England will miss their best

The Sri Lankan cricketers might be heaving a sigh of relief, now that skipper Michael Vaughan, Steve Harmisson, Simon Jones, James Anderson and Ashley Giles would not be available for England in the First of three Tests beginning at Lord's on Thursday.

In the absence of these players, the homesters would certainly be depleted. But on their home grounds and in familiar conditions they could yet prove formidable.

Whether England would be able to front up cricketers as good as the ones they will miss would be interesting to watch. They have some promising youngsters, and could they deliver would be the question.

How England will perform would depend a lot on allrounder Andrew Flintoff. In the Ashes series against Australia he was simply fabulous with both bat and ball. His fielding too was excellent. Would the Lankans allow him to be on that roll and be overawed by his presence would be the question? Also another who could worry the Lankans is the hard hitting Kevin Pieterson. If allowed to reign he could be devastating.

While leaving England to solve their problems, I would like to move on and focus on the Lankans. The locals have had enough time to acclimatise and get a feel of what the future is going to be.

Of special worry has been the form of openers Michael Vandort and Upul Tharanga. It is customary for the ball to wobble about in the early part of the English summer.

Both are left handers. In addition one drop too would be Kumar Sangakkara a left hander. So it would be seen that the England pacemen would be relishing bowling to them, because they would hardly have to shift line, length and even the field placings. Why the Lankan selectors could not go for a right hand, left hand combination is inexplicable. They had enough time to plan. For not doing this minus marks to them.

I would not like to comment on the Lankans just now but watch how they go in the first Test before opening up.

Welcome Asantha

Better late than never it is said, and I applaud the Minister of Sports Jeevan Kumaratunga for finally seeing reason and spinning former Lankan allrounder Asantha de Mel as chairman of cricket selectors post.

Initially I would like to ask the Minister, why he removed de Mel from that post when he was performing an excellent job in seeing to rise of the game and its future? De Mel's removal was an under armer, which not only surprised the cricketing fraternity, but also paved the way for the game to get on the skids.

From the moment De Mel and his efficient team were removed, Lanka's cricketing jet ran into turbulence and is still there struggling to get back to normalcy.

De Mel was one of the best allrounders that the game here produced. He was a heady paceman, big hitting bat and superb fielder. Starting his career at Isipatana he moved under the wings of Ranjan Madugalle at Royal and blossomed out to sport Lankan colours. Joining Maharaja Organisation who were the Mercantile cricket kings of that era, he was given all the encouragement by that cricket promoter and big boss at Maharajas R. Rajamahendren and turned out to be one of the best allrounders in world cricket.

An innings that is vivid in my mind was that fantastic century he hit at the P. Sara stadium against Madras in the Gopalan Trophy match. He came in late in the order and blitzed the Madras bowlers to all corners of the field and over it as well in a dazzling three figure mark.

Then his crowning glory was the 1983 World Cup in England where he had two five-wicket hauls and finished up with 18 wickets in that tournament. De Mel although being out as chairman, has been watching and lamenting the decline of the game, and I am certain he has the panacea for our cricketing ills.