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World Cup discards prop Lanka in the Caribbean
By Marlon Fernandopulle
It may be to premature to comment, but the performance of the Lankans in the three match One day series suggests that they are picking up and are on the road to recovery. Following heavy defeats in the Triangular in Sharjah and Colombo the Lankans would have been heavily criticized if they are had gone down for the third successive time. But that was not to be.

Despite playing away from home and against a side that had beaten the World Champs thrice,Sri Lanka managed to take the upper hand with a fine 2-1 victory. Apart from the usual match winning performances from Muttiah Muralitharan and Chaminda Vaas a noteworthy factor was the contribution from the World Cup discards. In the first one dayer Romesh Kaluwitharana top scored with a half century while Kumar Dharmasena and Tilakaratne Dilshan stringed a vital 42 run stand for the seventh wicket that helped Sri Lanka to a Challenging total. Then in the second one dayer it was the swashbuckling knock of Upul Chandana that helped Sri Lanka snatch a remarkable victory.

Kaluwitharana, Chandana and Dharmasena have proved in the past that they are more suited for the One day games and have very often demonstrated their point with cameo knocks. The trio did just that in the Caribbean. How and why they were left out of Sri Lanka's World Cup squad is a mystery and will remain to be so. Sri Lanka's performance at the World Cup in South Africa would have definitely improved if these cricketers were included.

It may be argued that commenting in retrospect is easy and selection of players is not so.True, but shouldn't National Selectors have the ability to judge for themselves who will be best suited for the job and base their selections on that. How the then Chairman of Selectors Guy de Alwis overlooked cricketers like Kaluwitharana, Chandan, Dharmasena and Dilshan for such an important tournament is baffling. Barely three months after the World Cup these four cricketers have proved not only to Guy de Alwis and Company but to the whole of Sri Lanka what the country has missed.

Upul Chandana's dropping from the test squad has raised a few eye-brows. It's a bold decision by the present selectors and needs to be commended. What the Lankans need in their test line up today and in the near future is a genuine support bowler for Muralitharan. In that context leg spinner Kaushal Lokuarachchi has proved to be a better triumph than Upul Chandana.

Despite playing over years Chandana has not improved on his leg breaks as one would expect for a spin bowler at Test level. While Chandana himself should be blamed for the situation the Cricket Board and it's coaches should also take full responsibility for this.It is they who should have made an effort by way of sending Chandana for an overseas training under a super spin coach if the necessary resources are not available locally.

But unfortunately our administrators lack thinking and planning for the future. As a result the poor cricketer has to suffer. On the other hand Kaushal Lokuarachchi has proved already that he has the talent and the ability to develop into a good leg spinner. The Selectors are aware of this and have thus decided to pursue with the youngster at the expense of Chandana. Good thinking, but the move will have to be complemented with some further action to improve the spinner.

Thus it will be upto the current selectors who are believed to have good cricket sense and an eye for the future to do the needful. Failing which Lokuarachchi would also be one of those leg spinners who are thrown in and out of the Lankan Test team. Remember Sanjeewa Weerasinghe, Malinga Bandara, Niroshan Bandarathilake, Rangana Herath, Dinuk Hettiarachchci. All leggies who had a taste of test cricket and have not been heard of any more.

Still struggling?Sri Lankas batsmen will have to come up with an improved performance if the team is to offer any resistance against the Windies in the two test series. In the three one dayers only Mahela Jayawardene and Romesh Kaluwitharana managed to score a half century each. Jayawardene is still not at ease and it is hoped that he will play to his potential along with Jayasuriya, Atapattu, Sangakkara and Kaluwitharana who will shoulder the batting. On the contrary the Lankan bowling attack looks strong with medium pacers Chaminda Vaas and Prabath Nissanka in prime form and the ever reliable Muralitharan eager to add a few more scalps under his belt.

Eight countries in Davis Cup fray from June 18
By M. Shamil Amit
Eight countries have confirmed participation in the Davis Cup Group 4 (Asia Oceania) tie to be held in Sri Lanka from June 16 to 22 on the SLTA courts, Green Path. The event marks the golden jubilee participation of Sri Lanka in the Davis Cup tournament. L.P. Ernest, a player from the country's first Davis Cup team of 1953, will declare open the tie on June 18 at 8.30 a.m.

The Sri Lanka Tennis Association has spent nearly Rs. 1.5 million to refurbish the surroundings in preparation for worlds premier inter-nation tournament and the international events that are due to be held this year. Rs. 200,000 has been spent to relay the surface of at least five courts and bring them to international standards.

In whole the SLTA has incurred an expenditure of over Rs. 4 million to stage the Davis Cup event, apart from the refurbishment expenditure the balance amount has will be for hotel accomadation, transport and payment to the officers involved. Ten teams were originally scheduled to compete in the tie. Jordan withdrew last month and there was no response from Iraq apparently due to the recent war.

The eight confirmed participating countries are Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Oman, Vietnam, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Brunei and Sri Lanka. Saudi Arabia who were relegated from Group III last year arrived late last week in order to acclimatize themselves to the conditions while the other overseas teams are scheduled to arrive later this week.

The tie promises exciting competition with the top two teams qualifying for promotion to Group Three next year. The draw will place the eight teams in two groups. Each group will play a round robin tournament. The two top teams in each group will then figure in a knockout formant. Countries finishing 1 and 2 will be promoted to the next group. The Sri Lanka team has been in earnest preparation for over two months. It began with a squad of nine players and after series of trails, the final four players were selected on May 21.

The four players; Rajiv Rajapakse (25 years), Harshana Godamanne (18), Franklin Emmanuel (15) and Rohan de Silva (31). Isuru Gunasekera is the non-playing captain. The Sri Lanka team is preparation climaxed with the inclusion of two top Indian players into the squad to give the Sri Lanka team match practice. Vijeya Kannan India’s no 3 and six time Davis Cup representative and Kamala Kannan no 11 in India, Junior Davis Cup regular from 1996 to 99 figured in a series of simulated matches against the Sri Lankan players.

India are a World Group Davis Cup country which means the Kannans routinely play at a higher level of competition and obviously are more experienced than our players. But how much our players benefited form this experience can be gauged by the fact that Rajiv (Rajapakse) did manage to beat Kamala towards the end of the preparations, said Sri Lanka coach Arul Amalnathan.

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