NEW DELHI, August 20: Sir Don Bradman, cricket's greatest living legend, has invited India's own legend, 25-year-old Sachin Tendulkar, to attend his 90th birthday party in Adelaide on Thursday (August 27).

The birthday celebrations are being organised by the South Australian Cricket Association (SACA). A delighted Tendulkar is planning to fly down to Australia early next week. He exults: "Sir Don is going to give me some of his time. It's a great honour."

Sir Don, it turns out, too is a fan of The Little Master's. He said the other day: "I was very very struck with his (Sachin's) technique. And I asked my wife to come and have a look at him because, I said, I never saw myself play. But I feel that this fellow is playing much the same way I used to play. I can't explain it in detail, but it's just his com- pactness, and his stroke production and his technique. It all seemed to gell as far as I was concerned, and that was how I felt."

A duly overwhelmed Tendulkar had responded: "It is the great- est compliment I ever got. It thrilled me."

Many cricket lovers rate Tendulkar as the finest batsman in the world today and even compare him with Sir Don. But Austra- lian Captain Steve Waugh puts it aptly: "No one can be like Don Bradman. He stands alone. But I think when Sachin is finished, he will be second to him."

No wonder. When Sir Don was 25, he played 23 Tests and aver- aged 99.71 runs per Test. When he retired after playing 52 Tests, his average was an astounding 99.96. On the other hand, Tendulkar, who turned 25 on April 23 this year, played 61 Tests and averaged 54.84 runs. So, there's just no question of his getting anywhere near Sir Don's averages!

But the fact remains that, in those 61 Tests, the young fellow who took the cricketing world by storm when he began playing for India at the tender age of 15 scored 4,552 runs (16 centu- ries and 19 50s) in 92 innings. This feat is a lot better than what Gary Sobers, Sir Don, Javed Miandad, David Gower, Viv Richards, Alan Border and Sunil Gavaskar were able to achieve when they were 25!

His record in one-day internationals is even more remarkable. So far, he has played in 196 matches (189 innings) and scored 7,070 runs (including 17 centuries and 42 50s) at an average of 41.10 !

Desmond Haynes (West Indies) got 17 centuries and 57 50s in the 8,648 runs he scored in 238 matches (237 innings). At the moment, Sachin ranks just behind Indian Captain Mohammed Azharuddin (291 matches, 8,285 runs in 268 innings), Sri Lanka's Aravinda de Silva (238 matches, 7,605 runs in 231 innings), and Pakistan's Javed Miandad (233 matches, 7,381 runs in 218 innings).

Miandad has since retired, while Azharuddin and de Silva may play for another three to five years at the most. But Tendulkar may continue to play at least for another 10 years and may well go on to make more runs than any one else has done in the past or can ever hope to in future!

Chialw Football League pulled off an exciting 4-3 win over arch rivals Puttalam Football League after the score was one-all at full time in the Eveready Junior Super League Soccer Championships conducted by the Football Federation and Eveready Battery Company Lanka Limited recently.

* Following are the results:
Chilaw FL bt Puttalam FL 4/3, Kalutara FL bt Nugegoda FL 6/0, Playground FL bt Wennappuwa FL 2/1, Nawalapitiya FL bt Bandarawela FL 6/0, Anuradhapura FL bt Trincomalee FL 4/1, Matara FL bt Beruwela FL 5/0, Batticaloa FL bt Ampara FL 2/0, Kandy FL bt Hatton FL 3/2, Badulla FL bt Nuwara Eliya FL 3/2, Kegalle FL bt Gampola FL 6/5. (AN)

Three new Sri Lanka records were lowered in hurdle events while six National Sports Festival records were chipped off and one equalled, on the penultimate day of the National Sports Festival at the Sugathadasa Stadium yesterday.

Undoubtedly the star of the second day was the unknown G. S. Mangalika de Silva who established a new Sri Lanka mark in the 400 metre hurdles. Hailing from Kurunegala she beat the meet record holder Viyanka Welpahala to third place in her record breaking feat Mangalika attached to the Army crossed the finish line in 62.37 seconds to better Yamuna J. Yapa's Sri Lanka record 62.74 set in 1995. Anusha Jayaweera a long standing member of this event was second (62.83 seconds) while Viyanka cloeked 62.40 seconds.

