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Lanka's scintillating
Sydney special England's Barmy Army has won the hearts of cricket fans all over the world. But as Siva Ilankesan and Duminda Ariyasinghe report from Sydney, we have our own "Lak Brigade" which can teach a thing or two when it comes to high-octane cheering. They turned up in their thousands to see their heroes demolish Australia in their own backyard
SYDNEY: On an unusually cool summer day, the visiting Sri Lankans turned on the heat at the packed Sydney Cricket Ground to condemn Australia to one of their worst defeats in recent times.
Barely 48 hours after being bowled out for 65 by Australia A, the Sri Lankan openers rattled up a record 237 runs, the highest ever partnership in Australia. The final tally of 343 for five was the largest in history at the SCG and also the biggest total against Australia, eclipsing 326 for three made by South Africa at Port Elizabeth last year. Australia won that match, making an incredible 330 for seven, but there was to be no repeat on Thursday night. Despite their
teams's shocking form in Australia and nagging questions about the
teams' commitment to win, well over 10,000 flag-waving expatriate
Sri Lankans turned up at the SCG. In an atmosphere of "Naga
Salam" bands and "Era Okata Era" that was akin to
a Royal-Thomian Big Match at the SSC, Sri Lanka's "Lak Brigade"
showed the "Barmy Army" a thing or two about cheering
their team. Captain Ricky Ponting kept shaking his head haplessly as runs flowed with ease. Aussie fielders who had dropped almost 30 catches in the just concluded Ashes Series certainly did not show any improvement. Their three allrounders - Andrew Symonds, Shane Watson and Brad Hogg - conceded a staggering 198 runs off 29 overs. Much has been written in the press here about the great potential of the next generation of Aussie cricketers, but without Glen McGrath, Shane Warne and Jason Gillespie, the Lankans exposed their weaknesses. The selection
of Symonds, Watson and Hogg ahead of the inspirational Steve Waugh
had drawn plenty of criticism and Thursday's performance would put
tremendous pressure on them to deliver the goods at matches up to
and including the World Cup. Atapattu had been the darling of the Ausssie press and commentators who had been charmed by his elegant batting style. This after all was a man, who just a few seasons was being called - to use Englishman Michael Atherton's scathing remark - "a dead track bully" for his double centuries on placid pitches such as Galle. But with his consistent form against the top two cricketing nations, South Africa and now Australia, Atapattu has made Atherton eat his words. His chanceless century sent the Lak Brigade into raptures. Mahela Jayawardane and Kumar Sangakkara played calculated cameos after Aravinda de Silva and Russell Arnold threw their wickets away cheaply. It was good to see Mahela middling the ball well. Given his enormous talent, he should rank consistently among the Top Five batsmen in the world based on performance, not potential yet to be fulfilled. Sangakkara, who took the fight to the Aussie B side in the 25-overs game showed yet again his enormous self-confidence which will take him far as a player and a natural leader. He still, however, needs to curb his streaks of indiscipline, especially when lashing at balls well outside the off stump. It is gratifying to note that Sangakkara represents the new breed of assertive Sri Lankan - like former captain Arjuna Ranatunga - who will give as much as he gets. There is no point in being Mr Nice Guy or "turning the other cheek" in today's rough and tumble professional cricket! The Aussies were left with a mountain to climb. The team probably had visions of the record run chase against South Africa. Any thoughts of that was extinguished when Chaminda Vaas broke through dangerman Adam Gilchrist's defence with a crafty inswinger. And when Mathew Hayden and Ponting departed in quick succession the writing was on the wall. Muttiah Muralitharan's presence in the field seem to have lifted the whole team. He was a commanding figure in the inner ring which had looked ordinary during his absence. Murali's presence on Thursday showed in no uncertain terms who the real inspirational leader of the team was. When he came in to bowl, some of the Australian fans screamed "no-ball," raising their arms horizontally. There was no Justin Langer, who only a week ago gave the Barmy Army an earful for no-balling Brett Lee, to come out and tell these louts to shut up. After a few overs, the `no-balling' shouts died down and Murali wheeled off 10 overs for a return of 2/44. But such behaviour is to be ignored in this land of double standards. On Thursday morning, a writer in the influential Sydney Morning Herald had asked why Aussie umpires no longer had the gumption to no-ball Murali. Just a week ago, the same newspaper had leapt into Brett Lee's defence, who like Murali had been cleared by an ICC Panel. And after observers
had questioned Lee's action especially when delivering his thunderbolts
at over 150 kmph, the Channel Nine TV network stopped airing Lee's
action from the front. He is now shown only from an innocuous back
camera! All this while calling, Murali - the Greatest Bowler Ever
by the venerable Wisden's estimation - who has never had any problems
