(*Sugeeswara Senadhira, journalist, researcher and diplomat is Minister Counselor in Sri Lanka High Commission in New Delhi)
‘Jeetey hain Dilshan Se’ , The Pioneer, a relatively new English daily, punned on the name Dilshan with the lead – no, not the sports page, but the front page, which is normally reserved for top political news. Hindi meaning of dilshan is warm or rejoiced heart. Feeling the pride of being a Sri Lankan, I read the Pioneer front page lead and then turned to the conservative Times of India – so conservative, it is known as the Old Lady of Porobundar (Mumbai suburb where many newspaper offices are situated) - to be pleasantly surprised to see the front page lead ‘It’s A Friendly Neighbourhood Cup’ with a large photograph of Dilshan Tillakeratne celebrating his century against England.
I switched on the television to see almost all the channels are on cricket – live telecast, replays, cricket discussion panels, expert comments etc. Even on the housekeeping channel what I could see was Indira Kahandaliyanage in a Lankan cricketer’s blue dress explaining how to cook indiappa biryani in a programme called ‘food from the World Cup region’.
Sri Lankan, though a nation of cricket madness, its newspapers have a different sense about news-worthiness. As Sutirtho Patranobis of The Hindustant Times said cricket finds place only on the sports pages in Sri Lanka. On page one, it’s mostly political news. Although there were photographs of cricketers in action on the front page, Lanka’s thumping wins over England and New Zealand were sports page news.
The Indian scribe, however added that ‘cricket is hugely popular here and rugby is the only sporting rival. The WC buzz is everywhere in Colombo. Many locals are certain Lanka is reaching Wankhede. Neighbourhood tuk-tuk (three-wheeler) drivers praised the Indian cricket team and said Lanka will make mincemeat of them in the final. Giant screens are up in restaurants and pubs. The size of the cutouts of Murali, Sanga, Mahela and Malinga’s at some of the roundabouts could easily rival President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s during elections.’ The World Cup 2011 Cricket has produced an ecstatic atmosphere of South Asian solidarity. Not even the most chauvinist Hindutva proponents objected to Prime Ministrer Manmohan Singh’s invitation to Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yousuf Reza Gilani to watch the World Cup semi-finals between India and Pakistan at Mohali, a township not too far away from the Pakistan border.
Sri Lanka entered the semi-finals two days after India and Pakistan reached the last four. Indian press gave a rapturous welcome to the new arrival with front page leads such as ‘Lanka thrash England,’ ‘3 South Asians in Semis for first time ever,’ ‘Two Ton Lanka in Semis’ and ‘Roaring Right: Sri Lanka on a roll at home and loving it’.
On the eve of the match against England in the quarter finals and then against New Zealand in the semi finals, the experts view was that the R Premadasa Stadium was a much-maligned venue, and not without reason either. English, Australian and West Indies experts were unanimous in their opinion that the side batting first at an obvious and a significant advantage, what with the evening moisture and the ordinary floodlights deciding most of the games between evenly matched sides at the toss. They pointed out at the interval that last time 230 was chased at Premadasa Stadium was six-and-a-half years ago, a statistic that speaks for itself. It was natural that the statistics were thrown around in the lead-up to the match. "Toss crucial," ran the headlines around the world.
Experts from the subcontinent Navjyoth Sindhu, Ramiz Raja and Harsh Bogle, however, disagreed. They said the ‘Lankan Lions’ should not be underestimated. They proved correct as Sanga and the boys coolly scored 230 and 219 to beat England and New Zealand respectively.
Writing on the World Cup final, correspondent of The Hindustan Times concedes ‘if the home team wins this time, there will sparks of a different kind over the Colombo sky. And I bet they will be on page one too.’ As I write this before the match is over, I am unable to say if his prediction will come true.
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