Friday, May 17, 2002 It was only this week that England's greatest living cricketer explained how he expected Sri Lanka and India to be thrashed out of sight. All this did was merely confirm the impression that Sky's commentators trot around the globe cloaked in an impenetrable force-field of English jingoism. It also gave a further clue as to why Ian Botham was better at leadership by inspiration than through piercing insight.

A monkey could have told Guy the Gorilla that England would do well to beat these silky Sri Lankans. A strategy revolving around the generosity of the gods of cloud, chill, and lateral movement was always hazardous. England caught Pakistan cold last year but the glorious start to this international season has rewarded Sri Lanka's patient wait for a full Test series at the home of cricket. Global warming will ensure that our memories of an English May have no bearing on the kind of weather to expect in future.

In truth, Sri Lanka have been lions in Asia and lionised outside recently, but there is the important matter of experience to consider. Teams have to learn to be effective away from familiar surroundings, and it does not help if your fellows refuse to take you on. Hence the one clear advantage of ICC's Test Championship: it is not possible for emerging powers to be excluded. Which means that this could well be a highly significant series in the history of Sri Lanka, establishing them as a power on all shores. More so because it is the early half of an English summer, traditionally a funeral pyre for Asian talents. And what could be better for Sri Lanka's confidence than winning the series without Muttiah Muralitharan? You sense the gravity of the moment.

It is clearly too early to predict such glories. But what is apparent is that, to the relief of those who love watching players of grace and timing, Mahela Jayawardene has confirmed that his nimble footwork and exquisite strokeplay are unconstrained by geography. In our world of blanket television coverage and internet broadcasting it is easy to forget the pleasures of watching live cricket, and one of the foremost is marvelling at the effortless wristwork of a Mark Waugh or a David Gower. As long as Jayawardene continues purring so elegantly away from Asia as he did in the first innings at Lord's, he will be a known as an equal genius by the time this decade is done.

As for the first half of this English summer, it was supposed to be Murali who beamed sunshine out of the gloom. Instead, it is the sunshine that has delivered Mahela.

Kamran Abbasi, born in Lahore, brought up in Rotherham, is assistant editor of the British Medical Journal. More Kamran Abbasi
Don't boycott Pakistan

Yesterday's man, tomorrow's hero

© Wisden CricInfo Ltd