with umpires outside Australia, a chucker. This is a country that co-sponsored our admission to the ICC at a time when we needed help (although having the visionary Gamini Dissanayake at the helm of the BCCSL would have helped), yet as former captain Ranatunga noted in a book on the World Cup, kept him and team management awake until 1am on most nights, trying to put out the fires from the previous day. Over the years, Aussie cricket has showcased not just magical performances, but also underarm bowling and sledging. This is in marked contrast to many other Australian sports. For example, the world champion Wallabies are a class act, on and off the Rugby field. At an individual level, there cannot be a more gracious and talented athlete than multiple Olympic Gold Medallist Ian Thorpe. A veteran Aussie sports writer recently noted that visiting cricket teams are half dead by the time they turn up for the first match against Australia. On our current tour, the Sri Lankan team have been subjected twice to delays at airports (the second time, at Perth, because there was no one from ACB to handle the players' baggage), nagging questions about Murali including press comments by two ex-umpires, unavailability of adequate nets to practise etc. On the other hand, when the Aussies or the English visit Sri Lanka, we give them red carpet treatment at the airport and have the President host them for tea! A visitor to this country is often left wondering which the real Australia is. Is it the dynamic, confident country that organized the best ever Olympics, with the help of thousands of unpaid volunteers who came to symbolize selflessness. Or is it the insular, regressive country which is best epitomised by Prime Minister John Howard and his policies, say on refugees, which has drawn universal condemnation. As the British newspaper, The Independent pointed recently, visitors to Australia seduced by images of a diverse, progressive nation are startled to find it run by a grey man who's ideas belong in the 1950s. Perhaps, this explains the identity crisis faced by many immigrant groups who live in Australia, including Sri Lankans. While intensely patriotic to their adopted land, they grapple with the double standards they encounter in daily life. Had a game been played in almost any sport, say, in Toronto between Sri Lanka and Canada - a country to which Australia is often compared - thousands of cheering Sri Lankans would have turned up for the game. But the vast majority of them would have carried proudly, not just a Lion Flag, but also a Maple Leaf. Anyway, back to Murali. By his lofty standards it was an average day at the office but this was his first serious bowling stint since the second Test against South Africa on November 19. As far as the team is concerned, his presence is good enough. Michael Bevan and Damien Martyn tried their best to put the crowd to sleep with their meaningless batting and umpires Russell Tiffin and Simon Tauffell suddenly forgot the LBW laws. Tiffin over-reacted to media criticism for being a ``trigger finger'' in the last two Ashes Tests and turned down two appeals while Tauffell rejected one all off of Jayasuriya who had one of the finest days both with bat and ball. Jayasuriya took the foot off the pedal and didn't even bring his main strike bowler Vaas for a second spell which enabled the Australians to reach some respectability. Perhaps it was important to rest Vaas, but Jayasuriya must retain the killer instinct that is often the difference between winning and losing. Here, with a huge lead, the ultimate result was never in doubt although the Aussies inched closer to the bonus point. But Sri Lanka would have been much better placed in this VB tournament had Jayasuriya nailed the Englishmen when they were tottering at 120 odd for six in the second ODI. Often, he has showed a tendency to wait for things to happen. It is ironic that someone who is so aggressive in his batting can be so laid-back as a leader, especially in his defensive field-setting. The comparison should not be made with a Steve Waugh or a Ricky Ponting who has an embarrassment of talent at his disposal but with New Zealand Captain Steven Fleming who expertly marshalls his limited resources to great results. Fleming's Kiwis almost achieved the near-impossible of defeating Australia in a Test Series in 2001. Only a spate of questionable Australian umpiring, including the ignoring of a straight-forward caught behind of Steve Waugh who went on to remain undefeated allowed the Aussies to escape from Fleming's Kiwis at Perth. That blemish apart, there is a huge groundswell of support for Steve Waugh who came to define courage in a cricketing field better than anyone else. An older Aussie fan, who has probably seen Don Bradman in his prime, had hastily made up a banner with a caricature of Waugh. The words read: `If Sri Lankans play like this, Steve, we'll need you'. The Aussie public has still not forgiven the selectors, especially their chairman, Trevor Hohns for discarding Waugh. A banner during the fifth Ashes Test last week read: "Hohns - You Just Dropped the World Cup." It was a play on Waugh's famous comment to Herchelle Gibbs at the last World Cup when the South African dropped Waugh on 56. Waugh went on to make 120 not out in a must win situation, and rallied Australia to the World Cup. At the awards ceremony one could see the relief in Jayasuriya. He had been under tremedous pressure both as a batsman and as a captain. There was another man who was over the moon - a huge glow radiated across the face of Tony Greig who finally had something to rave and rant about his favourite Sri Lankans. One swallow, however, does not make a Summer and there is a long way to climb out of the hole we have dug ourselves in this VB Series. More importantly, with the World Cup just four weeks away, a lot of questions still remain on how we will perform on fast, bouncy tracks. Many changes need to be made at a fundamental level, if Sri Lanka is to perform at a consistently high level against quality opponents on fast overseas tracks. But that's a discussion for another day. On Thursday night, it was time to revel. |
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