Wayamba confident ahead of Champions League

Siddarth Ravindran

August 25, 2010

Comments: 47 | Text size: A | A

	Jeevantha Kulatunga's opening combination with Mahela Jayawardene was instrumental in Wayamba winning their domestic T20 tournament. © Cricinfo Ltd Enlarge
Related Links News : Guyana aim for Champions League glory Players/Officials: Mahela Jayawardene | Jeevantha Kulatunga Series/Tournaments: Champions League Twenty20 Teams: Sri Lanka

Wayamba, the Sri Lankan domestic Twenty20 champions, are one of the low-profile teams heading for the Champions League, but could surprise some of their more famous competitors with a squad containing 11 players who have international caps. They exited in the first round of the Champions League last year but the biggest name in their line-up, Mahela Jayawardene, said that experience will help Wayamba put up a better show in South Africa next month.

"Last year was a bit of an eye-opener for us, participating in that kind of an event," Jayawardene said at a press conference where the team's new shirt was unveiled. "We had quite a few players who hadn't played against international teams. It was a great opportunity for them. We realise where we went wrong; most of our guys now have much more experience playing T20 cricket, playing domestically as well."

Wayamba played both their matches in 2009 on a difficult Feroz Shah Kotla pitch, losing to the Delhi Daredevils and beating one of the favourites, Victoria, before bowing out on net run-rate. Their captain, 29-year-old Jehan Mubarak, was also confident the lessons learnt in India last year, and Wayamba's thorough preparation for this campaign, will yield results.

"We are much more prepared than we were last year, we have had the experience of playing in a previous Champions League," Mubarak said. "Our preparation has been quite extensive this year; we have been practising for at least three months. We have the talent and experience among us to deliver the goods."

In the domestic competition, Wayamba steamrolled their way to the title, winning every game, most of them by big margins. Asked about his team's strengths, he mentioned the opening combination of Jayawardene and 36-year-old Jeevantha Kulatunga, who was Player of the Tournament. "We won most of our games quite easily, lot of that due to Mahela and Jeevantha who gave us brilliant opening stands right throughout the tournament," Mubarak said. "But apart from that there's the bowling and the fielding, the combined team effort and the unity with which we played."

Another of Wayamba's strengths is their spin department, spearheaded by left-arm spinner Rangana Herath and Ajantha Mendis, who could fluster the many batsmen in the Champions League who have never faced him. "It is very tempting [to play both spinners], depends in addition to the conditions on the opposition as well, how well they play spin," Mubarak said. "It is early summer in South Africa, pitches might be on the slow side, might take a bit of turn."

The team have a couple of warm-up matches, against Royal Challengers Bangalore and local side Titans, who did not qualify for the tournament, to get used to the South African conditions. Jayawardene said holding the Champions League in different countries will help increase the number of cricket fans around the world. "Taking the Champions League across makes sense, you create a new audience," he said. "We saw the second IPL, when we played in South Africa, the fan base there surprised everyone, taking it across the cricket playing countries would create a different brand itself and a new fan following as well."

Wayamba's first game is against South Africa's Warriors on September 11. The other teams in their group are IPL champions Chennai Super Kings, Big Bash winners Victoria and New Zealand's Central Districts.

Siddarth Ravindran is a sub-editor at Cricinfo

Sublime Jayawardene takes Sri Lanka to 195

20 overs Sri Lanka 195 for 3 (Jayawardene 98*, Sangakkara 68) v West Indies
Live scorecard and ball-by-ball details

	Mahela Jayawardene scored freely all round the wicket to reach 98 against West Indies © Getty Images
Related Links Players/Officials: Mahela Jayawardene | Kumar Sangakkara Matches: West Indies v Sri Lanka at Bridgetown Series/Tournaments: ICC World Twenty20 Teams: Sri Lanka | West Indies

Sri Lanka profited from an amateurish fielding effort from a deflated West Indies to post 195 for 3 after winning the toss and opting to bat in the second match of the day at the Kensington Oval. The chief architect of the mammoth total was Mahela Jayawardene who, in a sublime display of risk-free strokeplay narrowly missed out on his second century of the tournament, eventually finishing unbeaten on 98. He was well supported by Kumar Sangakkara in a 166-run partnership for the second wicket, the highest of the tournament so far.

And that in itself is an indication of the ineptitude of the West Indian fielding and bowling effort, as at least five straightforward chances were missed. Jaywardene displayed silky touch and superb manipulation of the bowling to take full toll, and Sangakkara, while not quite in Jayawardene's league at the moment, matched him almost shot for shot.

It had seemed likely that, with the pitch offering bounce and carry, West Indies would adopt a similarly aggressive bang-it-in approach as Australia had earlier in the day, and indeed Kemar Roach seemed eager to exploit the pace-friendly conditions as he hit the deck hard in his opening over to trouble both openers.

Jerome Taylor, on his return to international cricket after a six-month lay-off, was far more willing to pitch the ball up, and paid the price for it initially as Sanath Jayasuriya, batting up the order in place of the wretchedly out-of-form Tillekaratne Dilshan, clipped Taylor's first ball firmly back over his head.

