Two New Cricket Captains for Sri Lanka-by Michael Roberts Source:Thuppahis Item in The Island, 31 December 2023 ….. with highlighting imposed by The Editor, Thuppahi Dasun Shanaka’s reign as Sri Lanka’s white-ball captain has come to an end as Sri Lanka’s new selection committee appointed Kusal Mendis and Wanindu Hasaranga to lead the ODI and T20I sides, respectively. With Dimuth Karunaratne currently leading the Test side, this is the first time Sri Lanka have three different captains in the three formats. Shanaka first captained Sri Lanka in 2019, on the team’s first tour to Pakistan since the 2009 Lahore attack, but it was not until 2021 that he became their regular captain. Under him, Sri Lanka won 23 out of 41 ODIs and 22 out of 48 T20Is. The highlight of his tenure was the 2022 T20 Asia Cup victory in the UAE where Sri Lanka beat Pakistan in the final. Also notable were ODI series wins against South ...

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Sri Lanka crush UAE at T20 World Cup despite Meiyappan hat-trick Source:Dailymirror Karthik Meiyappan lit up the Twenty20 World Cup with a hat-trick Tuesday but it was in vain as Sri Lanka dismissed the United Arab Emirates for just 73 to get their campaign back on track. The Asian champions were stunned by Namibia in the tournament’s opening game on Sunday, a crushing 55-run defeat that left no room for error against the UAE. They responded with a convincing 79-run victory, but not before some drama. Sri Lanka were cruising at 117-2 at Geelong when spin bowler Meiyappan derailed their plans in the 15th over, removing Bhanuka Rajapaksa, Charith Asalanka and skipper Dasun Shanaka in successive balls. ...

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Sri Lanka in majestic win to take Asia Cup – By Dhammika Ratnaweera Source : dailynews The Sri Lanka team made a superb team effort to win the sixth Asia Cup cricket title when they beat Pakistan by 23 runs at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium yesterday. The game was a do-or-die battle for both Sri Lanka and Pakistan. Sri Lanka chased the target and recorded their victory on Friday with three overs to spare. However, Sri Lanka batted first after losing the toss and made a comfortable total of 170/6 as they defended that total with a superb fighting spirit to clinch the title for the sixth time under the full capacity of Dubai grounds while most of them were Pakistani supporters ended up disappointed with back to back defeats from Sri Lanka. Pakistan chasing a target of 171 runs managed to get 147 while wicketkeeper Mohammed Rizwan was the ...

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Jayasuriya and Chandimal hoping to turn Test form into BBL deals Prabath Jayasuriya took 12 wickets on Test debut against Australia Source:Island Two Sri Lankan stars who dominated Australia in the recent Test in Galle have nominated to play in the BBL this upcoming season with Prabath Jayasuriya and Dinesh Chandimal among the latest names to headline a host of new nominations for the upcoming overseas draft. Jayasuriya, Chandimal, Maheesh Theekshana and Bhanuka Rajapaksa have all nominated while England’s Overton brothers, Jamie and Craig, have also put their names forward. None of those players have played in BBL before and Jayasuriya, having taken 29 wickets in his first three Tests, has never even played a T20I for Sri Lanka. But there are still no Pakistan players amongst the 169 players currently nominated after it was revealed that the PCB is refusing to provide no-objection certificates (NOCs) to Pakistani players – ...

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SLC imposes new rules on players intend to retire from national cricket Source:Dailymirror In the wake of cricketer Bhanuka Rajapaksa has announced his intention to retire from international cricket, the Sri Lanka Cricket has taken a number of decisions on national players who intend to retire from national cricket. Accordingly, national players who are intending to retire from national cricket, should officially notify the local Cricket governing body three months ahead, elaborating their intention to retire, SLC said. The above decision was taken by the executive committee of SLC at a meeting held on Friday in respect of players who have retired and/or contemplating to retire from national cricket. ...

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All national cricketers need to learn English to speak fearlessly on Podiums – by Sunil Thenabadu (Sports editor – eLanka) Cricket was begun by the English remains a sport since the 17th century, where the language in use is of course was English. Countries like England, Australia, South Africa,West Indies,Zimbabwe( formerly Rhodesia) had no problem with the English language where everything connected to the game was in English .Lately with the advent of Asian countries viz India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh the players ,administrators had to be versed in English jargon which most did up to the end of the 1990 decade. All our past cricketers were able to converse well in the English which was the accepted language at international matches particularly for speaking at previews by the skippers, post- match presentations at press conferences when one is adjudicated as “the player of the match” had to answer to questions posed by the presenter at the podium. From the ...

