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Confectioner's son exposes English
conservatism LONDON, Sept 2 (Reuters) - A confectioner's son from Kandy has exposed the enduring conservatism of the English cricket establishment just one year before Sri Lanka defend the World Cup. On a sun-drenched afternoon at The Oval on Monday, Muttiah Muralitharan spun Sri Lanka to their first away victory over England in the sixth one-off meeting between the two countries in 16 years. "Never can the English cricket authorities have responded to the rise of a new power in the game quite so churlishly as they have to Sri Lanka," the Guardian said in a stinging editorial on Tuesday. "There...is the vague smell of (probably sub-conscious) racism. Much safer to ask the (still mainly white) South Africans to play a full series than the little brown men with the unprounceable names. "They are still not pronounced right." Although a three-test series has at last been scheduled in Sri Lanka in 2000-1, the Sri Lankans are not due to return to England until 2002 with still no guarantee that they will play a series. "The likelihood is that they will play more than one," said an England and Wales Cricket Board spokesman on Tuesday. "But no decision has yet been been made. This will depend on the International Cricket Council's decision on an international test competition." Sri Lanka tilted the axis of the cricketing world at the 1996 World Cup when Sanath Jayasuriya sparked a series of astonishing batting displays. The compact left-hander launched himself at the bowling from the opening ball, redefining for ever the role of the opening batsman in one-day cricket. No total seemed beyond Sri Lanka, an approach they have transferred to the test arena. Arjuna Rantunga, the comfortably built skipper who has been part of the Sri Lankan team since their first test match 16 years ago, puzzled the pundits when he asked England to bat on a perfect late-summer Oval pitch. England replied with a first innings 445, which according to orthodox thinking insured them from defeat. Ranatunga, from the start, thought otherwise. Confident his batsmen could match anything England achieved, Ranatunga said he had never planned to follow the conventional path of scoring a pile of runs and then enforcing the follow-on. "We bowled first because we wanted to give Murali a rest in between England's innings," he said. Muralitheran is an extraordinary off-spinner who probably turns the ball more than any finger-spinner in history. But the true glory of Sri Lanka lies in their batsmen, who can score as fast in test cricket as in the one-day arena without taking undue risks. Twelve years ago, a 28-year-old Buddhist Sidath Wettimuny stroked the England bowlers to all parts of the field as Sri Lanka ran up 491 for seven declared in their first test at Lord's. Wettimuny, who played with classical perfection in his 190, learned his technique from a 1912 treatise by C.B. Fry, the England batsman who held the world long jump record for 21 years and who was at one stage offered the Kingdom of Albania. Albania's loss was Sri Lanka's gain. Wettimuny, who expressed diplomatic disappointment at the technique of England's batsmen, was the first of a series of batsmen to put England bowlers to the sword. The cricketing public once again proved wiser than the game's rulers. Capacity crowds on the first three days of The Oval test watched Jayasuriya hit a double century and Aravinda de Silva a century in Sri Lanka's first innings 591. Even the marketing men, who increasingly run sport in the closing days of the 20th century, must have taken note. Beating England in England, a dream fulfilled - Ranatunga In the wake of Sri Lanka's first ever Test victory over England, captain Arjuna Ranatunga said that his team had big hopes of beating the old masters of the game on English soil. 'In doing so a long felt dream of mine which I looked to achieving before I call it quits, was fulfilled', said Ranatunga speaking to pressmen. Praising Muralitharan's world record achievement of a his match haul of 16 wickets in becoming the fifth bowler in Test cricket to do so, Ranatunga said, 'Murali has shown to the world that he is one of the best bowlers in the world. I rate him as the best of all. He is like a machine. Everybody knows what sort of a bowler he is. Charges by some that he is a chucker is of no use to us. We do not wish to take upon our shoulders others problems, What we have to do is to look into our problems. Unfortunately we have only Murali. We don't have a Wasim Akram, Darren Gough or a Ambrose. Murali has no sponsors like players like Shane Warne. If I were Murali, I would reply his critics by taking more wickets. However, it is necessary to find an equally good support bowler for Murali. Responding to questions that similar to the smear campaign in Australia which was to put down Sri Lanka mentally, in England as well as the home team Manager had raised a doubt as to Muralitharan's arm action which received wide publicity, the Lankan captain said that to the Australians, Sri Lanka's reply had been by conquering the World Cup. And to the English by defeating them. Ranatunga went on to add, ' The England batsmen batted well in the first innings. but by their negative play in the second essay of using the pad instead of going for their strokes, we knew that we would triumph.' Asked for his comments as to Sri Lanka not being given a three-test tour and 1 in the year 2002, Ranatunga said, 'On our next tour many of the old faces might not be there. The loss of giving us only a solitary test would be felt by the England fans. Being able to see a player of the like of Aravinda de Silva in only one appearance is unfortunate for them. However, we looked forward to grooming young players on this tour and it is satisfying that some of them impressed. I think the find of the tour was 19-year-old wicket-keeper Prasanna Jayawardena.' Meanwhile, England Captain Alec Stewart, asked for his post match comments, said the Sri Lanka had performed very well and that England batsmen were at sea against Muralitharan. Asked whether he had doubts he is one of the topmost bowlers. I knew nothing about what our coach David Lloyd had said.' Meanwhile, the President of the Sri Lanka Board of Control for Cricket in Sri Lanka (BCCSL), Thilanga Sumathipala, commenting on Lloyd's charges said, 'We believe the ECB would take a course of action. We are dismayed at what Lloyd said. It is shocking that if he had a complaint he did not follow the correct procedure of complaining instead of shooting his mouth to the press. We have complained about his actions to the ECB Chief Executive Officer, Timb Lamb. Lloyd also came under fire from former England cricketer, Geoff Boycott who was in the BBC commentary panel in the concluded Test match. 16 years after dream debut vs.
England, Ranatunga realises another dream On gaining test status, Sri Lanka’s first test match was against England in 1982. Although Sri Lanka lost that inaugural match, at age 18 Arjuna Ranatunga as a schoolboy scored a half century in what was his maiden appearance. Sixteen years later, when Ranatunga made his appearance at the London Oval as the Sri Lankan captain and having led his country against every country other than England. And Ranatunga once again scored a half century while Muttiah Muralitharan with his record bowling feat of 16 wickets in the match contributing largely in enabling Ranatunga to record his 14th test victory as captain. In that victory the double century contribution by Sanath Jayasuriya and century by Aravinda de Silva brought out high quality batsmanship that will not be forgotten by spectators. This win saw Sri Lanka register their third successive such one in a row. This run of success was also significant in that it was achieved following former Sri Lanka Test player, Roy Dias taking over as coach. Also noteworthy is that although England has won 3 of the 6 test matches played between the two countries, Sri Lanka recorded successive victories in their last two meetings. England lost suffered a 5-wicket defeat to Sri Lanka in 1993-’94 in Colombo. |
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