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| Tuesday, 13 January 2004 |
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Murali to lead? Comment by Dr. Elmo Rodrigopulle Australian cricket has somewhat been jolted after India did well to hold them to a 1-all draw in a four-match series recently. Australia were expected to beat the Indians and add to their stature. But the Indians proved more than worthy opponents by giving the Aussies a scare. Australia's next port of call will be Sri Lanka in mid February and indications are that they will invade here with their best battalion of willow wielders. The Aussies who dislike to be held or beaten are fine tuning three of their stars Glen McGrath, Shane Warne and Darren Lehmann for Sri Lanka and when they announce their squad these three greats are sure to be in. Now that Steve Waugh has bid goodbye, Ricky Ponting will be in charge of both versions of the game, thereby burying the ugly split captaincy syndrome. It is only in Sri Lanka that the split captaincy style is prevailing. The sooner the Lankans shed this ugly side of cricket, the better it would be. At the moment there is a bit of uncertainty in the game here, with indications that the one-day team would be captained by Marvan Atapattu and the Test squad by Hashan Tillakaratne. Soon the selectors would sit to decide. Now that some are plonking for Marvan Atapattu to head both squads, it would not be a bad idea for the selectors to also consider the controversial Muttiah Muralitheran. What is it that Muralitheran hasn't got that Atapattu and Tillakaratne have? He has captaincy experience. Has wide international playing experience and is a thinking cricketer. In the last few years it has been Muralitheran who has been winning matches for us single handedly. The belief now is that if there is no Muralitheran, there would be no victory for Sri Lanka. For the great feats that the off spinner has performed, it is but right for the selectors to give him the honour of leading his country, which is the dream of every cricketer. The Aussies who love to hate Muralitheran would certainly be upset if they were to learn that Muralitheran is leading. The Aussies have always questioned his action and Muralitheran would like to rub them into the dust in every venue, when he confronts them. So would the selectors dare to give Muralitheran the nod? Funnily at the moment Muralitheran is not even the vice captain of the team. The off spinner who is heading to lower the record wicket hauls of Shane Warne and Courtney Walsh is sure to add to his already big haul against the Aussies. It would be great if he were to go past the world record held by Walsh being the Sri Lanka captain. The coming days will tell. Poor show by Bens After quite sometime we took in an inter-school cricket match between St. Benedicts' and St. Joseph's at Kotahena on Saturday and was disappointed at the end with the Bens losing by innings with plenty of time to spare. It was simply bad batting by the Bens that brought about their downfall. Some are trying to level the defeat on the coach Udayananda Perera who has been a marked man. As for us it is not the fault of the coach. One may have the best coach in the world. What matters is how one performs in the middle. And this the Bens players did not do. Perera coached them to beat the Joes last year and there is the possibility that the Bens may lose him to his old school Ananda next season. Perera played for Ananda as a wicket keeper batsman and later for the Police and BRC. After the game it was - win or loose we booze - as the Bens supporters drowned their sorrows in wine and song. Providing the sing along were Jaiya and Patrick Perera with the wonderful table thumping by Kishore 'Kumar' Rodrigo. Joining in the singing were Kumar Sabaratnam a former Bens Captain who was President of the OBSC and who did wonders by renovating the Club, father-in-law and son-in-law combination of SL and Selvaraj Fernando, Anton Perera, Lucky and Lasantha Rodrigo, Malcom Mack also a former Bens skipper who has a century against the Joses to his credit, Benedict Francis now with the 'Daily Mirror' and Valentine Fernando the Bens soccer organiser. There was also Rohan Rodrigo and former Bens, Saunders and Sri Lanka soccerite Alfred Dias, Christo de Almeida and Joy Anthonypillai a Bens and national hockey player on holiday from Malawi singing lustily. As for the Joes their sole representative was Denham Cramer former Joes superb left arms spinner who has more Ben friends than Joes because he comes from Kotahena. Badly missed were Kenneth Dabrera a pioneer cheer leader who was at his best when the Bens beat the Joes for the first time in 1964 under Sunil Fernando at Kotahena and Upula Fernando. The Bens ground is also getting a new facelift with the Director Rev. Bro. Granville Perera also an old Ben personally supervising the work. |
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