One one things

The 20th of August 2006 will go down as the darkest day in test cricket since Bodyline. I was watching the 4th test between England and Pakistan at the Kennington Oval on the tv admist thunder and lightning in Colombo. About 45 mins after lunch umpire Darrel Hair took the ball from Umar Gul and had a conference with Billy Doctrove who strode in from Square Leg. The ball was changed, much to the confusion and annoyance of Inzamam since it had just begun to reverse swing for Gul. Kevin Pietersen went about choosing a new ball and Hair tapped his shoulder with his hand signalling 5 penalty runs against Pakistan. Umpire Hair had just ruled that Pakistan had tampered with the ball in an attempt to make it reverse swing. The game continued, Inzamam looked perplexed, everyone looked confused, and the replacement ball looked to be rubbish. Hair’s move threw Pakistan’s game plan and 60 overs worth of work on a ball down the drain and had for Ramiz Raja “Ruined the test match and series.” At this point the electricity at home went bust bc the lightning and I couldn’t watch the rest of the game, but when I got home from dinner was startled to see the match had been called off as the Pakistani’s had not come back to the field after tea. The umpires awarded the game to England, in accordance with the law, and refused to come back to the field once the Pakistani’s decided to eventually turn up to the ground.

There are several things that went wrong last afternoon, starting with Darrel Hair’s decision making process. Law 42.3 states the following;

(b) It is unfair for anyone to rub the ball on the ground for any
reason, interfere with any of the seams or the surface of the
ball, use any implement, or take any other action whatsoever
which is likely to alter the condition of the ball, except as
permitted in (a) above.
(c) The umpires shall make frequent and irregular inspections of
the ball.
(d) In the event of any fielder changing the condition of the ball
unfairly, as set out in (b) above, the umpires after consultation
shall
(i) change the ball forthwith. It shall be for the umpires to
decide on the replacement ball, which shall, in their
opinion, have had wear comparable with that which the
previous ball had received immediately prior to the
contravention.
(ii) inform the batsmen that the ball has been changed.
82
(iii) award 5 penalty runs to the batting side.

This is what happened. The umpire looked at the ball at the end of Gul’s over, he assumed that (d), and implemented (d) (i). In assuming (d) he ignored the possibility of wear and tear on the ball due to abrasion as a result of i) hitting boundary boards, ii) hitting the bat hard. The umpires last had possession of the ball during the lunch interval. Between lunch and the inspection of the ball there were 12 overs bowled between Umar Gul and Danish Kaneria. During this time there were 7 boundaries struck, mostly by Kevin Pietersen who hits the ball harder than most. There were also several aggressive strokes that didn’t reach the boundary. The chances of the ball being damaged due to the batting is far greater than what could have been done by fielders whilst hiding from camera’s (given the presence of 26 SKY cameras at the Oval, they would have to be very very subtle). Despite all these factors, Hair made up his mind that the ball must have been tampered with intentionally in an attempt to cheat by the Pakistani’s. There was no warning given to the players, no consultation, just a unilateral decision. Shahrayar Khan, the chairman of the PCB reiterated this fact; “”Nobody was consulted and nobody was told that something was wrong with the ball and they felt deeply aggrieved for the country and for the fans.” (Thanks to Cricinfo).

Umpires play a major role in the game, and it is important that their decisions are respected, which is why in cricket it is said that the umpire’s word is final. However it is also important to remember that umpires are not greater than the game, and more importantly they are not greater than the spirit of the game. An umpire’s decision is often subjective, and this is not a problem since a degree of subjectivity is essential in cricket, the human component is what makes the game what it is. But, when the umpire makes a subjective decision it is usually falsifiable. For instance if an umpire accuses of a bowler of throwing he is making a subjective decision, but the bowler’s action can be viewed on the television replays and one can make an objective decision regarding the legitimacy of the action. But in this case Hair’s decision is not falsifiable, and this is the key. There is no incident which he can point to, a la Atherton’s rubbing of sand on the ball caught on the TV, no evidence other than the condition of the ball. This is a huge assumption, and when this assumption implies that one team is cheating, the implications are huge, and therefore a great deal of care and sensitivity is needed when making decisions. Hair acted within the laws of the game, but his decision lacked any semblence of common sense, care and sensitivity. In sum, he handled the situation appallingly.

