Bothan walks … and walks for CHARITY

Hannah Betts in the Daily Telegraph, …. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/children_shealth/9216735/On-the-road-for-Ian-Bothams-10000-mile-odyssey.html

Botham at Mankulam

Botham, Kushil & David Cruse at Lauereaus media event

ir Ian Botham has mouldy toenails. He also has rather beautiful calves; both doubtless the product of his 27-year pounding of almost 10,000 miles of the British landscape in a mission to raise £13 million and counting for Leukaemia & Lymphoma Research. This week, he is walking 150 miles between Glasgow and London, arriving at his final destination today. And so I find myself in a Manchester bedroom admiring said calves, while Rooster, his trusty physio, places ice cubes between the Botham toes, the scent of man-sweat hanging in the room.

Time was when being in Beefy’s bedroom might have held more racy connotations, reminiscent of the tabloid fantasy in which he broke a bed with Miss Barbados. Rest assured, today not only is his wife of 36 years, Kath, now Lady Botham, in the bath next door, his two-year-old grandson Kieran is playing next to him, his aunt Sarah keeping him entertained, while Botham’s mother-in-law stands chuckling behind me.

For the legendary England all-rounder’s walks are a multi-generational jamboree that goes some way to compensate for the time he used to spend absent on foreign tours (up to five months a trip). Indeed, the only occasion he is at a loss for words is when

Hopps on Kumar Sangakkara and the Wisden Cricketers of the Year 2012

David Hopps in cric info

When Kumar Sangakkara challenged Sri Lanka’s political establishment during the MCC Spirit of Cricket Cowdrey Lecture at Lord’s last summer, it came as no surprise. His powerful intellect comes with an impulsive nature and a principled belief in right and wrong; his strong sense of national identity carries with it an idealism about how his country should develop after its long terrorist war. The lecture provided a platform to examine the ethics of Sri Lankan cricket; scribbling his speech in spare moments during the England tour, he did not waste his opportunity.

“Writing that speech became a deep personal experience,” says Sangakkara. “I knew there were ways it could be misinterpreted, but it was a story I felt I needed to tell. I was greatly moved by the response, especially in Sri Lanka, where many people seemed to identify with what I was saying.”

Percy Abeysekara, Lanka’s Iconic Cheerleader

Rex Clementine,

The entire team rose up in respect when one of the greatest fast bowler to have played the game Sir Richard Hadlee paid a visit to the Sri Lankan dressing room during the first Test Match in Christchurch. While Hadlee collected a few autographs from the players, he apparently asked Chaminda Vaas how his great pal Percy Abeysekara was. Hadlee has been a great admirer of Percy and had even presented the Sri Lankan cheerleader some of his memorabilia after he saw the Sri Lankan’s knowledge and passion for the game. ‘Percy, don’t lose your voice, Sri Lanka needs it more than you,’ he’s supposed to have written in one of Percy’s autographs.
 
Many players have had a liking for this cheerleader. His knowledge of the game and its history is second to none and Percy comes up with certain anecdotes that stun you at times. Percy has been a usual visitor to the cricket ground even before the country gained Test status and present day Sri Lankan players call him affectionately ‘Uncle Percy’. No doubt that some of his comments have angered overseas players, but none of them have a had a row with him for they know that Percy doesn’t mean any harm. Today in ‘Outrageous moments of Sri Lanka Cricket’, we look back at some of those unforgettable comments by Percy the legend.

Warne’s Spirit and Approach inspires Clarke and the Aussies at Barbados

Brent Read, in the Australian, 13 April 2012, where adifferent title was deployed: “Clarke evokes warne to find a way to win“

FIND a way to win, Michael Clarke instructed his players, and find a way they did yesterday in the gathering gloom at Kensington Oval to achieve one of the great victories in Australian Test cricket history.

This was a triumph Norman Vincent Peale would have delighted in. A Test match win, like success generally, has many fathers usually but this one over the West Indies in the first of three Tests for the Frank Worrell Trophy series had only one – the power of positive thinking.

Before this victory – as special, Clarke said, as any in his career – could so dramatically be enacted on the field, it first of all had to be conceived and it is little short of astounding that any Australian would even have thought of it midway through the fourth day, with the West Indies needing only two more Australian wickets to take a massive lead of more than 150 runs into the second innings.

Sri Lanka’s men of letters recall English cricket’s class divide

Frank Keating, in The Guardian, 3 April 2012

Last week’s letter to the editor from Surrey reader David Robinson stirred memories of English cricket’s medieval class divisions when an ornate cluster of forenames and initials determined rank and precedence. How flamboyantly the abundance of initials sported by the current Sri Lanka Test side – from the Jayawardenes (DPMD and HAPW) to the luxuriant UWMBCA (Uda Walawwe Mahim Bandaralage Chanaka Asanka) Welegedara – trump England’s ancient scorecard aristocracy of such as JWHT Douglas and Sir HDG Leveson Gower.

