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| Saturday, 14 February 2004 |
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Lagging behind The media hype that was given to the return of Australian leg-spinner Shane Warne to competitive cricket just goes to show how organized the Aussies are in their campaigning to promote a sports figure. The manner in which Australia market their cricketers or for that matter any sportsman or woman is something that countries like Sri Lanka should take note of. Warne was making a come back to cricket after serving a 12-month doping ban and what amount of publicity he received. He was welcomed to the fold as a hero by the media with national dailies in Australia giving him the front page with headlines such as 'Return of the King', 'Go Shane - ticket to Sri Lanka is booked' and 'Sky's the limit to Warne's comeback'. Would Sri Lanka's ace spinner Muttiah Muralitharan have got that kind of reception if he were to make a return to cricket after serving a similar ban? No. He would have been spited and all the negative things would have been said about him thus ridiculing his comeback. How the Australians make a hero out of their cricketers is something that Sri Lanka should follow. The pre-publicity surrounding the return of Warne was so big that it caught the attention of not only the Australian public, but the world as well. His return to competitive cricket for Victoria second XI attracted the biggest media attention ever seen at a state second XI match. For all the bad bouts of publicity surrounding his international career from lewd telephone calls, bribery to doping scandals, Warne's popularity and profile in Australia continues to grow. He is also held in high esteem throughout the world being Australia's highest wicket-taker in Test cricket and the second best in the all-time list with 491 wickets from 107 Tests. Australians have their own way of promoting their heroes and Warne has been made a super hero in the eyes of the cricket world so that whatever he does makes news. His actions may not go down well with some sections of the cricketing public but over the years Warne has built a name for him and become a cult figure. Even ordinary cricketers in Australia are made heroes and their names are on everyone's lips because the way they have been marketed to the public. Sri Lanka's best chance of promoting and marketing their players came when they won the World Cup in 1996. But the marketing and promotions strategies were so poor at that time, they lost out on that opportunity. Even now they can still promote and market players like Sanath Jayasuriya and Muttiah Muralitharan to the world, but this is one area where Sri Lanka Cricket is lacking. The names of these two superstars may not be common in a country like Australia, as some of the Australian players are in Sri Lanka. Even the man on the street will tell you who Ricky Ponting is or for that matter Adam Gilchrist. But ask anyone outside the subcontinent who Jayasuriya or Muralitharan is only a handful may remember. Warne (if he is picked) and Muralitharan will be the drawcards in the upcoming Test series between Sri Lanka and Australia. Both spinners in a class of their own will be going neck and neck for Courtney Walsh's world Test record of 519 wickets. Warne needs another 29 wickets and Muralitharan 35 to overhaul Walsh. They may not achieve it in this series, but nevertheless the interest generated is so great that the three Tests will be followed with utmost interest. Taking all ten The extraordinary performance of Sohan Boralessa in capturing all ten wickets in an innings for St. Peter's College against Wesley College on his home turf at Bambalapitiya merits mention here. He is perhaps the first schoolboy to achieve the feat in this country. A left-arm orthodox leg-spinner, Boralessa confounded the Wesley batting line up in the first innings to end with figures of 19.3-6-30-10. He took a further three wickets in the second innings for a match bat of 13 wickets, but the Peterites could not make use of his excellent bowling to convert his magnificent effort into an outright win. In the history of the game in the country, very few bowlers have had the honour of capturing all ten wickets in an innings. The most notable of them is former Sri Lanka and SSC fast bowler Pramodya Wickremasinghe's ten wickets against Kalutara PCC in 1991, which is the only instance, recorded in a first-class match played here. Wickremasinghe, just out of Rahula College, Matara returned figures of 19.1-5-41-10 that saw Kalutara being shot out for 82. His feat came two decades after NCC's left arm spinner Annesley de Silva took 10 wickets in an innings against BRC. In 1983, Tamil Union's 22-year-old right-arm medium-fast bowler Lakshman Aloysius became the first bowler in the world to take all ten wickets in a limited overs match. He came up with this astonishing performance against Catamarans in a Brown's trophy 50-over match played at the Saravanamuttu Stadium. After Tamil Union had hit up 247-8 in 47 overs, Aloysius scythed through the opposition's batting for figures of 9.5-1-36-10. He took a wicket with his first, third and sixth balls of his opening overs and Catamarans never recovered from the shock of losing their first three wickets without a run on the board and were shot out for 76 in 18.5 overs. The first Sri Lankan bowler to take all ten wickets in an innings against a visiting team was Mohamed Nakeem Samsudeen in 1960. A left-arm medium-pace bowler from the Sri Lanka Navy, Samsudeen performed this feat for Combined Services against Pakistan Eaglets XI on a rain-affected pitch at the CCC grounds. Samsudeen ran through the hapless Eaglets batting knocking them down for 40. The Eaglets side comprised Test players Shuja-ud-din, Ijaz Butt, Shafqat Rana, Saeed Ahmed and Munir Malik. Samsudeen's figures read: 14.2-3-26-10. The Combined Services made 98 with Samsudeen contributing 20 not out. The Eaglets in their second innings scored 91-1 with Samsudeen capturing the lone wicket to fall before rain ended play. These are the most notable instances in Sri Lankan cricket history of bowlers performing the feat of ten wickets in an innings. |
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