Inzamam failed to show the leadership required in that situation. The implication of Hair’s decision was that Pakistan had deliberately cheated. Inzamam carried on with the game with relatively little protest, and in doing so effectively accepted that his team had in fact deliberately cheated. I know for sure that Arjuna Ranatunga would have taken his team off the field and refused to play, and quite right too. If Hair had proof, then it’s a different matter. But making a subjective unfalsifiable decision puts Hair above the law, and that is not acceptable.

Hair could have done several things differently. He should have first warned Inzamam about the condition of the ball and made more regular checks. He could then have taken it up with the match referee after the days play and examined video footage for evidence of tampering by Pakistani players. Billy Doctrove, the other umpire is not above blame either. In complying with Hair’s decision he effectively concurs with how the situation was handled. He could easily have spoken a few words of common sense into Hair’s ear and dissolved what instead became one of the ugliest scenes in cricket’s history.

The laws too need to be reviewed. Law 42 allows such unilateral, unfalsifiable decisions to be made by umpires, and that needs to be changed to bring in some form of evidence based criteria. The match referee should have stepped in during tea time, spoken with the Pakistani players and umpires and come to some form of compromise before what happened after the tea interval transpired.

One may argue that the Pakistani’s let the crowds and their fans down by not playing the game. However there are certain things that are even greater than the game of cricket, and honour is one of them. Darrel Hair insulted the honour of the Pakistani team, and Pakistan as a country, and a game of cricket needs to take second place in such an instance.

The other day I went to see some ppl about a job. We had a standard discussion, and they said that I should be given a medal for coming home. Medals are always good, but this mentality that is taking over Colombo is a bit odd. Being a child of ‘84 I was born into a country at war and have lived pretty much all my life in a country at war. Now this is not a patch on what the ppl living in the NE face, but we do go through our share of crap. Right through the 90’s we lived through bombs, curfews, school closures, threats, but we batted on. We celebrated when we won the world cup in ‘96, we cried when we lost friends and family to the war, we went to school, went to work, cussed the govt, cussed the LTTE, cheered when Jaffna was captured, fretted when Elephant pass fell, shuddered when there was a big boom and got on with life.

And then there was peace, for four years, an uneasy peace but it was nothing like I had ever experienced before. I could go to Arugam Bay and Trinco (though we didn’t, thankfully in retrospect, bc we were due to go December 24-27th 2004, instead we went to Galle, smart), and even went to Vavuniya and Killinochchi, something I thought I’d never do. The army check points were replaced with corrupt cops seeking bribes for invented crimes. Everybody relaxed. But it was always a shaky peace, and from 2004 it felt like a matter of time before things got messy.

Now things are proper messy, there are serious military offensives going on in the North, bombs left right and centre in Colombo and everyone has got agitated. As far as I’m concerned there has been a sense of inevitability about this. Strangely everyone else seems to think that this is the apocalypse, war is upon as, we’re all going to die. Sure, things aren’t very rosy here but this is pretty much what it was pre-2002, and the country survived then and I’m sure it will survive now. If ppl managed from ‘83 - 2002, there’s no real reason why they have to quit the country now, though that is what every other bugger seems bent on doing, smacks of knee jerk in my book.

