very well done! we are proud of you

sri lankan cricket team, which did a great job in proudly flying the sri lankan flag on the way to the final, did the same in the final even though they lost. they showed great character in never giving up to last.

great work and thanks.

congratulations to australia! gilchrist in particular. he made the difference and we did not have any answer, though we tried our best.

we will have to wait four more years to taste kangaroos meat it seems. grrr... here i was waiting to take big bite of that :-)

as for the rain delay, bad light, etc.
first , i think 38 overs was the wrong length after the delayed start.
it is clear that even without the second brief rain interruption, or any cloud cover, 38x2 overs could not have been bowled before darkness fell. they should have reduced the no of overs further from the start or carried the match to reserve day if they wanted a longer game.

secondly, it was certainly ridiculous to start after the second interruption without formally reducing the overs and setting ( and informing all concerned ) the new target .

that second interruption and the confusion was partly responsible for our loss imo.

thirdly it was wrong of australians to celebrate before the match was formally over. i am not quite sure but according to a friend of mine umpires cannot stop a match bc of bad light.( if anyone know better pl correct me) as such even though they made a mess of it, umpires were at least following the law.

all that left a bad taste

but it was great match as far as cricket is concerned and australia won it fair and square.

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ps
terrorist pussies were up to their usual tricks tonight. typical behavior. what more can you expect? does anyone really think talking peace and appeasement of such people will work? esp. when we saw tonight the results of that part appeasement, the cfa? they will carry out attacks even when they are reduced to handful. a sustainable peace that respects the principles of democracy, justice, human rights, and freedom, and ltte as it is now, are simply not compatible. as such there is only one way to go.
anyway will write more about this later

saturday night here and there

sweat dust and pluck
scent of blood ... blue david roars
warm night rumbles

before i get too 'civilized' or something for my own good;

ඇර ලංකා, ඇරෝ !
කැංගරැ මස්, කනෝ !

:-)

෴

prediction:

mcgrath will get the man of tournament ... as a consolation.

we won!

sri lanka is through to the finals of world cup. :-) congratulations to mahela jayawardene and cricket team!

they and selectors deserve commendation for taking a brave decision in sticking to tharanga as well, even though most people, with some reason, thought he should be dropped. hopefully their other talked about (and well defended) decision will also pay off in the end.

hope south africans will give a better fight to the australians than new zealand was able to manage against our team today, but australians should be the team to beat in final

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ps
maybe the jobless fellow who has been writing several hate posts a day in ranjitfernandosucks blog will press the mute button on tv remote when ranjith fernando comes on and create a blog called umpiressuck. (today's umpires probably are of the type amnesty was so zealously calling for) unless of course he (like some others i can think of) prefers to criticize mere presentation and words (commentary that does not affect the match in this case) over actual content and actions (such as decisions of umpires that affect the cricket).

marvan or tharanga? let mahela and co. decide

almost everybody online or offline is discussing whether sri lankan cricket team should substitute marvan atapattu for upul tharanga for the upcoming semi final and hopefully final. this is as it should be. such discussions and criticisms add to the enjoyment of the sport. but has it gone too far?

i am not going to repeat the arguments here, you may find some of the arguments (generally in favor of substitution) in the comments section of some of my earlier posts (here for instance) as well as in numerous other posts in the blogosphere, and elsewhere in media. in fact you may find them hard to miss even if you are not interested in cricket. (fyi my opinion is that we may have tried out marvan in last two matches but now it is too late)

as i said, all this is good and inevitable and should continue. however, what i don't like is the way some people imo are trying to influence the decision through putting pressure on the team management and selectors. some of the one sided coverage of the issue in certain sunday newspapers yesterday was especially bad. they went as far as to imply some sort of a conspiracy (by whom and why was left obscure, as is the case with such absurdities) to keep marvan out.

i am sure that tom moody, mahela, and others, who have the power to make the decision are well aware of the problem raised by tharanga not scoring runs. they should be allowed to take the best decision free of interference, in the interest of our team using all their greater knowledge. it is after all they who would be held responsible in the end. a cricket team is not a democratic political institution. nor should it be. pressure, criticism, moral value judgments ('fairness', 'injustice', 'disrespect to former captain' etc.) etc. of all sorts of commentators here and there should not enter it, either in complying with those things or in irritated reaction to them. such interference or attempted interference, imo are a greater danger to our chances of winning the world cup, than selection of either marvan or tharanga.

in conclusion everyone is free to debate the decision but no one should be allowed to interfere with it. let mahela and co. decide and bear responsibility.

let us wish our team the wisdom and strength to make the best decision to win the semi final.

