Date-stamped : 23 Jan96 - 02:16
Tuesday 23, January 1996

Lankans victors in defeat

The curtain came down on  the  Benson  and  Hedges  World  Series
Cricket  finals  with  the  Australians carrying away the trophy,
which trophy could well have adorned the  shelves  of the   local
Cricket  Board  had  that all important "luck" looked benignly on
our cricketers.

This is the final series for the Benson and  Hedges  trophy  with
new sponsors expected to bat next year.

After Thursday`s nail biter where Sri Lanka was robbed of  victo-
ry,  it  was  just  one of those things that guys failed in their
gallant attempt to get to the post in a overs curtailed game  be-
cause of a storm in Sydney, in the second game.

When the umpire boobed with three decisions  in  the  first  game
against  Sri  Lanka which ultimately cost them the game, the con-
sensus was that the authorities would not stand that umpire,  be-
cause the sins he committed against umpiring to say the least was
sacrilegious.

Yet the authorities continued to stand him in the crucial game as
if  he  were god`s gift to the job. It is this kind of refusal to
see, that leads to bad feeling between the players, and which was
on show.

And one cannot but have sympathy for the losers because the  game
was  not  won  or lost on merit and the ability of the players on
the filed, but by those gentlemen expected to do a job sacred  to
the game.

This is bad for the game and its future and it is time  that  the
ICC which has come in for fire in recent times over its inability
to act, to do things to stop the deterioration of the game.

The Australians led by Mark Taylor, in their own mind  will  cer-
tainly   not   be  happy with the manner in which they won.  They
may have watched the TV replays and read  the  media  and  surely
would have squirmed of the way victory was achieved.

The Aussies are a brilliant team. They do not need  nor  do  they
solicit  help  and  a  kick  start to prove their brilliance. The
sooner this is understood the better.

As for the Lankans, although  losing  they  were  not  disgraced.
They can  hold  their  heads high and they can well console them-
selves believing that they were the victors in defeat.

With so much of ill feeling between the two teams - Australia and
Sri  Lanka  over the trauma that the Lankans had to suffer, which
are too numerous to mention and  with  the  Salim  Malik  bribery
allegation  also falling flat, now comes the question whether the
Aussies will want to tour these two countries for the  World  Cup
games.

From the looks of it and the threats  received  which  have  been
taken  seriously  by  the  Aussies,  it is going to take a lot of
coaxing and convincing for the cricketers to tour.

Some of the Aussies have been served with death threats. Today we
are   living   in   a   world  of  sick  minds  and  sick  heads.
Anonymous letter writers and poison pen writers are today a  dime
a   dozen.  That is a part of the unbalanced society that we live
in.

As for security, the Sri Lankans will provide it aplenty  as  was
promised  by the irrepressible and effervescent Minister of Youth
Affairs, Sports and Rural Development S. B. Dissanayake.

If the Aussies are scared to come, then the Zimbabweans too  must
feel the same when one considers that their spectators became un-
ruly after their one-day victory in Harare which led to one spec-
tator launching an assault on Aravinda de Silva.

Some of the spectators also bared their backs to the  Sri  Lankan
spectators.

We are sure the Aussies and  the  Zimbabwewans  will  be  finally
here.

Our spectators and cricketers will be an example to all.

Source :: Lake House/Lanka Internet Services

<END> Contributed by Ravi (sista@*.latech.edu)