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Sports

A few hiccups but Isipathana are strong and agile as ever
The Havelock Town school has produced the most number of players to don the national jersey than any other school. Shamseer Jaleel finds out their secret.
Isipathana Maha Vidyalaya, Colombo who are famous for their open rugby are out for the kill after a few hiccups early in the season. They opened the season by beating Carey 43-3.

In their second outing they went down to the Antonians 20-15 after leading by 15 points to 3 with 10 minutes to go. But the lads from Katugastota had a superb late second half rally with two tries and pulled the game off in their favour.
In their next encounter they outclassed the gutty Wesley outfit by 20 points to 15. Their fourth game was against the high riding Trinity "Lions" who came for this game after having a grand game against St. Peter's. The lads from Havelock Town outclassed the Kandy side 26-17.

During the last two decades, Isipathana has produced some outstanding ruggerites who have gone on to represent the national team with lot of pride. the Rugby Legend of Sri Lanka Hisham Abdeen, Nalin de Silva (SLRFU-Secretary), Nizam Jamaldeen, Roger Rodrigo, Sudath Sampath, Sriyantha Rajakaruna, Shiyam Sideek, Chandana Deepthi, Sajith Mallikarachchi, Bandula Mallikarachchi, Aruna de Silva, Dilroy Fernando, Anurada Walpola, Sudesh Abeysinghe, late Sandy Hameed and late Nilantha Lakshmeweva are some of them. Chandana Deepthi led the side in 1985 when they emerged triple champs winning the sevens, league and the Premadasa Knock-out trophy in the inaugural year.

This crack side under Chandana Deepthi produced no less than nine Sri Lankan players. Isipathana also won the Premier Trophy also in the very first year when it was introduced in 2002 under Anurudha Walpola. They were also the first side to win the Singer Sri Lankan sevens at the school's section when it was introduced in 1999. Shiyam Sideek and Sajith Mallikarachchi are the first Pathans to lead the CR&FC and the triple champs Kandy Sports Club respectively. Undoubtedly Isipathana has produced the most number of players to don the national jersey than any other school.

Isipathana is the first school in Sri Lanka to organise an International School's Sevens tournament. It was very well organized with six foreign teams participating along with local teams. This tournament came in for a lot of praise from foreign teams. Top school teams from England, Australia and Russia participated in this event which will be staged every other year with Sports Minister Johnston Fernando promising funds for this event. Pathans has the privilege of producing two IRB rated referees. They are Dilroy Fernando and Nizam Jamaldeen who is the present assistant coach of the Royal College rugby team.

This year Isipathana are led by fourth year coloursman Nimesh De Silva who will be their pack leader. They have four players who have represented the Junior National Team at the ASIAD in Hong Kong early this year. The deputy of the side will be fourth year player Anuruddha Dharmatilake who has toured with the Junior National Team to Japan (2001) and Hong Kong (2002). Asoka Gunawardena and Naresh Liyanage both have toured Hong Kong with the Junior team for the ASIAD.

Isipathana have one of the best place kickers among schools in Sendil Kumar who is also a good loose player. He learnt his basics from Lumbini MV where he represented the school at all levels. He is also a very good football player who turned out for Cooray SC. He toured for the ASIAD with the junior team to Hong Kong. Sendil Kumar had a grand game against the Trinity side putting over two 40 metre penalities and scoring a magnificent try to seal victory for the green shirts. He is a rare forward who plays as a hooker and place kicker of the side. The side is coached by an Old Boy of the school Sanath Martis who played for the school in 83 and 84.

With their Rugby promoting Principal, Upali Gunasekera and hard working master-in-charge for Rugby, Anura Wanigasinghe and the sporty Old Boys gathering around to help the young lads, are all out to retain their proud history of Rugby Football.

Isipathana Rugby Pool - 2003
Props - Asanka Bandara, Suneth Chathuranga, and Nisal Wijesekera
Hooker - Sendil Kumar
2nd row - Anuruddha Dharmathilake, Asoka Gunawardena and Isuru Nadeesha
Flankers - Amila Udayanga, Thanujika Seneviratne
Number 8 - Nimesh De Silva (Capt.)
Scrum Half - Manjula Prasad
Centres - Nalin Liyanage And Asela Ackalanka
Wingers - Salman Sahidulla, Shanaka Fonseka and Sampath Ratnasiri
Stand Off - Naresh Liyanage
Full back - Achintha De Costa

The state of test pitches
A test match - by the very term indicates that it should be a game that strictly tests all the talents and abilities of the twenty-two players who grace the arena. Batsmen, pace-men, spinners, must all display their skills over five days and unravel a contest which must contain all the twists and turns of cricket at its best.

How often does this happen? Not very often. There are many games that are one sided. It often, if not always happens when Bangladesh play and is the case too when Zimbabwe plays away from home. Andy Flower was a lone hero and came to their rescue regularly. He has now hung-up his international cricket boots and zimbabwe were humbled 2-0 by England in the recently concluded series.

In recent times all teams barring Australia have been inconsistent at some point or the other. Many teams have clearly shown their weakness when playing away from home.
Climatic conditions do play a major part. Getting acclimatized to hot or cold conditions as the case may be is necessary. The bodies of some, takes a long time for that and it affects performance. Of course there is so much touring done presently that in a short period of an international career the opportunity arises to play in most climates and quite often too.

The greatest challenge is to conquer the pitches that are played on. The characteristics of a turf pitch changes from country to country, state to state, from venue to another. At times two pitches on the same square do not play alike. At the SSC the main four pitches used for big games are quicker than the balance seven. They are at a slightly higher level and therefore can be rolled to become harder surfaces than the rest and they stay that way for a longer period.

The last test match completed was between Sri Lanka and the West Indies. Rain interrupted most of two days, but judging from the proceedings a result could not have been achieved within five days. The pitch was too good for batting.

In fact over the past decade or so most grounds men have followed a pattern of giving the bowlers more assistance. That has also led to pitches being too seamer friendly or too spinner friendly. There are venues where the form of the pitch has remained consistent always. Perth in Western Australia is one such, where it is reputed to be fast and bouncy and it is always so.

Many countries also go about preparing pitches to assist the home teams strength. This becomes a tit-for-tat game. Revenge is taken by preparing pitches that turn square or seam to be unplayable for those who lack the technique.

This poses the question, with the modern game progressing that fast, should there be a panel of international grounds men responsible for test pitches. After all there are international match referees and umpires!

The ideal test pitch should contain some moisture on ay one to keep it free of crumbling too early. This will help the seamers early. Then dry out by the third session on day one to be hard to assist pace but also encourage stroke play. The middle two days should be good for batsmen with spinners getting more and more assistance as the game progresses on day four and five. That is the ideal test pitch. Sounds easy on paper!

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