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England
228/4 at close England were 228 for 4 wickets at close on the first day of the one off Test against Sri Lanka at the Oval London yesterday. Hick was in fine form scoring an unbeaten 107. Mark Ramprakash too made a valuable knock of 53 runs to keep the score moving for England. England who were asked to bat first by Arjuna Ranatunga who won the toss in the one off Test at London Oval were 74/1 at lunch.
England had to bring in Steve James to open the innings in place of Mike Atherton who pulled out at the eleventh hour due to a back injury. Ben Hollioake who turned up practices 45 minutes late was fined 1000 sterling pounds. Twenty year old former Isipatanian Suresh Perera became the 73rd Test cricketer for Sri Lanka when he was named for this Test here in London. Though everyone expected the side who wins the toss to bat first on a grassless pitch and to give the difficult fourth innings to loser of the toss. But things happened the other way when Arjuna Ranatunga invited England to bat after his call came right. In the seventh over bowled by Pramodya Wickemasinghe, Mark Butcher offered a catch to second slip Sanath Jayasuriya. Butcher made 10 and the scoreboard read 16. This was the only wicket to fall before the luncheon break. Suresh Perera and Pramodya Wickremasinghe failed with the new ball to pose any threats inform batsman Graeme Hick and Steve James. Two of them managed add 58 runs to go for lunch with scoreboard reading 74. In the fourth over after lunch Muralitharan held on to return catch to send back Steve James for 36. James stayed at the wicket for 132 minutes and send the ball to the boundary on three occasions. Test debutante Suresh Perera captured his maiden Test wicket when he had the wicket of England skipper Alec Stewart. Stewart after facing 9 balls for his two runs edged a ball from Suresh Perera to first slip Hashan Tillekeratne. The third wicket falling at 81. Graeme Hick played Sri Lanka bowlers with ease to reach him 16 Test half century. He scored his fifty with the help of seven boundaries, in a stay of 162 minutes. This is also his first half century in 13 Test innings. England scored its 100 in the 43rd over. A capacity crowd witnessed the first day's play here. Former Sri Lankan coach Dave Whatmore too was a spectator. SCOREBOARD England first innings M.Butcher c Jayasuriya b Wickremasinghe 10 S.James c and b Muralitharan 36 G.Hick not out 107 A.Stewart c Tillekaratne b Perera 2 M.Ramprakash c Jayawardena b Muralitharan 53 J.Crawley not out 10 Extras (lb-5 nb-5) 10 Total (for four wickets) 228 Fall of wickets: 1-16 2-78 3-81 4-209 To bat: B.Hollioake, D.Cork, I.Salisbury, D.Gough, A.Fraser Bowling (to date) Wickremasinghe 18-2-53-1, Perera 24-7-56-1, Dharmasena 13-3-44-0, Muralitharan 31-8-58-2, Jayasuriya 5-0-12-0. Sri Lanka - S.Jayasuriya, M.Atapattu, M.Jayawardena, A.de Silva, H.Tillekeratne, A.Ranatunga, R.Kaluwitharana, M.Muralitharan, P.Wickremasinghe, S.Perera, K.Dharmasena Tight security for Galle Stadium Galle International Cricket Stadium is to be given tight security by the Police said DIG Southern Range R. M. Seneviratne Bandara. DIG further said the damage done to the grounds by an organised gang is a bad blow to cricket in the Southern province and specially to Galle Cricket Club. He said stadium's Galle Fort area is not properly fenced and free movement into the grounds is easy. The two suspects (one arrested by police and one surrendered) are further questioned said Asoka Ratnaweera SSP Galle. Walter Lindrum Centenary, Billiard C'ships K. H. Sirisoma Sri Lanka's No. 1 cueist has entered the quarter final of the Walter Lindrum Centenery Billiard Championships now in progress in Melbourne, Australia. Sirisoma in the pre quarter-final defeated Australian J. Minice who is seated No. 9 at the championship 1577-922. On his way to victory over Minice he went on to register five century breaks (135, 137, 142, 126 and 11). In the League matches too, Sirisoma was outstanding making three victories while losing only one game. During the League games Sirisoma beat D. Townsend (England) 1582-643, L. Higgins (Australia) 1301-1030, I. Gilhee (Australia) 1287-782 and lost to C. Praput (Thailand) 1250-1422. Here too Sirisoma had excellent breaks to register seven centuries. He recorded a highest break of 175 against L. Higgins of Australia. The other cueists already qualified to play in the quarters are R. Foldvari (Australia), D. Collins (Australia) and P. Bennet (England). The highest break for the Championship was registered by R. Foldwari when he notched up a score of 478. Scores: League Matches Pre-quarters Classic Badminton championship Lal Samuel (Technology Provider Ltd.) won the Men's Singles Title at the Inaugural Western Province Classic Badminton Championships which concluded at Otter Aquatic Club Courts recently. Samuel defeated Lakpriya Edirisinghe (Com. Bank) in the final in straight sets 15-3, 15-10. Samuel partnered by Ranjan Perera managed to reach the Mixed Doubles final. In the final they lost to Hiran Fernando/Anoma Perera in a two setter 17-14, 15-13. Yogitha Perera (Air Force) defeated Jayamini Illeperuma (Rupavahini Corp) 15-3, 15-5 to grab the Women's Singles title. K. Nallathamby playing in over 45 age group collected the Singles title and the Double title partnering Tilak Amarasinghe. Anoma Wickramanayake went on to win the over 35 Women's singles title. Results: Men's Singles (over 20):-- Lal Manual beat Lakpriya Edirisinghe 15-3, 15-10 Women's Singles over 20 -- Yogitha Perera beat Jayamini Illeperuma 15-3, 15-5. Men's Double (over 20): - Lakpriya Edirisinghe/ N. Ranasinghe beat H. U. R. Liyanage/K. Ginige 15-10, 15-6. Men's Singles over 35:- Priyantha Wijesekara beat Sunil Jayasiri 15-2, 15-3. Men's Doubles over 35:- Priyantha Wijesekara/Sumith Guruge beat Hafiz Cader/D. Perera 15-17, 15-10, 15-11. Women's Singles (over 35):- Anoma Wickramanayake beat Lakshmi Liyanage 11-1, 11-0. Men's Singles (over 45):-- K. Nallathamby beat Sunil Jayasiri 15-1, 15-2. Men's Doubles (over 45):-- K. D. Nallathamby/Tilak Amarasinghe beat Rohan de Silva/Gamini Ratnayake 15-5, 15-6. Mixed Doubles:-- Anoma Wickramanayake/Hiran Fernando beat Ranjani Perera/Lal Samual 17-14, 15-13. Lankan slicers not done home work Once again a Carrom Test series for men and women has come and gone with a grand slam victory for the Indians, who carried the "Independence Cup". It was played at three venues. Like the Indians, the Sri Lankan slicers were star-studded with top rankers who also played at the World Cup in October 1995 where teams from India, Maldives, U.S.A., U.K. and Sweden participated. Not having learnt from their past performances, this time too the Federation failed to give the team the required practices. The final team was selectd only three days before the Tests and all players — men and women — lacked spirit, courage and practices. Probably, players were isolated to each of their homes. What the players require is the confidence, team spirit and courage to emerge as a force like our cricketers and athletes. This could be found only if there are regular tournaments and pool practices when a tour is sighted and not just a couple of days practice before the tests start. It must be said that this brought the debacle in the game with their slicing always falling short of the pocket or away, and most of the players could not give a game. The only match was won by the veteran women's slicing queen, on the scene since the late sixties, Amitha Wickremasinghe. Of the men, M. S. M. Sadurdeen and Langley Mathiasz won solitary matches. The Indians, in contrast were in superb spirit and confidence, and had been in practice for months. Even after arriving in Sri Lanka they were confined to practice. In Octobr 1995 having lost the World Cup, in an interview with 'The Island' the present Secretary (also as the Secretary in 1995), Shelton Premaratne said that there were shortcomings and they were going to learn from their mistakes and endeavouring to conduct a junior national to groom a new breed of players for the future. But going through the test team of both men and women, we saw only one new name and that of M. N. M. Sadurdeen and seeing him play, here was a future potential. But all other players were those who had dominated the slicing scene for the last three decades except for a couple in the men's team. This itself proves how far the game of Carrom has improved, at least since October 1995 to date. The Captain of the team, Langley Mathiasz, who was also the Captain of the World Cup team, admitted then too, they lacked the practice as they had less than ten days and the lack of a practice venue. But how come the Sports Ministry has given the Federation a venue at the Sports Complex at Reid Avenue and a few tournaments had been conducted. Mathiasz also admitted that most of the officials in the Federation were not past players and they lacked the experience. Yet they all get together and manupulate at election time to rotate the posts and go round in circles for their own personal benefits. Let the officials of the Federation take recognition of the past and see to it that at least we could be a force at the coming events. The new President of the Federation, Mervyn Jayasinghe has already taken steps to introduce carrom to schools and to the Youth Council of the Sports Ministry. He pledged by the end of his first year of office that there would be major improvements to the game and he would strive hard to field a more improved slicing unit. Kandy's failure this year: was it lack of
team spirit The red white and blue coloured sporting ruggerites from Nittawela, forming the Kandy Sports Club team, who took the field as triple champions, failed to win a single trophy this season, with a star studded side. They ended up second to CH and FC in the Sevens, to CR and FC in the Carlsberg Clifford Cup League and President's Trophy knockouts. Sad to say, this is the first time since 1991, Kandy Sports Club has failed to win a tournament, where did they go wrong? is the question. The champion outfit was led by that best forward in the country Asoka Jayasena who had the services of Sri Lanka caps like Imthi Marikar who has good rugby in him, Nalin Dissanayake, an utility player, Manjula Pathirane, last year's skipper, Lasantha Wijesuriya, Indrajith Bandaranayake who came from Australia, Dunstan de Silva, Pradeep Basnayaka, Suranga Amarasinghe and Hariss Omar. It was a completely different outfit from that of 1997 season which played a brand of fast, open rugger that brought successful results at the end. There was something lacking in the side. Was it team spirit? Some of the seniors who did yeoman service were dropped for matches and called back in the second half. The players should know better than any one. What one feels is there was no proper team planning, and this time Kandy failed to get in a single Kandy school product for the knockouts. Some of th senior players are to hang up their boots and some to go out of Kandy. However the skipper Jayasena and his men gave off their best in the knockouts. This type of play was not there in the League. To play well and win tournaments, the players should be happy. |
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