Yesterday I was having lunch with a sudda who asked me why I came back, and I said that SL has everything I could possibly ask for, in terms of natural resources, friends and family. And I also want to try give something back. At the moment the best way to do that is to bat on and try to keep moving with normal life. Any country’s best natural resource is their ppl, and sadly we’ve lost so many of them through war and the brain drain, and right now we’re in danger of losing even more. I think the present leadership in the country has almost no hope of providing a real solution to the country’s problems, my real hope lies with the next generation of leaders, the next generation of society as a whole. A more educated, open minded group of ppl who can hopefully learn from the bitter lessons of the post independence era. It’s important to understand that with time attitudes change, ppl change, the fabric of society changes, and eventually leaders change. About 40-50 years ago the vast majority of ppl in developing countries favoured protectionist economic policies. And their leaders implemented these policies. Today things are different. Similarly, when our society becomes more educated, more exposed to the rest of the world, the fabric of society will change and so will our leaders. I’m not saying that the war will end overnight, that we’ll start putting out brilliant economic policies willy nilly, but I’m sure it’s more likely that future leaders will be more willing and will be smart enough to hammer out a proper political and economic compromise that will help SL achieve the potential that it hides so very well.

And for that we need to hang on and contribute to the economy, to thought, to society. When we have kids we need to pass on to the next generation the experience we’ve gained, how not to make the mistakes that previous generations have made. We’ll make our own mistakes, but the key is to learn and improve. And that will never happen if we abandon home. Some ppl believe that we need revolution, I don’t think that can work. You can’t change attitudes of an entire society over night, that happens with time and experience. I think we need to be part of it.

I took a bet with a friend that i’d finish my dissertation by the 14th of this month. I lost. I think this is fairly good proof that i’m not cut out to do a PHD or what not bc I simply lack the academic discipline required for such an endeavour. I’ve had about 9 months to write 10000 words, and that really is piss easy, specially when its a topic of your choice. But I’ve managed to keep putting it off and now i’ve got about 10 days to go for the deadline. I’ve done about 4500 but I’m still finding numerous excuses to do other things. My ability to do academic work has been on the decline for a while now. In school teachers used to love me, I worked hard, didn’t disrupt the class, got good grades and was generally nerdy. I think I peaked at OL’s, where everyone goes crazy and studies bc its the first public exam. Luckily in my year we didn’t have this AS level nonsense and had the whole of lower 6th to arse around. And arse around I did. I did literally no work during first term and almost failed my termly maths exam. (Lots of ppl did quite poorly, I remember the following conversation across the classroom)

Bugger 1: Ado you bugger, how much did you get?
Bugger 2: Not too flash you bugger, managed 15%
Bugger 1: Woohooo!! kicked your ass!! 16%!!

I could not be bothered taking my finger out till sometime in the middle of upper 6th. My mother claims that my econ teacher told her during a parent teacher thingy that he thinks I’ve got a crisis of faith. I still think that’s bollocks. I got my conditional uni offer which was 3As so I had to sort something out. Until then I completely struggled to motivate myself, I really needed to feel the noose tighten.

The same story continued in uni, I completely bummed around through 1st and 2nd years and woke up in the middle of Hilary term in final year and started to work. And again during masters. I didn’t work for the whole year, barely made it out of the house in 2nd and 3rd term and almost screwed up my exams. The week before my exams I went to Bristol for a Googoodolls gig, 2 days before my first paper I went to Oxford for a friend’s final exam party, resulting in being unable to work at all the day before the exam. The night before my first paper I felt what exam pressure was about for the first time. I knew about 40% of the syllabus and I panicked big time around 3am. Each time I looked at my notes my mind went blank, and I was forgetting the few things that I knew. I paced back and forth, palms sweaty, throat dry. I drank lots of water, pissed a lot and slept for a couple of hours. When I woke up I felt a bit better, and could actually remember a few things, but I knew deep down that I had a fairly good chance of completely messing this up. The paper went surprisingly ok. I had 2 very doable questions and one bluffable one, bless social sciences. The other two exams were ok as well, (despite going to Southampton to see Bon Jovi 2 days before my second exam) and I have a hunch that I got away with murder. (I still didn’t get my results so I won’t know till after my dissertation). I thought to myself at that time that i’ll not repeat that mistake for my diss, that i’ll work 3 hours a day, every day during summer and get through the diss with plenty of time to spare. But that doesn’t look like it’ll happen.

