World T20 in focus
After widespread criticism following on and off-field dramas by national cricketers, the win on Friday against India was like manna from heaven–regardless of how depleted the Indians were going into the third and final ODI. India made six changes to the playing XI, introducing as many as five debutants to test their bench strength only [...]
Tehani, Aniqah bow out, Niluka crashes to heavy defeat
Niluka Karunaratne’s late set heroics could not produce the end result with the three-time Olympian losing in straight sets to Tzu-Wei Wang in their Men’s Badminton Group Play match at the Musashino Forest Sports Plaza in Tokyo, Japan yesterday. Karunaratne, ranked 107 places below Wang, slipped to a 10-2 deficit in the first set before [...]
Arthur heaps praise on ‘hard-working’ Chamika
Coach Mickey Arthur heaped praise on young all-rounder Chamika Karunaratne for his work ethics following his impressive performances against India in the ODI series. The former Royal College allrounder, who hails from a family of sportspersons, the youngest of Karunaratnes earned the reputation for his on-field electric and energetic antics, during the three-match ODI series [...]
Roy-Tho in September pending ministry’s endorsements
The country’s oldest big match, ‘The Royal-Thomian’, is in the final stage of needing the nod from the Education and the Health Ministries for the elite encounter to be played at Sooriyawewa, Hambantota, on September 9, 10 and 11, behind closed gates. A highly placed source from the Thomian camp revealed to the Sunday Times [...]
Nelka, living her father’s dream
Merely two decades after her father put a pair of boxing gloves to her hands for the first time, Nelka Shiromala will go down in history as the first female technical official ever, to represent Sri Lanka at an Olympics. The 45-year-old mother of a young daughter, today realises her father’s dream, yet with a [...]
Paddling for an Asian gold
The Amateur Rowing Association of Sri Lanka (ARASL) is of the strong belief that Sri Lanka can win a definite gold medal at the next year’s Asian Games to be held in China in September. Sri Lanka has never won a gold in rowing at Asian Games apart from its best performance to win a [...]
Selection Trials for World Junior on July 27
Athletes who have already qualified for the World Junior Athletics Championships, emerging star Medhani Jayamanne, Tharushi Karunaratne, Shanika Lakshani and Isuru Kaushalya will be in action at the World Junior Selection Trial to be held on July 27 at the Sugathadasa Stadium. Medhani Jayamanne of Lumbini College is the latest to qualify, as she reached [...]
From self-doubt to self-belief
Sprinter Medhaani Jayamanne’s year-or-two stay in the sport has been a part-and-parcel of within and beyond the control odds. But it is the uncontrollable that has taken the toll and outweighs the good and the great. Be it born only with one kidney or her parents not amongst the living, not even a lot of [...]
Dinesh Priyantha: War hero to a brave-hearted Paralympian
Living with special needs is no mean task but for the soldiers having battled the near-four-decade civil war, it was an undesired destiny. A battle field, where it was a carnage of the countless many with mass numbers of life-and-limbs lost. To ensure the wounded warriors had a life to live, a group of inspirational [...]
Legacy of tennis development
In the 1850s, coffee planters in Kandy district made tennis courts. Their Kandy Garden Club still exists displaying the year of its inception at the pavilion entrance. Our tennis development began there. British sporting legacy in our island began with cricket played on the Galle Face Green in 1830s. By the time our independence, there [...]
One size does not fit all
Mario Villavarayen, former Sri Lanka and Bangladesh national team’s strength and conditioning coach, calls for a formation a ‘national fitness policy’ as he believes the theory of ‘one size does not fit all’. “During my stint as Strength and Conditioning coach, we had a bunch of Sri Lankan players who were between the age of [...]
At the venue of the first modern Olympics Games…
The Olympic spirit is once again in the air. Games of the XXXII Olympiad is opening in Tokyo on 23rd July 2021. The Panathenaic Stadium (also known as Kallimarmaro) in Athens Greece, was the venue of the first modern Olympic Games. I was a visitor to this historic place a few years ago and the [...]
Elmo Rodrigopulle – evergreen Sports Journalist
He was a natural record breaker in all facets of his 55-year sporting and journalistic career; still at the crease and batting until two Sundays ago when his column appeared with a prescient and forthright epitaph to the potential demise of Sri Lanka cricket. To drive home the point, he asked that the team wear [...]
The Reward and the Racket that is Badminton
Our attention is drawn to the article titled, The Reward & the Racket that is Badminton. We have no adverse view of the article itself, but have to clarify certain matters that have been carried in the story. Let us attempt for the benefit of your readers and badminton enthusiasts, deal with some of the [...]