 UWMBCA Welagedera -Pic by Getty Images

Welagedara’s literally hits for six Sri Lanka’s all-time initial charts, beating the notable five of his new-ball predecessor WPUJC Vaas. History’s only England player to equal the four of Essex’s all-rounder and sometime Olympic pugilist John William Henry Tyler Douglas is Lancashire’s VPFA (Vernon Peter Fanshawe Archer) Royle, a one-cap wonder of 1878 who excelled at fielding in the deep and became a country parson.

Evaluating Rangana Herath with Plaudits – Rex and Scyld

The Lessons We could learn from Herath –Rex Clementine in The Island, 31 March 2012

The country’s one of the most respected cricketers, Kumar Sangakkara once called Rangana Herath ‘the work horse’ of the team. Now that he has emerged as country’s premier bowler, we should talk about his other virtues as well and how tough the rise for him has been having represented two unfashionable entities – Maliyadeva Vidyalaya and Moors SC. (Only two seasons back he left Moors after an association of 14 years after the club got demoted).

Loyalty and perseverance are two virtues of Herath that we should admire. Although HeThe rath made his debut in 1999, opportunities were rare for him due to the presence of champion Muttiah Muralitharan and Sri Lanka always had Sanath Jayasuriya to bowl a bit of left-arm spin.

But occasionally Herath was used in Test cricket, particularly against Pakistan once John Dyson developed this idea that Pakistan were in fact susceptible against left-arm spin.

Mahela and Kumar: Two Kings bearing Gifts

Steve Brown

More than 250 people attended the Knox Tavern recently for the fundraiser in aid of the Foundation of Goodness, the special guests being Sri Lankan superstars Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara, who hold the world record for any wicket in Test match history and responsible for in excess of 45,000 international runs.

The evening was hosted by well-known cricket author, the quick whited Gideon Haigh who created plenty humour and friendly banter.    Following a video presentation of the achievements and work of the Foundation of Goodness in Sri Lanka, post tsunami, founder of the charity, Kushil Gunasekera, thanked everyone for their attendance,

Cricket Australia’s Chairman, Wally Edwards, Cricket Victoria CEO Tony Dodemaide, both former Australian Test players and Sri Lankan Cricket Foundation of Victoria Chairman, Dr Quintus DeZylva were also present, lending their support.

Sangakkara addressed the audience first and he opened his innings by promising not to speak for one hour and ten minutes as he did in his address to the MCC at Lords in London last year. A polished performer, those in the room would not have minded if he broke his promise as he had the audience in his hands, with a personal plea for compassion in regards to the village of Seenigama, and for the new projects in the war torn north of Sri Lanka.

Windies down Aussies and Narine stands out as Man-of-Match

 Pic by AFP

“Special feeling” as Narine bowls Windies to win

Sunil Narine came to the party in a big way on Sunday with a superb spell of spin bowling as West Indies beat Australia by five wickets in the second Digicel One-Day International. The 23-year-old off-spinner took a career best four wickets for 27 runs off eight overs as the Windies limited the visitors to 154-9 off 40 overs in a rain-reduced match at Arnos Vale Cricket Ground. The target was then set at 158 (Duckworth/Lewis Method) and the home side romped home at 163-5 with 10 balls to spare.

The victory was celebrated by a capacity crowd of over 12,000. It was the Windies’ first win  Pic by Zee News  over the Aussies in an ODI since 2006, and brought them level 1-1 with three matches left in the five-match rubber. Big-hitter Kieron Pollard smashed four sixes in a topscore of 47 not out off 61 balls. Carlton Baugh ended the match with a big six over deep square-leg into the celebrating crowd. Earlier, vice captain Dwayne Bravo made a responsible 30 off 49 balls in a crucial fifth-wicket stand of 64 with Pollard.

Tendulkar in Indian Currency

 TRUE or FALSE?

YES = ??

NO = ??

Viv Richards: “a man whose strut alone could turn bowlers to quivering wrecks”

Frank Keating, Courtesy of The Guardian, 6 Tuesday 2012

Antigua’s cricketing knight celebrates with a round of golf on the island’s blissful Cedar Valley course while the cricketing world wishes happy returns to one of its most imperishable monarchs. Can it really be 21 years since that cathartic Test match finale at The Oval when an enraptured full house rose in farewell as, at the pavilion gate, Sir Viv Richards turned to doff his faded old maroon cap to all sides in courtly acknowledgement?The landmark birthdays of heroes always serve to underline our own mortality and with Wednesday’s three-score anniversary comes the stark personal realisation that it is more than half my lifetime ago since the eye-popping double-take that day I first set eyes on Richards 38 midsummers ago at Somerset’s dear old Bath Festival in 1974 when the gangly young smiler, glistening with gaiety and adventure, clocked Yorkshire’s Test bowlers Chris Old and Geoff Cope all over in a festive flurry of sixes. A new star had risen in the west.