It’s not a great feeling to know that you could have taken a better stab at things. I know that whatever happens on the 31st of August the guys in uni will not be seeing my best effort. The same applies to my June exams. I know that I could have done this really well if I wanted to, and that’s a pretty poor effort on my part. I think it stems from a degree of over-confidence. I’ve always thought that I could do almost anything that I set my mind on, but clearly that’s gone a bit too far on this occassion. I also need to work on my self discipline. On the other side of the coin, my apathy may stem from knowing how pointless this whole exercise is. In all probability I will pass this, get my masters and in 5 years time not give half a shit about how well I did my dissertation and my exams. It’s all a means to an end. So I’m hoping that once I find something I really want to do, and am really passionate about, I just might not fudge it and muck about. The question now is what that thing is. More on that later. Right now i’m listening to Mozart and staring at the ceiling. Things have clearly gone pear shaped.

A friend of mine was travelling to the States from the UK on the day the plot to blow up transatlantic flights was uncovered. They were obviously quite worried about the situation but decided to risk it and go ahead anyway. They expected delays and a bit of a wait at the airport, but little did they expect a 24 hour gap between getting to heathrow and their hotel room in the States.

Checking in at Heathrow had taken less time than expected, and the UK had been generally ok. When they got into the plane the story changed. The US chaps apparently wanted a list of all the names and further details of passengers on board before the flight took off. This took all of 3 hours, and passengers were grounded all that while.

On reaching Miami airport they were made to stand against a wall and let sniffer dogs sniff them. Following which all black, brown and Middle Eastern ppl were told to stand aside while police officers checked their passports. Then at immigration there was a separate line for brown, middle eastern and black ppl, the same for customs. After customs the usual suspects were again asked to stand aside and were taken to a room and had to wait for 3 further hours. They were interviewed and set free to get their bags. After collecting their luggage the browns, blacks and middle easterns were again sent in a separate line where their luggage was searched and screened. Apparently all the white ppl walk past the queues of non-whites, staring like goldfish. They spent a total of 9 hours at the airport in Miami, and they got off early.

This is touchy stuff, I know that bc of the present situation caution is needed and what not, but this really is the giddy limit. Segregation according to colour and race is not excusable. If there were separate queues for Tamils and non-Tamils at Katunayake the human rights chaps would be up in arms, and quite right too. But when it’s done in the states, it’s all in the name of “protecting our freedoms”. To assume that one is a terrorist based on colour, race etc. is simply wrong, it undermines human dignity in the greatest possible sense. When the IRA was at its height there would never have been separate queues for white ppl at Heathrow and anywhere else, it would simply not have been viable. They can do it to us and get away with it bc we take it lying down. Like the whole fingerprinting business, it’s ridiculous. A fundamental principle of justice is that one is innocent until proven guilty, and sure in these trying times these principles need to be tweaked, but there’s a way of going about it, a more subtle and considerate way. The US immigration officials in Miami are clearly neither of these. It’s completely unnecessary to have separate queues at customs, police AND luggage checks, that’s just saying it’s ok to trouble the coloured ppl but we don’t want to bother the white man. If security is such a concern they should have had one stringent check on everybody, instead of having 3-4 stringent checks on the coloureds and allowing the white ppl a fast track.

But really it’s no use complaining. I thought to myself the best bet is to just avoid going to countries where we’re treated like second, no, third rate citizens unless it’s absolutely necessary.

Yesterday I was at this do where there were 6 ministers, and some naval chap to boot. Two of them spoke and one passed around an envelope. The rest sat there looking bored, had tea and buggered off. Our friend Dougie D was one of the buggers looking bored. Now if the LTTE put a small cracker there, christmas only for them. I was sitting there losing all my body fluids through sweat and pissing myself in fear. That event could have easily done with just one minister, that would have saved everyone a lot of hassle and given the LTTE a far smaller incentive to blow something up. I don’t understand why these MP chaps can’t just stay at home without showing up for totally unnecessary gigs. I’m sure the tea in the respective ministries is perfectly good, why else would the bureau buggers take so many tea breaks? Ministers ought only go for extremely useful things, which I’m sure if fairly limited, and if they stay in one place it’s a lot easier to look after them and look after us at the same time.