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hope sarkozy will win

first round of french presidential election will be held today. it will definitely go for a second round run-off between the two leading contenders.

i hope (as i have been doing since 2005) nicolas sarkozy will win eventually, after coming first today. he is certainly not a libertarian. he is not even a politician in the mold of american republican or british thatcherite conservative type, which is the next best thing, but he is the best on offer in this french election. of the others, ségolène royal is a socialist made palatable by a pretty face, françois bayrou is basically an empty everything for everyone, and jean-marie le pen is too right wing. besides, sarkozy is not chirac that disastrous socialist masquerading as a center right gaullist.

france deserves a better fate and prospects than its present fate and prospects. it has given so much to the world and is one of those few countries one can fall in love with, even without being born or grown up there. hopefully a sarkozy win will indicate that french are finally willing to get their act together and willing to stop their country's stagnation and slow relative decline.

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read kumar on selection decision

people have been making all sorts of comments online and offline about the sri lanka's resting of strike bowlers for our super8s match against australia. ( i too wrote a blog post).

now kumar sangakara has written an excellent article entitled "too much has been made of our selection" to cricinfo explaining the decision and questioning (quite pointedly in case of ian chappell et al.) some of the criticisms. below are some extracts but please read the complete article.

"Much of the analysis has been ill-informed, offered without great thought or deep understanding of this Sri Lanka team. Consequently, many of the critics have been wide of the mark in their conclusions.
...
I question whether double standards are being applied here by some pundits. ... Will some of the television "experts" now calling for ICC intervention do the same when Ricky Ponting or Stephen Fleming or Graeme Smith next rests a strike bowler? I doubt it.
...
Some of the critics appear to think that the Australia game was our most important game in the tournament. ... The simple fact was it was the least important game of our World Cup. Even the Bermuda game was more important.
...
We are here to win the World Cup. Everything we do is focused on that goal. That was our focus before the tournament, and that is our ultimate focus right now. We don't care about morale-boosting victories
...
We rested Muralitharan, Chaminda Vaas and Lasith Malinga in the best interests of the individuals and the team. ... We are now confident that they will be in the best possible physical shape they could be for the semi-finals. It was a team decision and a decision we're entirely comfortable with.
...
Vaas and Murali may have played many games against Australia during their long careers, but Sri Lanka have not played Australia in the last 14 months - a long time in international cricket - and only six members of Australia's current team played in that match in Brisbane. Giving Australia's batsmen a free look-in was not to our advantage if we meet again.
...
The argument against resting key players centres on the need to keep up so-called winning momentum. When self-belief is fragile momentum often gets one through. However, our confidence is high
...
All the players understood our tactics and we went into that game looking for a win. ... Unfortunately, despite winning a useful toss, our batting let us down and we were punished for mistakes at the start and end of our innings.
...
I am sure the debate will rumble on. We, though, are concentrating on the next challenge against New Zealand, a tough opponent for a semi-final. ... The side that turns up and believes in itself most will win. ... We are not making any assumptions about the conditions. We have a team that can perform in a variety of conditions and the suggestion that we'd prefer a slower surface like St Lucia is wide of the mark.
..."

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what was mahela jayawardene thinking?

i am asking that question literally. what were his and sri lankan team management's reasons for dropping muttiah muralitharan and chaminda vaas from the the match against australia?

i must confess that first time i heard this just before the match, was the first time that i doubted the sri lankan team's capacity to win the cricket world cup this year. cricket is a game of character and being negative is not the way to go. at first glance this seemed to be a very negative move on the part of our team.

but is it a negative move? let us go through several possible reasons.
(btw several bloggers have already written about this while the match was going on; a week in sri lanka, scourge!)

fixing the semi finals?
one of the possible reasons, which comes to mind initially, is that sri lanka was trying to manage where and against who it plays the semi finals. but that explanation cannot be correct. final placement of teams in the super eights points table, which will determine the semi final ties, will depend on several things; actual results of several matches ( sl vs aus, aus vs nz, sl vs ireland, and even sa vs eng, etc. ) and the margins of victory (thus net run rate of teams) in those matches. it is absurd to think that all that can be managed (or sl tried to) through one match. so this cannot be the explanation.

injury free rest
another explanation is that resting vaas and murali and preventing any injuries to them (thus preserving them 'intact' for semis and finals) is in the best interests of sri lankan team. that is part of the 'official' explanation. unfortunately injuries are not confined to actual matches, as lasith malinga's injury showed. sri lankan management will look really foolish if vaas or murali were to incur one (which god forbid!) in the next few days. however this was done before in larger scale when same bowlers were not included in the indian tour. but a tour and a match are two different things. on the whole if this was the correct explanation, it is a bit negative. (however mahela and co. are the ones best placed to know what is best for the team.)

trying out
other part of 'official' explanation is more positive in intent. sri lankans wanted to try out the malinga bandara and nuwan kulasekera. while some may question the wisdom of trying them out against one of the most devastating batting lineups, imo that very fact makes it a very positive move. (in any case this is the first opportunity sri lanka got to experiment) only it did not come off. our batsmen did not put enough runs on the board for those bowlers to bowl at. in addition both nuwan kulasekara and malinga bandara would have been confident if murali and/or vaas were at the other end or were available to replace them, instead of farveez maharoof or dilhara fernando during the match. anyway viewed from this angle this move was a positive one, but sri lankans did not go about it in the correct way.

