Sri Lanka’s cricket WC win has lessons for all of us – Premier-by Dhammika Ratnaweera

Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa with World Cup winning team members and other officials

Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa yesterday said that if cricketers can build up excellent teamwork and play with more commitment like those days, then Sri Lanka could win the cricket world cup once again.

He made these observations at a ceremony held to mark the Silver Jubilee Celebrations of the 1996 Cricket World Cup triumph and to felicitate the players at Temple Trees.

Aravinda de Silva receiving his medal from Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa. Also in the picture are Arjuna Ranatunga and former Sports Minister S. B. Dissanayake

“We have to look at our past and build up from those lessons, and this world cup victory gave a good lesson to all.”

The Premier also pointed out two key incidents that took place during the World Cup, which highlighted the humanitarian aspect of the Sri Lanka Cricket Team. The first incident was when Sri Lanka’s reserve player Upul Chandana had volunteered to field in the boundary in place of Aravinda de Silva to prevent him from being injured, as the crowd had commenced pelting bottles during the semi-final against India at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata.

The Prime Minister also pointed out the incident where Arjuna Ranatunga, who despite his father being a Minister at that time, had first visited the residence of late Minister Gamini Dissanayake to pay his gratitude for the service he rendered to cricket. “These two incidents are good examples the Sri Lankan Team show their humanitarian values on the cricketing field.

“We saw the performances of the Sri Lankan Legends Team in the ongoing Road Safety World Cricket Series in India, where they recorded consecutive victories.”

Romesh Kaluwitharana receiving his medal from Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa

“The secret behind these victories is their playing style, which is backed by discipline and good commitment that have been there from those days.” “They never played for money or other facilities those days and have shown the same kind of playing style today.”

Meanwhile, a commemorative stamp was also issued to mark the 25th Anniversary of Sri Lanka winning the World Cup yesterday. The Prime Minister also presented medals to the world cup winning team members and these medals were presented by the ICC to mark the occasion.

Sports Minister Namal Rajapaksa, who expressed his thoughts through Zoom, said that he enjoyed watching the World Cup final as schoolboys 25 years ago.

Hashan Tillakaratne receiving his medal from Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa

“This world cup victory was the turning point of sports in the country and our players proved they can win at international level with this great victory.” World Cup winning members Skipper Ranatunga, Vice-Captain Aravinda de Silva, Roshan Mahanama, Hashan Tillakaratne, Romesh Kaluwitharana, Chaminda Vaas, Muttiah Muralitharan, Kumar Dharmasena, Marvan Atapattu, Upul Chandana and Ravindra Pushpakumra were present at this celebrations.

Sanath Jayasuriya, Asanka Gurusinha and Promodya Wickramasinghe were not present at this occasion as they were out of the country.