Yesterday afternoon I was driving towards thummulla. At the junction near Bloomfield the traffic light was on green, so I went along when in the corner of my eye I saw this green chap on a motorbike. I first thought buggeroo the aliens have come to Colombo after conquering the South and Thanamalvila. (Time for a quick digression; I was reading the Mirror article about these alien chaps and it was a hoot. Now apparently Sri Lanka’s alien researchers were called into Thanamalvila to investigate the alleged flying pierissiya incident, and these chaps had happily enough come across a couple of 2 foot tall aliens. At which point they had approached them with clubs in hand and when they attempted to lunge at one alien they had buggered off. Fair enough too. Who’d want to hang around when a research chap comes at you with a club. So these badboys at Thanamalvila have had the first human-alien contact, but, despite being good research chaps they had forgotten to take their cameras. Demn demn. Very unfortunate. The article in the mirror was written in all seriousness, which makes the whole thing completely baffling. Those buggers must be quite comprehensively off their heads. Ticked off that I failed to preserve a cutting for my archives of funny funny things in SL papers, I have one article about a guy who shot his uncle mistaking him for an animal rummaging the bush. Don’t ask me what the uncle was doing in the bush. Only in SL I tell you.)

The green chap on the bike wasn’t an alien, but he was an outrider protecting the dear life of some guy who most probably went to savour some tea from outside. I slammed the brakes just in time as these buggers screamed through the red light almost killing everyone within crashing distance. The funny part was that the army guy who stood at the junction saying/doing nothing when the motorcade was about the race by, had the cheek to wave his hand at me in a kanay para manner. Ministerial motorcades are just evil, and often like broken pencils; pointless. The other day I was driving when a motorcade went past all, sirens blazing and disrupting the peace as ever. Hena convoy also so I thought must be some major bugger. I went behind them a bit when the motorcade turns into a tiny looking building. To see it’s the minister of Coconut development. Now even the LTTE who love blowing shit up wouldn’t bother killing a bugger who has as a good a chance of dying if a coconut hit his head whilst inspecting the estates.

Our buggers one thing.

Yesterday saw the end of what was the best test I’ve seen Sri Lanka involved in. Despite my complaints about The Oval in a previous post, the curator prepared a top notch test wicket having everything bar lateral movement, and even the crowd showed up! I couldn’t watch most of the game bc I was bumming around in unawatuna, but managed to catch the important parts, the 351 run chase in particular. Sri Lanka historically chases quite poorly at test level, and I didn’t really rate our chances chasing on Monday though I had some inner hope that we’d pull it off. When Boje got Sanath with a wicked wicked ball that spat off a length I didn’t expect our boys to survive a wicket misbehaving like that. But they batted exceedingly well from the word go, Sanath and Sanga followed by Mahela kept up the momentum with some very positive batting that never really let the Saffer bowlers dominate the proceedings as they should have done given the situation. That said, the wicket did play very well, there was spin and bounce but no lack of bounce which is the usual killer. But what stood out was the Sri Lankan approach. As Mahela said in a postmatch interview, had the guys tried to score at 2.5 to the over for 5 sessions we’d have been back in the hotel on day 4, with just a share of the series. Sanga’s assault on Steyn and Sanath’s assault on Polly effectively rendered those two ineffective for the rest of the innings, much like what happened to Saj Mahmood, Kabir Ali and that curly haired chap in the ODI’s against England.

