Atapattu stuns all

Sri Lanka was supposed to be sending its best cricketing team. What we got instead was: The Muppet Show.

That was the strap and the headline in bold type in the ‘Sunday Mail’, here in Brisbane describing the outburst by Marvan Atapattu at a media briefing after the third day’s play here in Brisbane.

It is customary for the players performing on that particular day to face the press and answer questions as to how the game went and about their individual performances.

On that day it was Atapattu who faced the media and the usually calm and collected Atapattu who is known for his sweet strokemaking, took on the role of a fearsome paceman and bowled deadly bouncers at the Sri Lanka Cricket selectors.

He labelled chief selector Asantha de Mel as a ‘joker’ and tagged the other selectors as ‘muppets’, calling them money hungry and having personal grudges.

The Sri Lankans here were all stunned when they woke up in the morning and read the newspapers. They all expressed concern and in unision said that this was not the platform for Atapattu to launch a tirade against the selectors.

Atapattu it must be stated played a wonderful first innings knock for his half century which went to stall the Aussies. Instead of dwelling on his knock, he made use of the opportunity to launch an attack on the selectors. Accepted that Atapattu has a point to prove. But this was not the forum.

With Sri Lanka looking to win their first Test match in Australia, the mediamen here are waiting to break the morale and the determination of the Lankan cricketers. And they were quick to jump on the Atapattu bashing of the selectors and go to town.

When Sports Minister included him in the touring party, Atapattu should have realised that the matter ended there and that he had won the day.

Anyway now the damage has been done and it would be interesting to watch how it would go from here.

When I was coming out of the Gabba, some of the Aussies fans spotted me as a Sri Lankan and in jest said there goes a muppet. Did not I have a belly laugh.