Sri Lanka is ranked number seven in the ICC ODI rankings, and there is not a fan who disagrees with that ranking. We are ranked above West Indies, Bangladesh, Zimbabwe, Ireland, and Kenya.

If there is a reason why Sanath Jayasuriya has played beyond his 40th birthday, it’s because the 7th ranked team in the ICC ODI rankings needed him.

“All our guys accept the fact that you got to perform to stay in the side,” Kumar Sangakkara told the media when asked about leaving Jayasuriya out.

One then wonders why on earth Mahela Jayawardene is still playing! Sangakkara’s hypocrisy knows no bounds.

Fellow Island cricket blogger, Merlin, pointed out that Sanath has performed better in 2009 than Mahela. Albeit slightly better.

Following is a quote from Merlin’s post,

The only thing that keeps pushing Sanath Jayasuriya out of the Sri Lankan squad is the blatant age discrimination being displayed by both the former skipper Jayawardena and the current skipper Sangakkara.

In 2006, with the inclusion of Tom Moody as coach, Sri Lanka was on a drive to introduce “young blood” in to the squad and drive out the seniors. Jayawardena and Sangakakra both were mislead into thinking this is a progressive move which would set them apart from other Asian teams.

Unfortunately in both Marvan Atapattu’s case and now Jayasuriya’s, it is a case of ageism, also known as age discrimination.

Meanwhile, Trevor Chesterfield has written a hard hitting piece, after Sri Lanka’s dismal performance in the 3rd ODI, which really needs to be given a thorough look at.

Sri Lanka has one of the largest groups - if not the largest group - of support staff Read more…

Administrator IND vs SL Blogs.CMDN.com, Chamara Kapugedara, Colombo, Cricket, Cricket Blogs, ICC, Jadeja, Jayawardena, Marvan Atapattu, Sanath Jayasuriya, Sangakkara, Sri Lanka, Tendulkar, Tharanga, Thilina Kandamby, Tom Moody, Trevor Chesterfield, Yuvraj Singh

A game in which batsmen score at more than eight an over is great entertainment, sure, but great cricket? Not really

After that Wanderers game , I argued long and hard with those who thought it a great game of cricket. Nearly four years on, my views haven’t changed. In the days to come, many will speak of Rajkot as another classic. Some opportunists might even come out with commemorative DVDs, but nothing will change the facts. A game in which batsmen score at more than eight an over hardly constitutes an even tussle between bat and ball. Great entertainment, sure. Great cricket? Not really.

If you want to watch a real classic, watch how Pakistan chased down New Zealand’s total in the World Cup semi-final in 1992, or better still, go and watch footage of the greatest one-day match of all, Edgbaston 1999. Until there’s a tie in a World Cup final, that will remain the greatest cricket played in coloured clothes. The enormity of the occasion and what was at stake ensured as much.

There were two big differences between Rajkot and the Wanderers though. Back then, Mick Lewis and Nathan Bracken had a meltdown in the final stages, while Mark Boucher and Johan van der Wath produced the cameos that got South Africa over the line. At Rajkot, Thilina Kandamby and Angelo Mathews whittled the target down to 15 from 12 balls before lack of experience and basic technique played into Indian hands. And while the figures may suggest Lewis-style outings, both Zaheer Khan and Ashish Nehra were superb with the older ball, pinging in yorkers at will.

Built on solid Arjuna Ranatunga lines, Kandamby is no natural athlete, but only he can tell you what he was doing running to the bowler’s end with bat poised in mid-air. Both he and Mathews, who holed out to midwicket in the final over, were also unfortunate in that they found one of the few Indians who can actually field. He may be going on 37, but Sachin Tendulkar seldom makes the schoolboy errors that his more lithe, whippersnapper colleagues are periodically guilty of.

Virat Kohli was the biggest culprit in this game, putting down Upul Tharanga at point early in the innings. Geoffrey Boycott wasn’t in the commentary box, otherwise we’d most certainly have heard how his mum would have snaffled it while brandishing a stick of rhubarb, Read more…

Administrator IND vs SL Angelo Mathews, Arjuna Ranatunga, Ashish Nehra, Blogs.CMDN.com, Cricket, Cricket Blogs, Geoffrey Boycott, Graeme Smith, Harbhajan, Johan van der Wath, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Mark Boucher, MS Dhoni, Rajkot, Sachin Tendulkar, Sangakkara, South Africa, Tendulkar, Thilina Kandamby, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Upul Tharanga, Virender Sehwag, Wanderers, World Cup, Zaheer Khan

Just watched the end of an astounding ODI, Sri Lanka falling four runs short of chasing 415 to beat India in Rajkot. Guess it was a bad decision to ask India to bat first after all, although it didn’t look like that when Sri Lanka needed 15 off the last 12 balls. Only two run-outs (the first helped by some almost Ranatunga-esque casual running by Kandamby) and a catch in the final over put the result beyond doubt.

