Sri Lanka on the decline?

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CrimsonAvenger
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Sri Lanka on the decline?

Post by CrimsonAvenger »

Sri Lanka has always been my second favorite team, ever since I shockingly predicted that they would lift the 1996 CWC and they did so to the astonishment of many of my friends at the time. In the recent years, the stylish Kumar Sangakkara, possibly the best player ever to come out of the Island Nation, and his godly cover drives, have kept me captivated with the Lankan cricket. But are things going downhill? They too, like Zim, have serious financial issues with player strikes going public more than once. They too, have every other player in the squad capable of keeping wickets.

They have been unable to find the next Atapattu and the next Dilshan, let alone a Jayasuriya or a Sangakkara who are once in a generation players. Once the subcontinent genius Jayawardene retires and the legendary Sanga goes, where do we see SL headed? their bowling line up for the longer format looks awful and there is no new batsman coming in that has shown application. MAthews is the only hope, but on the long run, do we, Zim, have an advantage over SL?

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Re: Sri Lanka on the decline?

Post by foreignfield »

All the more a shame that the SL Tests were cancelled with the boys riding high on confidence after the Pak win. Of course either of Sangawardene could have done to us what Younis did in the first Test, but we could equally have taken the game to the Lankans and might have sneaked a win.

At the end of the day SL is a haven of stability and prosperity compared to Zim and cricket is their undisputed no. one sport.

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Re: Sri Lanka on the decline?

Post by eugene »

Rugby is making gains in Sri Lanka in terms of popularity and seems to have plenty of governmental support. I hope Sri Lanka continue to be a cricketing power, but they are going to find it difficult to replace Dilshan, Jayawardene, and Sangakkara.
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Re: Sri Lanka on the decline?

Post by brmtaylor.com admin »

Maybe it was a ZC masterstroke... wait until Sangakkara and Jayawardene have retired and then suddenly find the money to host SL for a full Test series?

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CrimsonAvenger
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Re: Sri Lanka on the decline?

Post by CrimsonAvenger »

brmtaylor.com admin wrote:Maybe it was a ZC masterstroke... wait until Sangakkara and Jayawardene have retired and then suddenly find the money to host SL for a full Test series?
:) We can also wait till Quinton de Kock retires to play SA...

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Re: Sri Lanka on the decline?

Post by ZIMDOGGY »

its probably because all future players are on leaky boats headed for australia.

they have full sri lankan leagues here in sydney. the team i play for in pub cricket versus a team called 'lanka cricket' which is strange as all the other clubs are all suburb named.

i went on the canterbury bankstown website and of the 30 clubs in their assoc. 8 were sr lankan only (and curiously there was a muslim only cricket team?)
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foreignfield
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Re: Sri Lanka on the decline?

Post by foreignfield »

I assume your forefathers arrived in Australia by teleportation, Zimdoggy.

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jaybro
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Re: Sri Lanka on the decline?

Post by jaybro »

looks like the Sri Lankans are doing just find a hard fought draw in the first test after they were on the ropes now they're clearly ahead after day 1 in the second …..

I think Chandimal and Kusal Perera are going to be massive stars of the future …...
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CrimsonAvenger
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Re: Sri Lanka on the decline?

Post by CrimsonAvenger »

Yes, this is an unexpected pleasant turnaround. They depended so heavily on Dilshan and Sanga last year in ODIS and played very few tests, and then any new face they brought in struggled to find his feet. Even the likes of Mathews and Chandimal heavily under performed. Good going this year so far...

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Re: Sri Lanka on the decline?

Post by CrimsonAvenger »

May be I jinxed their decline. A clinical win yesterday over Pakistan, DPMDJ came good, and two wonderful knocks by young JK Silva. Mathews having a very good series too, and HAPWJ is looking solid behind the stumps and contributing with bat too. Not bad.

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