The second record was erased in the men 400 metres event when the hot favourite Harijan Ratnayake ran a superb 5.98 second for the event. Harijan a soldier who took to the event only two years ago bettered his own national mark of 51.10 second. His performance was somewhat over shadowed by the young and promising Central Province hurdler J. M. A. K. Jayasundera who finished in 51.44 seconds. Jayasundara's last minute sprint was highly applauded. Sunimal Manamperi (52.91 seconds) was placed third.

Sriyani Kulawansa who is undoubtedly the only athlete to maintain a superb upward trend throughout the past six years bettered her own 100 metres hurdles record with a breath-taking 13.39 seconds run in the heats. The lack of competition once again proved to be the stalemate of an even would be better performance by her.

The much anticipated women's long jump Sri Lanka mark by Nayanthi Kumari was deprived by wind. She leaped 6.37 metres and was above Dilema Peterson's age old 1990 record of 6.22. The wind was at plus 2.1 and her super performance was deemed only a meet record.

Sugath Tillakaratne despite not running 'an all out' set up a meet record while Ruwan Perera the unblemished Pole Vaulter too established a new meet mark.

There was no ambulance brought to the stadium though a new one was donated to the Sports Ministry by Dilantha Malagamuwa last week.

The officials who totalled up to nearly 250 were escorted to Torrington Square Sports Ministry for lunch. Many questioned as to why this was done. Why cant, they bring the food here. The Ministry is spending 8 million, one official said.

The festival expenses at Bandarawela last year was Rs 12 million and it was former Director Padma Siriwardane who brought it down to 8 million. The budget for lighting was one million and she utilized one million to purchase lighting equipment at a cost of 15 lakhs. But despite her cost cutting effects she was shown the ministry draw.

The eight records
Pole vault - (Men) Ruwan P. Perera (Western) 4.60 m. 800 M (Women) - Jayamini Illeperuma (Western) 2.98.95 sec.

200 M - (Women) Nimmi Soysa (Western) 24.02 sec.

400 M (Men) Sugath Tillekaratne (Central) 46.40 sec.

4 x 400 m Relay (Men) Western - 40.99 seconds

4 x 400 M - Relay (Women) Western - 47.13 seconds

High Jump (Men) S. U. J. Rajapaksha (North Western) 2.03 M. (Equaeled record).

Team Game Results
Netball - North Western beat Central 45-42.

Best player - Priyanka Hemali (NWP)

Volleyball - Men - Western beat Southern 15/5, 15/12, 15/13 - Best Spiker - E. M. L. C. Ekanayake.

Women - North Western beat Western 15/4, 15/7 13/6 15/6 - Best Player - Omila Hemanthi - (North Western)

Kabaddi (Women) Southern beat North Central 19/14.

Sports Minister, S. B. Dissanayake in a congratulatory message to the Sri Lankan cricket team at winning the Emirates Triangular Tournament, says that the team brought an enormous amount of credit and glory to the country as they have proved once more to the cricketing world that they are the true world champs in the shorter version of the game.

The following is the full text of his message:

I wish to convey my warmest regards and congratulations to the Sri Lankan cricket team for winning the Emirates Triangular one day cricket tournament on Thursday which was held for the first time in English cricket history.

It can be construed that Sri Lanka as one day world champions by winning this prestigious cricket series have gone onto put Sri Lanka on the world map thereby bringing so much of credit and laurels to our motherland.

As the Minister of Sports and on behalf of the government as well I wish to once more express my appreciation and good wishes to the entire Sri Lanka cricket team including coach Roy Dias, Manager Ranjith Fernando for their excellent performance, unwavering determination, dedication and most of all team work.

India will play Sri Lanka in the five match Freedom 50 Cup Series, under the banner of newly formed, Senior Cricket Association.

According to Sandeep Patil, President, of the Association cricketers now, would get to play more series in India and abroad. This series is organised to celebrate the independence of both countries.

Duleep Mendis foremer Sri Lanka Captain, added 'both countries are fielding their best teams and the series would be a cracker'.

The series is being promoted and marketed by Radiant Sports and Entertainment. The matches would be played on August 25, 27, 29, 31 and September 2, 1998.