Mahela was quite brilliant in the second innings, batting under pressure, holding the middle order together, talking to his parters all the time and really leading from the front. The way he kept cover driving Boje inside out for six throughout the series is just another manifestation of his massive talent, but what’s changed is his mental approach to the game, he’s now taking responsibility and applying himself better, allowing all that talent to add up to runs on the board. After Sanath and Sanga aggressively set up the innings the middle order let us down a bit with failures from Dilshan and Kapu. Dilshan’s test form is a bit of a worry, he too has undoubted talent, but needs to sort out the mental side of his game. The two Jayawardena’s then consolidated with an excellent stand that stretched into the final day with SL needing 90 with 5 in hand. At that time I’d have put money on us winning, but all the time there was a nagging worry that one wicket, specially Mahela, could be the breach that would let in the flood.

Prasanna fell early the next morning as Hall reverse swung the ball wholesale. I think Prince missed a trick by taking the new ball at that point. There’s nothing more difficult for tailenders to face than reverse swinging yorkers, and that was what Hall was dishing out. With Boje keeping it tight at the other end, it could have been very bad news for SL. Luckily Prince took the new ball and a lackluster Polly was thoroughly ineffective though Steyn created the odd flutter with some away swing. That allowed SL to claw their way back on top with Farveez and Mahela really digging in. Farveez is another interesting selection question. The guy is clearly very skilled, his batting has been proven to an extent with his performance at Lords earlier this year and his batting in this test. His bowling has fallen away a bit of late but I’m convinced that can be worked on bc he used to be really really good as soon as he started out. The boys went into lunch with SL well in the ascendency, requiring 19 to win with 4 in hand and two well set batsman at the wicket.

It’s here that South Africa deserves thorough respect. Without Ntini, without Polly at his best, they came back fighting. They say that Saffer teams never give up, and here they proved it. Bowling with strong leg side fields and Steyn bowling full and straight, they choked off the run supply. The first half hour saw just a handful of runs scored and Mahela tried to release the pressure by trying to loft Boje over cover for the nth time. For once he lost balance, nicked it, and Gibbs with his sleeves rolled up took a sharp one at slip. But all was ok, Vaasy was next in and he’s been more reliable than the top order in recent months. The Saffers continued to choke and Boje started to produce more alarming deliveries. With 4 to win Vaasy snicked one off Hall between 3rd slip and gully, it should have been 4 except for AB de Villiers’ left hand. Whenever players produce pieces of brilliance when it really really counts you know that there’s something special about them. I suspect de Villiers will go really far in this game, the guy seems to have that je ne sais quoi, it’s in his attitude, and he has skills to boot. Enter Murali, 4 to win. The first ball is outside off and he swats at it and hits thin air as the Saffer coach throws his arms up in the air in exasperation. I couldn’t decide whether Murali should have blocked or tried to finish it then and there. The second ball saw the same result, and the third made contact and squeezed past mid on for 2. 2 to win, last ball of the over. I kept telling Murali in my head to get behind the line and block and let Farveez take control at Boje’s end. Hall bowls one straight, Murali swings across the line and the stumps are all over the shop. I had a bottle of water in my hand which I smashed into the ground in dismay, Sanath screamed in exasperation in the balcony. We were pressing self destruct, it was Kandy 2000 all over again.

We had everything to lose, South Africa had everything to win. To draw a series at home against them would be like a loss to us, specially a South Africa missing Kallis and to a lesser extent Smith. Farveez had strike and was almost stumped by Boucher first ball but luckily clung on to his balance. I couldn’t bear it much more as my nails dug deep into the bed sheets. Boje ran in and threw it up, Maha whacked it down the ground and I jumped up in joy thinking it went all the way but it was just one. But we had tied the game and won the series, I relaxed a bit and watched as the game was set for its climax with Malinga on strike to Boje. SL needed one run, SA one wicket. Boje tossed it up again and Malinga on drove it to mid on and screamed off for a single as all of Sri Lanka erupted. We had successfully chased down the 6th highest ever 4th innings target, and that is one hell of an achievement for self destructers!