There are good and bad times to take the batting powerplay. England always seem to take it in the 45th over when James Anderson is coming out to bat, which seems a waste, but that is the fault of the recognised batsmen not hanging around. As Andy Flower told me a couple of weeks ago: “It seems bad logic to take the powerplay early just because we don’t think our batsmen will make it to the 40th over.”

India and Sri Lanka, by contrast, had built the perfect platform. India were 296 for one when they called for the powerplay after 34 overs; Sri Lanka were 291 for one after 35. From those positions it almost looks a disappointment that they did not get to 450 or more.

Virender Sehwag, in perhaps the best form of his career, was out in the second over of the powerplay for 146 and India’s run-rate dropped from almost nine an over to just over seven for the remaining 14 overs of the innings. Sri Lanka, likewise, struggled once Dilshan (160) and, in particular, Sangakkara (90 off 43) went. But these are minor quibbles.

One final word of praise: Harbhajan Singh arguably should have been man of the match instead of Sehwag. In the context of the game, to bowl ten overs for only 58, and to dismiss Dilshan and Jayasuriya, was pretty special.

Administrator IND vs SL Andy Flower, Blogs.CMDN.com, Cricket, Cricket Blogs, Dilshan, England, Harbhajan Singh, James Anderson, Jayasuriya, ODI, Rajkot, Sangakkara, Sri Lanka, Virender Sehwag

Have you even heard of that story about the King Frog whose hubris finally lead to his demise? It goes like - once upon a time there was a big fat frog who was under the impression that he was the biggest thing that God created ruling a good well with a large number of inhabitants, all smaller than him. At the same time he did not fail to gloat over that fact and made everyone always keep that in mind.

One day a junior member of the tribe had an accidental ride to the surface and while hopping around he happened to see a medium sized cow grazing close to the well. The junior who was living under a false impression could not believe what he witnessed and made a B -line back to the well and reported the matter to his beloved king claiming that he saw a living thing bigger than him. Disbelieving the junior the king blew himself up and inquired “Was he this size?” Then he just kept blowing himself on till he finally died of a heart attack.

That is a good lesson for anyone not to live by a myth.

A while ago the ICC had protruded the Lankan cricketers to be ranked the second best in the world Test rankings and we believed we were there in reality. However we first began to challenge the status quo when the Australians hinted that there should be a division among the Test rankings with the top four of Australia, England, South Africa and India slotted together in the big-league while Sri Lanka, Pakistan, New Zealand, West Indies and Bangladesh playing in a lower rung. This was one their solutions to the problem of the dwindling competitiveness among the Test playing countries. When this call first came Sri Lanka was at the number two slot and obviously we were rather perturbed.

The events that followed made us think more pragmatically. The ICC rankings are given on the current form of a country ranked on the results they yield. Ironically it is only a yardstick, Read more…

Administrator Sri Lanka Aravinda De Silva, Arjuna Ranatunga, Asanka Gurusinha, Australia, Bangladesh, Chaminda Vaas, England, ICC, India, Mahela Jayawardena, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Mathews, Muttiah Muralitharan, New Zealand, Pakistan, Prasanna Jayawardena, Sanath Jayasuriya, Sangakkara, South Africa, Sri Lanka, West Indies

There is something nostalgic about playing at the Cricket Club of India (CCI). No member from either side has played a Test here but the Indians will be a lot more kicked at the opportunity to do so as they would have heard a lot about the history of the CCI. A Test was to be played here last year against England but 26/11 put a halt to that.

The Test at Brabourne will be a fitting tribute to Raj Singh Dungarpur. He finally gets his wish although he will not be around to watch. Raj bhai’s connection with Indian cricket, the various roles he played, his rapport with the players is widely known as was his love for the CCI, a venue he nurtured with great care.

The pitch at the CCI has always been an interesting one. Having played a few ODIs as well practiced there a few times, I am sure there will be decent carry early on, with the surface slowing down gradually. Not just the pacers, the spinners too can look forward to bowling here more than they would have at either Ahmedabad or Kanpur. There will probably be a bit more spin as the game progresses. Either way, we can expect a good cricket wicket, which is what everyone wants.

The Sri Lankans seem undecided about what to do in their quest to get 20 wickets, which is a must if they are to have a chance of leveling the series. They will possibly go back to the three seamers and two spinners combination, which means one of the three spinners will have to make way.

After picking up five wickets at Kanpur, Rangana Herath will be a definite starter, leaving Kumar Sangakkara with the tricky decision of having to choose between Muttiah Muralitharan and Ajantha Mendis.

Murali’s pedigree certainly influenced Sangakkara’s decision and he will look to Murali to lead the attack once again. The spinner, for his part, will be keen to finish off what will be his last Test on Indian soil on a high. Murali has been ineffective so far, with the pitches and the aging Read more…

Administrator IND vs SL Ajantha Mendis, Blogs.CMDN.com, Brabourne, CCI, Cricket, Cricket Blogs, Gautam Gambhir, India, Kanpur, Murali Vijay, Muttiah Muralitharan, Pragyan Ojha, Raj Singh Dungarpur, Rangana Herath, Sangakkara, Sri Lanka

Kevin Pietersen may be many things, but he is not into false flattery. When he says he rates someone, he means it.