In an eventful over, the second was then slapped low but straight to Kieron Pollard at backward point. It was a regulation chance for a fielder in that position, but Pollard couldn't hold on to it, and the lapse set the tone for West Indies' performance in the field for the rest of the afternoon.

Roach, who bowled consistently above 90mph in his opening over, deceived Jayasuriya with a slightly slower bouncer to have the veteran caught at short fine leg, but Taylor suffered another lapse from his fielders in his second over, as the normally-reliable Chris Gayle put Sangakkara down at slip before he had scored. Jayawardene lifted the very next ball handsomely over wide long on for six. With that, the moment had passed and the rest of the match was entirely Sri Lanka's.

Both Sangakkara and Jayawardene flashed airily at the odd delivery, but were level-headed enough to keep their composure and capitalise on the bad balls that came, predictably, at least once an over. After an erratic Dwayne Bravo had been carted for 22 in a two-over spell, Darren Sammy, whom West Indies have looked to to keep things orderly in their middle overs in recent times, was brought on but today his first over was dispatched for 10, with Jayawardene favouring the area behind point on the off side.

As the partnership gained momentum, West Indies seemed almost resigned to the fact that a large total was in the offing, and a missed caught-and-bowled chance from Pollard's first ball of the match barely registered. Jayawardene passed fifty with a paddle-pull over the 'keeper, and though he swished airily at the odd delivery, more often than not he was able to hit cleanly through the ball and got good connections on most of his shots.

As West Indies' fielding became ever more ragged, a fourth chance was missed as Benn found bounce and turn to elicit a rare mistake from Jayawardene, who was tempted out of his crease by a flighted delivery. But Fletcher fumbled the take, allowing Jayawardene to scramble back. Three balls later, things became even more farcical as Jayawardene top-edged Benn almost straight up in the air, and Fletcher and Wavell Hinds, the two closest fielders, both stood back and watched the ball plummet down, each expecting the other to go for it.

Sangakkara eventually holed out to long off for 68, but it looked as though Jayawardene would be able to reach his second hundred of the tournament when he took 10 runs from Bravo's final two balls to reach 97 with six balls still to be bowled. He was stranded at the wrong end in the final over, unable to reach the landmark, but through him Sri Lanka were able to post a massive total. Chasing it down will be a mountainous task for West Indies, and one feels that only if Chris Gayle is at his explosive best will they be able to get close.

Cricket is a game of Passion

The game of cricket has a known history spanning from the 16th century
to the present day, with international matches played since 1844 and
the Test cricket matches since 1877. During this time, the game
developed from its origins in England into a game, which is now played
all over the world passionately and is more popular in the
Sub-Continent Nations such as, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and
Bangladesh.

In these four Nations, cricket has emerged as the most popular form of
sports. The game has its origin in the Sub- Continent Nations from18th
centuries and since then it has rooted itself on various grounds of
World. In this span of time the above three nation has faced several
rise and falls. As per Bangladesh is concerned, the origin of cricket
is seen from the 19th century. The nation also came with full-fledged
enthusiasm with well-known players. It is after that the four
Sub-Continent Nation faced tremendous victory and defeat.

With the commencing of Cricket World Cup in 1975, the popularity of
cricket reached on its peak. The game retained more zeal and passion.
However, for Sub-Continent Nation World Cup it becomes like an
obsession and even today the game is still holding the same passion
and fever.

When we move towards their previous history, we find that the top
three Sub-Continent Nation i.e. India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka had a
very brilliant past, holding World Cup once. India lifted the Cup in
the year 1983, under the captaincy of Kapil Dev,Pakistan lifted the
Cup in 1992, captained by Imran Khan. In 1996, Sri Lanka won the World
Cup match, under the captaincy of Arjuna Ranatunga. As per Bangladesh
is concerned, the popularity of cricket is found the same but it's
their bad luck, which never pulled them to win the Cup. Though, the
team is trying hard to get that!

2007 is the year for the ninth edition of the World Cup Cricket
Tournament, and the four Nations are holding its breath. The flow, the
passion is still the same but only the players and the captaincy and
getup has changed. The players are coming with their new outfits, with
new look carried with rocking fervor and stunning passion. In this
tournament India is being captained by Rahul Dravid, Sri Lanka is
being captained by Mahela Jayawardene, Pakistan is being captained by
Inzamam-ul-Haq and Bangladesh is being captained by Habibul Bashar.

The hopes for these four Nations are dilemmatic, as their previous
performance, was not that much appealing. When we cast our view
towards India and Sri lanka, we found that Sri Lanka was defeated by
India in the recently concluded home series. As per Pakistan is
concerned, they are moving from a very bad phase, their players are
injured and the team is surrounded by many controversies. And, there
is no word to explain about Bangladesh. The prospect of World Cup is
under dilemma tic situation but the passion and popularity is still the
same among these four Sub-Continent Nations.

After words 2007 is not so good for Indian Team India as lots of
things are changing after the dramatically out of the worldcup. But as
year was emerging towards the end. New sensation, Passion and whole new
Era of cricket begin for the world As well as for India. The new Era
called T20 Cricket and what a start for it as it start the world cup
of it and India's winning.

So stay tune for the next artical in which i will try to recreate that
era with the same passion again in which T20 World Cup and IPL will
covered.

Written By
RUPESH KHOSAL