I love watching our team celebrate, at the moment there seems to be a great deal of unity in this team and everyone seems to share in the joys of the other. Watching Farveez punch the air and Malinga jumping all over the place gave me goosebumps. The presentation was also excellent, Mahela won man of the match bc without his effort we’d have never chased down 351 to win, and Murali got man of the series bc without his record 22 wickets we’d have never bowled SA out 4 times. But lots and lots of respect to SA, without their main strike bowler in the 4th innings they fought right down to the wire, not too many teams would have done that, and they almost pulled it off. I really felt for Prince as he wiped away a tear at the end of the game, but he really needn’t have been upset, his team played superbly, and he rightly said that he’s tremendously proud of them. This was test cricket at its very best. This is what the game is all about, a hard fight over 5 days, with players’ skills being tested to the limits both physically and mentally. This is why we don’t like cricket, we love it.

I’ve been spending the better part of the last 5 days at the SSC watching SL whip a depleted South Africa. It was a fairly typical game bar the records with our buggers batting the opposition out and then Murali bowling half the overs and taking 10for. There are few things that i’d rather do than watch test cricket at the SSC, I still remember watching my first test match there with uncle B back in 1993 when India toured here. That time Kambli and Tendulkar sent us on a serious leather hunt, but I still enjoyed it, soaking in the atmosphere of the ground, within a stones throw from my heroes, and urging a young Muralitharan to spin it even more. The sad thing is hardly anyone else in Colombo seems to want to go and watch test cricket. Other than on Saturday afternoon when there was a chance of Mahela eclipsing Lara, the ground held barely 100 ppl, despite tickets being cheaper than a cup of coke. Yet for one day games where tickets sell for upto 5 grand, grounds fill up to spilling point.

This is quite a sad thing bc the team is playing excellent cricket these days, and some of the greats of the game like Murali and Sanath will not be around for much longer. The players must feel quite insulted that nobody considers it worthwhile turning up to watch them entertain, and entertain they do, I mean Sanga and Mahela put on 600+ at over 4 an over, on a slow wicket. It’s difficult to explain this apathy, Sri Lanka is supposedly a cricket mad country and with tickets so cheap and accessible (there’s no Sri Lanka cricket family and what not). Maybe Colombo is spoilt, I guess ppl rather watch the game at home in the A/C than go and support the boys more directly. When England came down in 2003 I wasn’t sure whether I was in Sri Lanka or at some beach in Cornwall. Percy did his best shouting to out-do the Barmy Army with his one man Sri Lanka Navy but he had no chance. In this context it’s inexplicable why less cricket is played outside the capital, Galle and Kandy attract far more fans and therefore deserve to see more cricket.

I also wonder whether Sri Lanka is as cricket mad as everyone says it is. When foreigners talk about Sri Lankan cricket they say that every little alley is taken up by kids wielding bat and ball, but that doesn’t really seem to be the case. I hardly ever see street cricket when driving around Colombo these days. Maybe kids are too busy going for tuition or playing PSII. At the same time, in the rest of the world interest in cricket is at a peak, the Ashes tickets sold out instantly, Indian grounds are perpetually full, and even the West Indies attracts support despite playing rather awful cricket in that last series against India, the same applies to Bangladesh. Colombo fails to appreciate what it has. The SSC is also one of the best grounds to enjoy cricket, the HSBC stand with its 3 tiers is absolutely fantastic and a steal at 150 bucks for a day. The ground is superbly located unlike Kheththa and Sara (it’s beyond me why the 2nd test is being played there), and yet ppl shun it.

The only thing I can suggest is that pitches in Colombo are not the best for cricket. The SSC used to be excellent, with a bit of pace and bounce on the first day, super batting on days 2 and 3 and turn on the last 2 days. But as Murali lamented the other day, even the SSC is getting slower and slower, making it difficult to play strokes and offering little to the bowlers. But the bottom line I think is that Sri Lankans do not appreciate test cricket. We seem to prefer wham bang thank you ma’am ODI’s, and that’s a shame bc tests are the real thing. And we do have a good test team, for now. Without Vaas and Murali in a couple of years time it could be a totally different story, and then it will dawn on us that we’ve failed to enjoy and appreciate some very special talents over the last decade or so.