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Buttler’s Swashbuckling unbeaten ton makes it four out of four for England after early hiccups – by Sunil Thenabadu (Sports editor – eLanka) Spot in semi-finals all but stiffened up; even a near miracle could not make a semi-final berth for Sri Lanka:  Chief Scores  England 163 for 4 (Buttler 101*, Morgan 40, Hasaranga 3-21) beat Sri Lanka 137 (Hasaranga 34,,Rajapaksa 26,Shanaka 26,Asalanka 21- Moeen 2-15, Rashid 2-19) by 26 runs with an over remaining. On an uncompromising Sharjah surface -slow ,low ,uneven bounce Sri Lankan skipper Dasun Shanaka had no hesitation in inviting England to bat.In the second over itself Hasaranga was introduced, when an off-spin ball knocked off Jason Roy off stump who was stunned for 9 runs. Shanaka intelligently shuffled his bowlers. Malan the number one ranked T 20 batsmen was beaten neck and crop by Chameera for six runs while in the very next over Hasaranga accounted for Bairstow for a golden ...

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SRI LANKA CRICKET NEWS (OCTOBER 2021) Compiled by Victor Melder Minod Bhanuka, Ramesh Mendis, Pathum Nissanka, Lakshan Sandakan and Ashen Bandara have been added to Sri Lanka’s original squad for the upcoming T20 World Cup – announced mid-September. Lahiru Madhushanka, who was named in the original squad will not travel with the team as he is recovering from an injury. Reserve-keeper Minod Bhanuka and the two batsmen – Ramesh Mendis and Pathum Nissanka – were part of Sri Lanka’s recent home series defeat to South Africa in August. They came away with underwhelming performances and were omitted from the initial squad. Ashen Bandara last played a month before at home in the series win against India, while Lakshan Sandakan’s previous outing for the national side came in July in England. Neither made a big enough mark to be considered initially, but Sri Lanka have now added to their squad, which ...

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Sri Lanka’s fortunes are on the rise despite limited success – BY TREVINE RODRIGO IN MELBOURNE Photo source: CricketAddictor ( https://cricketaddictor.com/icc-t20-wc-2021/icc-t20-world-cup-2021-sri-lanka-announces-15-member-squad-for-the-tournament/ ) Sri Lanka’s attempt to resurrect its dying image as a force in international cricket hit a vital stumbling block when they squandered a chance to topple South Africa in the T20 World Cup in Sharjah. But all is not lost as a mostly inexperienced outfit showed grit in a last over disaster to warn the rest of the world that they are well on the way back to being respected and feared as they were during the reign of Arjuna Ranatunge, Sanath Jayasuriya, Aravinda De Silva, Kumar Sangakkara, Mahela Jayawardene and Tillekeratne Dilshan and a few others who had them riding the crest of a wave during their time with the Island nation. Sliding down to the embarrassing depths of having to qualify for the Super 12’s, the Lankans romped ...

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Warner sparkles as Australia trounce Sri Lanka by seven wickets with three overs to spare – by Sunil Thenabadu (eLanka Sports Editor) David Warner (left) and Aaron Finch run between wickets.  Photo source: SLC  Chief scores  Sri Lanka: 154/6 in 20 overs (Kusal Perera 35, Charith Asalanka 35, Bhanuka Rajapaksa 33 n.o, Mitchell Starc 2/27, Pat Cummins 2/34, Adam Zampa 2/12)  Australia: 155/3 in 17 overs (David Warner 65, Aaron Finch 37, Steven Smith 28 n.o, Wanindu Hasaranga 2/22).  Prior to this all important ICC T 20 Cricket World Cup Super 12 match played at the Dubai International cricket stadium, United Arab Emirates yesterday head to head it was all even with eight wins to each team, but Australia had won the last four T 20 matches.The highest total posted by Australia was 243 while Sri Lanka had made 198.  The all-important toss was won by Finch who had no hesitation in inviting Sri ...

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