda [...]
Kandy dominate local rugby scene
Kandy Sports Club continued their winning streak in the Caltex League for the 11th consecutive year. Unlike last few years victory and their road to success was not smooth as silk as wins were difficult to come by that too with closer margins and further off field issue regarding Nuwan Hettirachchi spoiling relationship between Kandy [...]
Murali Cup promotes social integration through cricket
Murali Cup, the first ever International School Cricket tournament hosted in Southern Sri Lanka was played between 12th – 18th July 2011 as a joint collaboration between Red Dot Tours and the Foundation of Goodness. The Murali Cup was conceptualized to unfold as an effort to unify local and international sports communities in reverence of [...]
Advent of Anil Jayasinghe and Vidyartha rugby fortunes
Perennial whipping boys of inter schools rugby and then a causality of talent scouting, Vidyartha College rugby hit rock bottom in the year 2009 following a mass exodus of senior players. It was only a year later that a bunch of determined die hard old boys sought the services of Anil Jayasinghe. Taking upon himself [...]
Ton of tons beckons Tendulkar in 2000th Test
Test cricket will celebrate its 2,000th match with a series opener between England and India at Lord's that promises to delight both statisticians and Sachin Tendulkar should the 'Little Master' mark an already landmark occasion with a 100th international hundred. The match is also the 100th Test between England, who gave birth to cricket, and [...]
Sri Lanka rugby moving towards a graveyard?
Rugby in Sri Lanka is being feared to be at a dying stage after the junior team or players of the future suffered devastating results at the recent Youth Asiad in Hong Kong where they could not win a single game. It comes on the trail of the senior team being relegated to the lower [...]
Royal favoured to retain Michael Gunaratne trophy
Royal are favoured to prevail against traditional rivals S. Thomas’ in their annual encounter for the Michael Gunaratne trophy. The match is scheduled to be kicked off at Mt Lavinia on Saturday. This is also a Singer Under-20 Division 'A' division rugby league encounter and the Royalists will be looking forward to chalk up their [...]
CR – Havies, the saga continues at the Park tomorrow
The game between traditional rivals Ceylonese Rugby and Football Club and Havelock Sports Club at Havelock Park tomorrow will be the key game of fourth week of the Caltex ‘A’ division league rugby tournament. The match will also be contested for the Commander Eustace Matthysz Trophy. The Longden Place club has failed to live up [...]
BCCI fears Modi role in Sri Lankan Premier League
]The specter of Lalit Modi continues to haunt the Indian cricket board. According to top sources, BCCI has refused to let Indian cricketers play in the upcoming Sri Lankan Premier League because it suspects that the former IPL czar is behind the new T20 league. BCCI believes that the Singapore-based company, Somerset Entertainment Ventures Pvt [...]
England face selection poser for final test
England face a tricky selection dilemma ahead of Thursday's third and final test against Sri Lanka at the Rose Bowl. Paceman James Anderson has recovered from a side strain and will come back to lead the attack after missing the second-test draw at Lord's, meaning Steven Finn, Stuart Broad or Chris Tremlett must stand down. [...]
Kuwait can be tough for Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka could face strong opposition from Kuwait who are drawn in to group 'A' as they start the Asia/Oceania Group III on the clay courts of the SLTA at Sir Marcus Fernando Mawatha on Wednesday. Sri Lanka is drawn with Kuwait, Myanmar and Vietnam in to the group A while Lebanon, Malaysia, UAE and [...]
St Peter’s clash Issipathana on a crucial day
Two teams defending champions St Peter’s and Issipathana aspiring to lay their hands on the Singer Under 20 Division 1 'A' division rugby league title will lock horns in a crucial game scheduled to be kicked off at 4.30 p.m. at Bambalapitiya on Saturday. For any team to come near that target, they will have [...]
Royal walk in with comfort; Trinity eager to bounce back
With an eight-point lead from the first leg, which psychologically helps Royal College to take the field with comfort, the second leg of the Bradby Shield is expected to be more exciting than ever as Trinity College is determined to make a rough return. The match is due to kick off at the Royal College [...]
Injury concerns as league moves on to second week
Injuries have caused grave concerns to the Ceylonese Rugby & Football Club (CR & FC) ahead of their second game of the Caltex league rugby tournament. Only flanker Ashen Karthelis has commenced training from the seven players who were sidelined due to injuries from the last week’s game against CH. First choice winger Mohamed Sheriff [...]
Trinity, Isipathana clash will be hot
There are four matches of the Under 20 Singer League 'A' Division inter-schools rugby tournament down for decision on Saturday with two each being played in Colombo and Kandy. The pick of the four matches is the encounter between Trinity and Isipathana scheduled to be kicked off at Pallekele. The other game in Kandy is [...]
IPL doubts linger after final razzmatazz
After a gruelling seven weeks and 74 matches, the Indian Premier League finally came to an end amid the usual glitter and glamour but left unanswered questions in its wake. The sight of N. Srinivasan, owner of the Chennai Super Kings franchise, handing out the winners' medals to his own players again raised issues of [...]
Chennai eye second IPL title
Defending champions Chennai Super Kings will be banking on home advantage when they take on a formidable Royal Challengers Bangalore in the Indian Premier League final on Saturday. Chennai, led by India's World Cup winning captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni, have won all of their seven league games at home this season and have lost just [...]
