ICC accepts D.S.de Silva

When Chairman of the Interim Committee of Sri Lanka Cricket D. Somachandra de Silva and Nishantha Ranatunga, Secretary took wing for the ICC Executive Committee Meeting in Dubai, there was some trepidation that “DS” would not be accepted, because there were allegations that he was involved in the gaming business.

The ICC had a rule that those in the gaming business could and cannot hold office in the governing body of that country. But as for “DS”, he had been in the business, but gave it up when he was having ideas of serving the game in the country.

At the EX CO meeting, the Sri Lanka duo went in, expecting the worse. But their fears were soon allayed when the members welcomed them into the family and what is more presented “DS” with the ICC tie which is the visa of having been accepted.

With that over, the chairman and secretary got down to business and due to their good work and foresight were able to convince and confirm tours to the country by Pakistan and New Zealand and also promote reciprocal tours for “A” and “B” teams.

The chairman and secretary are proving to be a forceful batting duo and have played the correct strokes and if they continue in this form should score heavily for the player the game and the administration.

Both have been excellent cricketers and are aware of what is needed allround. The duo must understand that they too will have their share of critics. Everyone does and that should not deter them. The only way they could hit back at their detractors is by scoring for the game.

They have enough experience to deliver. The duo must understand that they are taking strike on a sticky wicket. So they must not err by playing false strokes and sacrificing their wickets. De Silva and Ranatunga have a lot of work to do. They must not stop to think, but keep batting. If they bat successfully, they can silence their critics once an for all. As for us they can count on us for support.

Players and families

Good that Cricket Australia is paying attention to keeping players and their families together. Many players in all cricket playing countries are most of time away from their wives and families and some from their fiances and there have been instances where families have ufortunately broken up.

In an endeavour to save the break-ups,Cricket Australia has shown the way and other countries should follow suit and help to keep the cricketers’ families and fiances together. The latest to suffer a broken family is Australia”s pace ace Brett Lee. Realising the damage, prompted Cricket Australia to act.

It was said that former Australian captain Allan Border had not been home for Christmas with his family for nearly 10 years always being on tour.

Recently former England captain Kevin Pietersen, who was just married felt the loneliness and the pinch and requested the England and Wales Cricket Board to give him a holiday. All national cricket boards must understand this human problem and do what they can to allow players to have their families with them when on tour.

Aussie tops

The Australian cricketers who lost the Test Series to South Africa in Protealand and won the one-day internationals to stay top in the world. further enhanced their standing by dumping the Pakistanis in Abu Dhabi, by winning the series. With one more game to be played the Aussies have taken an unbeatable 3-1 lead winning the fourth one by 8 wickets.

With Pakistan having won the first one and Australia winning the nerxt two, the fourth clash was important to both teams. Australia had to win to take the series and Pakistan had also to win, to equal. So the stage was set for thriller in the fourth encounter.

Pakistan won the toss and batted first on a wicket that looked slow and had to target a big score to topple their opponents. The 198 they made although it looked formidable they did not bargain for the match winning knocks by Shane Watson and stand in skipper the flambuoyant Michael Clarke.

When Australia lost two early wickets to “Rawalpindi Express” Shoaib Akhtar who was bowling at his fearsome best, the Pakistanis looked as they would win this one and leave the series open. But they did not bargain for a counter attack by Watson and Clarke.

Watson who had a bad day on the field dropping a sitter in addition to his poor ground fielding, made ample amends by figuring in a match winning stand of 197 for the third wicket. Their attack took the sails out of the Pakistanis and this win went to see Australia remain the top dogs in the “cowboy game”.

That caught behind

When Pakistani batsman Misbah ul Haq snicked a ball to wicket keeper Brad Haddin off paceman Nathan Bracken and was ruled not out by umpire Aleem Dal doing TV commentary was Tony Greig. Now when the snick was made all the Aussie fielders went up in unison, convinced that the batsman had got a nick.

Greig was convinced that the batsman had nicked but held a brief for Dal, saying that the strong wind would have gone to nullify the sound of the nick to the umpire. Dal was unmoved and not hearing the sound turned down the appeal. Then Greig who revels in controversy, began one and so went the talk - should or should not a batsman walk when he knows he has nicked.

Taking in the action on Ten Sports we sat tight hoping that the other commentators Geoffrey Boycott, Dean Jones and Ramiz Raja would take it from there and continue the topic and give their views. But it was dissapointing that they did not or failed to do. Boycott and Jones” silence could be expected. Boycott was one who believed that a batsman should not walk. It was said that even if Boycott’s stumps were knocked back he would leave the crease with the greatest reluctance.

All players appealing

On the topic of all Aussie players appealing in unision, when we were softball players, we had as umpire Milroy Pieris, now an Electrical Engineer, who when an appeal was made would look round to make sure that all eleven players had appealed. If one fielder has not,even though the batsman was out, he would turn down the appeal.

Our team was called the Young Beavers Sports Club and we had in ranks as fast bowlers Kenneth Dabrera and Frank Rodrigo who would run through opponents with their clever bowling. In that team captained by Maxwell Dharamaratne, of the ‘Dharmaratne Bros’ fame were also Ranjit and Sunil Fernando. Oh for those softball cricket days.