The Centres would be Delhi, Agra and Amritsar. Agra Ð 25th, Delhi - 27th/29th and Amritsar - 31st Aug-2nd Sept. '98.

The teams led by Sandeep Patil and Duleep Mendis, would for the first time see Sanjay Manjrekar, Praveen Amre, Srikant, Kiran More, Lalith Kaluperuma, Asantha de Mel, Somachandra de Silva, Romesh Ratnayake and many great test cricketers.

The matches would be 40 overs duration, and will be telecast by Doordarshan Live. Duleep Mendis is leading the following team, due to leave for India on August 23.

Duleep Mendis (Capt.), D. S. de Silva, Lalith Kaluperuma, Asantha de Mel, Romesh Ratnayake, Brendon Kuruppu, Amal Silva, Asoka de Silva, Hemantha Devapriya, Ranil Abeynaike, Don Anurasiri, J. C. Gamage, R. Madurusinghe, Guy de Alwis.

The Sri Lanka Independence Golden Jubilee Celebration Football Championships conducted by the Football Federation of Sri Lanka under the guidance of the Asian Football Confederation will be held from November 9 to 19 in Colombo.

Three countries including India, Sri Lanka and Maldives have confirmed their participation at this championships. The Football Federation has also extended invitations to Bangladesh, Pakistan and Malaysia too. "We expect that these three countries too will respond favourably", one FFSL official said.

It is expected that Singer Sri Lanka would come forward as the official sponsor and the event is expected to be telecast live over an international channel.

Meanwhile the SAARC Gold Cup Soccer Championship held every other year is in the balance. The event was scheduled to be held next October in India but now it is postponed for November. The venue too will be shifted from India.

Sri Lankan cricketers took this England tour with great expectations of achieving many goals. So far we have succeeded in winning the one day series the Emirates Triangular Tournament. We are happy about our successes. Many critics earlier predicted Sri Lankans are able to achieve victory only in Asian regions. But here we proved them that we are capable of winning in any part of the World said Arjuna Ranatunge soon after beating England at Lords in the final of the Tri Nation Series.

Lankan spectators at the London Oval celebrated the victory singing and dancing on the ground. They openly requested five test series for Sri Lanka.

The first game against England we failed in every department said Ranatunga. We had to work hard to put things right for us. After discussions we decided to field the best side for the final. Specially the spinners bowled well - Muralitharan did his part well claiming 5 wickets and proved that he is the best spinner in our side. Few years ago too I made this comment saying 'Murali' is the best spinner of the ball. He proved this beyond doubt today said Ranatunga.

Marvan Atapattu was among the runs during this whole tour. We wanted him to stay at the wicket as long as possible. As expected he stood his ground until victory was achieved. Further Ranatunga said though Sanath Jayasuriya failed to bring in runs in these one dayers he is capable of regaining form during the Test to collect runs for his side.

Ranatunga speaking of the test which commences in a week's time said it is very difficult to beat England in onedayers or Tests on their home soil. It was stated English pitches may not be of much help to our spinners but upto now our spinners have got the best from these, said Ranatunga. Our morale has reached it peak after the Emirates Triangular final which is of vital importance before the Test. With this high morale behind us we expect to turn tables once again in the Cornhill Test says Ranatunga.

Muralitharan has been outstanding during the one dayers. We bank heavily in him for the test too. By this times Sri Lankan cricketers have mastered old types of tracks in England while getting used to climatic conditions said skipper Ranatunga.

Sri Lanka take on Hampshire in a three day game today which is also the final one before the test.

Sri Lankan Ruggerites are slated in a tough group at the Commonwealth seven-a-side Rugby Tournament along with Australia, Fiji and Gambia. It will be a tough task for the boys from Sri Lanka.

* Following are the groupings:
* Group 1
Australia, Fiji, Sri Lanka, Gambia.

* Group 2
New Zealand, Wales, Swaziland, Papua New Guinea.

* Group 3
South Africa, Cooks Island, Trinidad and Tobago, Malaysia.

* Group 4
Western Samoa, Canada, Zimbabwe, Caymon Island.

* Group 5
England, Tonga, Kenya, Burma - (AN)