Dilshan farewell on a tricky wicket
For the first time in the series, Lankans find themselves in a must win situation. The significance is that it would be farewell to a soldier who has been right in front of the firing line as the country’s opening batsman for the greater part of his career which began way back in 1999. Today, [...]
“I would not have done what Smith did,” says Mathews
Sri Lanka captain Angelo Mathews said that if it was him, he would have not deserted ship in the manner that the Australian skipper Steven Smith did. He was replying to a pre-match pres-con question fired at him. He said, “I think they have their own player management system but, if it was me I [...]
Hayden says player power needed to rectify a ‘horse shit’ system
Former Australian batsman Matthew Hayden has taken aim at coach Darren Lehmann and high performance manager Pat Howard, declaring it’s time for the players to wrest back power in a system which had become “absolute horse shit”. In a stunning attack on the Test side in the wake of a losing 3-0 series against Sri Lanka, [...]
Australia lends former SL athlete Anula to train Paralympic athletes
A former Sri Lankan woman Athlete, going great guns as an Athletic Coach and Instructor in Australia, is now in Sri Lanka, on an invitation to assist Sri Lanka’s Paralympic athletes in preparation for the 2016 Paralympics. Accepting the invitation ‘with both hands’, to serve her motherland with what she has achieved in Australia, to [...]
Over 25,000 participants at National School Games
The All-Island School Games 2016 will be held in four stages from September 2 to October 17. The event will be continued on all weekends. This has been decided by the Ministry of Education. Twenty eight sports have been included in the All-Island School Games. Over 25,000 school athletes are expected to be in the [...]
Younger Footballers to benefit from YKK-Real Madrid collaboration
The YKK Asia Group Kids Football Clinic (AKFC), conducted with the collaboration of Real Madrid Foundation, kicked off at the Racecourse ground in Colombo. This is part of YKK’s CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) projects done annually and one of the two football training clinics held annually in countries where YKK is operation. The clinic, aimed [...]
TT awards today
The Andro Table Tennis Awards ceremony 2015 will be held today from 4.00pm onwards at the S. D. S. Jayasinghe Hall, Dehiwala. The ceremony is organised by the Andro Table Tennis Academy of Sri Lanka with the collaboration of The Table Tennis Association of Sri Lanka and is the only all-island table tennis award ceremony [...]
Are we really investing in Sevens Rugby!
Sri Lanka has a reputation for sevens rugby in Asia, so what is our plan to be Asia’s best sevens team. The junior rugby performance at sevens at U20 and 18 has been impressive so we need to look ahead. Do we have a “winning edge” strategy in place? This should be a collaborative effort [...]
Ford’s take on Two-Tier Cricket and the real heroes
The Two-Tier (TT) Test proposal is real and has come in the wake of the crumbling of the rather undemocratic ‘Big Three’ tyranny, where India, England and Australia were trying to establish a hegemonic rule in the ICC realm, and reign supreme. Yet, it failed. Now, the TT proposal is not so far away from [...]
Gateway to high performance
The Rio Olympics created history as the first to be held in South America. Most of it will be memorable, except for a few, such as the stupidity of American Gold medal swimmer Lochte’s big lie. Postmortems will be held in every country before the next Olympics in Tokyo. Successful countries in Rio will stand [...]
Olympics for Official(s)’ FOC jaunt, while Athletes ‘also ran’
Young can write volumes about the Lankan Olympians. That is not for their achievements, but, the sick culture that they have inculcated within. We had four athletes who qualified and altogether there were nine in total. Yet, the Rio contingent totaled to at least half a plane load and most of them were freeloaders. Yet, [...]
SAFF 8-team Inter-Club competition on the cards
An 8-team Inter-Club competition among 7 South Asian Football Federation (SAFF) countries is on the cards, while Football’s regional hierarchy has turned its focus on the junior and women segments. These subjects were some of the many topics discussed at the SAFF Executive Committee (ExCo) Meeting held in Sri Lanka on Thursday. This was the [...]
Channa dug his grave long before digging others’
A major overhaul of the entire system, is the only way out, according to FFSL Vice President Ranjith Rodrigo, if Football in Sri Lanka is to survive with dignity. Rodrigo, former President of Football Federation of Sri Lanka (FFSL) and custodian of Negombo Youth Football Club, stated this as a rejoinder to former National Football [...]
Shamal Dissanayake steals the limelight
The 101st Nationals, the Premier Tennis Championship in the country, concluded last week after 17-days of high octane tennis witnessed at the Sri Lanka Tennis Association ( SLTA ) courts,Green Path. Shamal Dissanayake, took the limelight of the day, when he cruised past his rival contender Yasitha De Silva to snatch the final of the [...]
Rain prevents a decision at Pelawatta
A sudden deluge prevented a decision being reached in the Prima Trophy under 15 inter district cricket tournament match between Ampara and Batticaloa districts which was being played at the Pelawatta sugar corporation ground. Batticaloa district electing to bat first were bowled out by Chamindu Sadushka (4/51) and Yasindu Ruwanga (3/36) for 126 runs in [...]
SL Tennis needs FUNDS to be competitive at international level
The Sri Lanka Tennis Association(SLTA) takes pride in being Asia’s oldest Tennis body. Established in 1915 as the Ceylon Lawn Tennis Association by a few British planters who were Tennis enthusiasts, it is older than the All India Tennis Association (1920). Since then, Tennis in Sri Lanka has come a long way. However, even with [...]
Read spells out Rally for EZY Racing’s Zuhair
Sajaad Zuhair and Malcolm Read live on opposite sides of the globe. Zuhair, a Sri Lankan who has a penchant for motor-racing and Read, as his name says it, is a well established Rally co-driver or, in other words, a navigator. The two met for the first time, barely a day before the team they [...]