And although he likes to make big statements, without the conditionals and weasel words of others, he usually has sound reason for what he says. There is always basis for the bluster.

But some may feel he has taken leave of his senses with the comment in his interview with Richard Hobson this morning:

“I truly believe Jacques Kallis is the greatest cricketer ever.”

Eyebrows duly raised? Let’s leave out all the ancient cricketers who Pietersen may not even have considered - the Bradmans and Barneses and Trumpers and Hobbses. Let’s even leave out players of more recent vintage who have dominated but perhaps slipped the infant Pietersen’s attention when he was running about on the farm in Pietermaritzburg rather than watching TV - the Gavaskars, Richardses, Bothams and Soberses.

But is Kallis even the greatest of those to have played in the past decade? Is he better than Warne or Ponting or Tendulkar or Murali? Where does he sit in relation to Gilchrist or Lara or Kumble? Could Sehwag or Sangakkara or McGrath be rated higher?

Perhaps by posing these questions, it just reveals how blessed we have been to be watching cricket in the past decade. So many greats to choose from. And I’m not saying that Kallis doesn’t deserve his place. He averages 55 in Test cricket, 45+ in ODIs and has 500 international wickets. He is a very very fine player. If only he had an English parent we’d have been in there and poached him…

But for Pietersen to say so definitively that he is the greatest? Well, have your say. And Read more…

Administrator CMDN.com Blogs.CMDN.com, Bothams, Bradmans, Cricket, Cricket Blogs, Gavaskars, Gilchrist, Kevin Pietersen, Kumble, Lara, McGrath, Murali, Ponting, Richardses, Sangakkara, Sehwag, Soberses, Tendulkar, Warne

It is not too easy to remember the last occasion when an Indian had last played such a sublime innings on a pitch which was anything but that. No wonder then, Sachin Tendulkar himself has termed it as one of the best knocks in his career, but to me, it was one that was probably the best in his fifty-overs career. Agreed that it is a bold statement to make, given the ‘big’ man’s 400 plus game career, but not often does one have a potent enough concoction of a pressure finals, a tired track, a cramping batsman and opposing bowlers who have exhibited enough prowess to get the better of most on these conditions.

In a way, it was a sheer delight watching those cover drives through the short extra cover region. Again, on a wicket where the ball exhibits the tendency of doing funny things before coming onto the bat, or even if does not, has filled enough pieces of doubts within the batsman’s minds, the most difficult shot to play is the stand-up-tall-and-punch. Even more so is the ability to pierce the gap with a barrage of fielders on the off-side; the first and the second slip is slightly uncommon in the ODIs, but what is definitely a huge rarity is the first and the second short extra cover! Yes, two fielders up close on the off-side along with the usual ring of field that included the point, covers and the mid-off!

Oh and yes, it was a pressure finals. That thing which is – was, after this and the CB series, 2008 effort – christened as one of Tendulkar’s rare Achilles Heels. Evidently, there was a sense of expectation from the side to do well, after having floundered in the previous final they had played in the country, again, against the same side – Sri Lanka.

Sharjah ’98 and the CB series ten years later were equally pressurising finals as well, undoubtedly. What was different was that the pitches in both the instances were more to Tendulkar’s liking; a ball bouncing in the bowler’s half would invariably go over the Read more…

Administrator SL Tri-Series Blogs.CMDN.com, Cricket, Cricket Blogs, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, Sangakkara, Sharjah, Sri Lanka

New Zealand’s test cricket novices have been warned against being so preoccupied with Sri Lanka’s spin wizardry they disregard a maturing new ball attack that initiated a historic test series victory over Pakistan last month.

New Zealand Cricket has gone to extraordinary lengths to nurse a talented though inexperienced batting unit of Tim McIntosh, Martin Guptill, Daniel Flynn, Ross Taylor and Jesse Ryder through their first confrontation with Muttiah Muralitharan on the test wicket world record holder’s domains here and in Colombo.

Ajantha Mendis, anointed to assume Muralitharan’s mantle when he retires from tests in 2011, prompted more concern by taking three for nine in 18 generally unreadable balls during his debut against New Zealand at the ICC World Twenty20 in June.

Former Pakistani spinner Saqlain Mushtaq and anonymous English teenager Maurice Holmes formed NZC’s contingency plan and were flown to Colombo to mirror the deliveries of Sri Lanka’s dynamic duo before today’s first test at Galle International Stadium (4.30pm NZT). Read more…

Administrator SL vs NZ Ajantha Mendis, Black Caps, Blogs.CMDN.com, Chaminda Vaas, Cricket, Cricket Blogs, Daniel Flynn, Daniel Vettori, Dilhara Fernando, Galle International Stadium, Jesse Ryder, Lasith Malinga, Martin Guptill, Muralitharan, New Zealand, Nuwan Kulasekara, Pakistan, Ross Taylor, Sangakkara, Saqlain Mushtaq, Thilan Thushara, Tim McIntosh