The Dialog Sri Lanka Cricket Awards 2016,
The Dialog Sri Lanka Cricket Awards 2016, the pinnacle of achievement on Sri Lanka’s domestic and international cricketing stage will take place on September 21 at The Water’s Edge, Colombo. The gala ceremony recognise the stars amongst ‘Our Lions’, and the accomplishments of our cricketers at domestic and international level. The picture shows the ceremony [...]
Army DSG 2016 Champs for the 5th time
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) swept the boards at the 9th Defence Services Games (DSG) 2016 to emerge overall champions for the 5th time, at the newly constructed Panagoda Stadium recently. DSG, the annual joint platform for tri-services sportsmen and sportswomen to showcase their prowess in sports, while competing with their comrades-in-arms in a specific sport. [...]
Dialog Champions League Super 8 Round postponed indefinitely
The Air Force SC, Army SC clash will be the curtain raiser of the Dialog Champions League Super 8 Round for which the Football Federation of Sri Lanka (FFSL) is yet to finalise the dates. Originally, this match was to take place yesterday at the Colombo Racecourse ground, but the FFSL said in an official [...]
Palliyaguruge Group-Stafford Motors in MCA ‘G’ Div. League Finals
Palliyaguruge Group and tournament sponsor Stafford Motor Co. reached the finals of the 6th ‘Stafford-Honda’, MCA ‘G’ Division League Tournament 2016 with victories at the two semi-finals played last weekend. At Mattegoda, Sponsor Stafford Motors was stretched by Maliban Biscuits, before the experienced Honda boys pulled off a fighting 20-run win. Former Nalandian Sanjaya Gangodawila [...]
Sri Lanka Telecom are Mercantile Athletic champs for the third time
For the third successive time Sri Lanka Telecom emerged champions at the 33rd Mercantile Athletics Championships concluded at the Mahinda Rajapaksa Sports Complex Diyagama. Sri Lanka Telecom collected 420 points while the runners-up MAS Holdings gained 409 points. Sri Lanka Telecom bagged the championship title by a majority of 11 points. The meet was conducted [...]
Seylan Bank Cagers victorious on opening day of Merc. League Tourney
Seylan Bank started the 26th Mercantile League Tournament 2016 with a bang, when its Women’s and Men’s teams registered victories over Nations Trust Bank (NTB) and Standard Chartered Bank (SCB) respectively, in the preliminary round at the Henry Pedris Basketball Courts, on the opening day. Seylan Women playing in the ‘A’ Division scored a close [...]
VTTASL AGM
Annual General Meeting (AGM – 2016) of the Veterans Table Tennis Association of Sri Lanka (VTTASL) will be held on Friday the September 9, 2016 at 4.30pm in Otter Aquatic Club, Colombo 7. All the members are kindly invited to attend to this AGM. Those who are interested to join the VTTASL also invited to [...]
Travel Trade Sports calendar gathers momentum with TT
The Travel Trade Sports Club’s multi Sports Events Calendar 2016 will gather momentum in the month of September with three events. On Sunday, September 4, the TTSC will hold a ‘double’, the Badminton and the Table Tennis Championships at S. Thomas’ College, Mt. Lavinia Indoor Sports Complex.The 21st Badminton Championships is sponsored by Serendib Leisure [...]
Captain deserting ship – or deserted?
Having gleefully watched the current cricket series against Australia and revelling up to now in the success of our cricketers, I have been musing about this peculiar custom they have in Australia of dethroning their leaders in mid -career. At the October 2007 federal election, Australian voters elected the Labour Party led by Kevin Rudd to [...]
Murali the superstar
Murali among superstars When her iconic and legendary son Was inducted into the ICC Hall of Fame It was little Lanka’s finest moment And luverly cricket’s finest hour; Standing tall Murali is among the galaxies; A select band of reputed cricketing greats Who have done their country proud. His steadfast commitment paid dividends Accused of [...]
Phelps’ and Bolt’s Olympian heights
Fantastic, stupendous, sensational, marvelous, unprecedented feats of swimming and sprinting superstars at the Rio Olympics: American Michael Phelps and Jamaican Usain Bolt; The most decorated Olympians in history. Phenomenal Phelps harvested a record career haul of medals Twenty eight including twenty three golds – An incredible feat very hard to beat. The sprinting sensation Bolt [...]
Royal Panadura win at athletics
The North-Central Provincial Schools Sports Meet 2016, held at the Anuradhapura Stadium, featured the participation of over 286 Schools, 7000 athletes and 120 judges from the area. This annual event was organized by the dedicated Education Department team of the North Central Province Sporting events for age groups from under 11 to 21 were conducted at [...]
STC Hockey big match on Sep 24
The second “Battle of Thomians” the hockey big match between S. Thomas’ Mt Lavinia and St. Thoma’s Matale for the “Eric Hulangamuwa challenge shield ” will be played at the astro turf , Reid Avenue on Saturday September 24th at 4.00 pm. The two schools — one by the sea and the other in the hill [...]
BMS emerge national champions Campus Cricket
BMS led by national player Niroshan Dickwella clinched victory beat Saegis Campus to become Red Bull Campus Cricket (RBCC) champions 2016, and qualify to take part in the RBCC World Finals next month. BMS breezed through the group stages, with a victory against IIHE in the quarter-finals and beat KDU in the Semi-Final. Its fifth successive [...]
Lehmann backs Smith’s Sri Lanka series opt out
SYDNEY, Aug 26, 2016 (AFP) – Australia coach Darren Lehmann has backed the decision to rest skipper Steve Smith for the remaining one-day international series against Sri Lanka after criticism from ex-captain Michael Clarke, reports said. Smith will miss three ODIs and two Twenty20 games to return home and prepare for next month’s one-day series in [...]