mind games
another explanation is that sri lankans were trying to play mind games with australians; holding back the main strike bowlers (vaas, murali and malinga) so that they can be unleashed on unaccustomed australians in the semi or final, and while trying to fluster them with lesser bowlers in this match. problem with mind games is that, as the wily detective in novel crime and punishment says, 'they can cut both ways'; australians weren't flustered, their bowlers got the better of most of our batsmen, andrew symonds who wanted some time on the middle got some, it looked like we were afraid to expose our best bowlers to their batsmen while they wanted to expose their best players to all comers (they certainly did not rest anyone, they would have played shane watson if he was fit). most of all they beat us comprehensively in a game that was supposed to be (including in their own assessment) very close. all that would not do them any harm, with regard to morale and momentum. btw they are not all that unfamiliar with vaas and murali in any case.

we on the other hand were trashed. saying that only nine of the beaten side will face them again won't take away that fact. a close defeat with out best bowlers bowling would have been much better psychologically. a similar trashing with out best bowlers bowling would have been worse, but if we want to win the world cup we should have the confidence in our own ability to win. mind games cut both ways.

not that negative
in conclusion this move by the sri lankan team management was not all that negative as it first appears ( and as some biased international commentators may try to make it out - such commentary is another perhaps not significant negative consequence). however we did not do the right things to benefit from its positive aspects.

sri lankans should have done what mahela was saying they were doing all along; face each match one at a time instead of thinking too much ahead. unfortunately he did not do that yesterday. results are in australians' favor. pity.

let us hope that our sri lankan team has enough moral strength to take the few positives and lessons (batting of chamara silva, mahela, and maharoof, russel arnold's wickets, how we can handle australian attack shaun tait in particular, australian plans against our batsmen, etc) and forget the negatives. and hopefully go on to defeat the australians in the semi or final.

෴

ps
quite apart from its effect on cricket and cricketers on the field, dropping of our best bowlers was a let down to all the spectators everywhere (not to mention sponsors). everybody must remember that in the end it is the spectators that make this tournament important. too much of this will put people off.

sri lanka through to the semi finals!

with south africa's defeat last night or rather this morning, sri lanka's position in the semi finals is assured. we will play in semis even if we lose to both australia and ireland in the remaining matches. this will be the third time sri lanka plays in the semi finals of a cricket world cup. (others being 1996 and 2003). well done!

team	points	played	wins	ties	defeats	nrr
australia	10	5	5	0	0	+2.30
new zealand	10	6	5	0	1	+1.07
sri lanka	8	5	4	0	1	+1.35
south africa	6	6	3	0	3	-0.21
england	4	5	2	0	3	+0.08
west indies	2	5	1	0	4	-1.21
bangladesh	2	5	1	0	4	-1.43
ireland	0	5	0	0	5	-0.97

after last match, super eight points table has basically split into two. remaining matches between already qualified australia, new zealand, and sri lanka, will determine who plays whom where in the semi finals.

remaining matches
15th - ireland vs bangladesh
16th - australia vs sri lanka
17th - south africa vs england
18th - sri lanka vs ireland
19th - west indies vs bangladesh
20th - australia vs new zealand
21st - west indies vs england

on the other hand south africa, england, west indies, and even bangladesh, will vie with each other to determine who will be the fourth team in semis. england vs south africa match on tuesday the 17th will be the crucial one. possible combinations in case of south african defeat in that match can be quite complicated. if they win they are through and others will be out. it is a pity that we failed to kick the sa out early on.

sri lanka should aim to come out top of the table. this would allow us to avoid australia in the semis (not because we want to avoid them, but because sri lanka vs australia final will be delicious). to do that sri lanka probably will have to win both of their matches with sizable margins so that it ends up with 12 points and a higher net run rate than either new zealand or australia (one of whom will also end up with 12 points in case we win both our matches). sri lanka can also avoid australia, if australia defeats both new zealand and sri lanka in their two remaining super 8 matches and we defeat ireland. but why count on our defeats.

it is a pity that in grenada the toss seems to play such a big part in who will win. hopefully mahela will be lucky on monday.

෴

ps
btw if we beat australia on monday it will end the australia's 25 match long unbeaten world cup run extending from 1999. last match they were beaten in a world cup was on may 23rd 1999, (in the first round of 1999 wc by pakistan).

beautiful country, open future

(click on pic to enlarge )

a prosperous new year to all!

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terrorists want a sports boycott, guess what peaceniks want?

yesterday (10th) ltte terrorists announced that they back the amnesty internationals disgusting campaign. they want a sports boycott in addition. local peaceniks always take their cue from pussy spin office. do this experiment : take any day, i mean any day, and compare the overt terrorist propaganda with what the peaceniks say, you will see they are the same. anyway let us see whether peaceniks will come out in support of the sports boycott.

initially local peaceniks, whose propagation of absurd 'white van conspiracy theories' dreamed up by the ltte spin office, form the basis of ai campaign, ran for cover when faced with the public fury against the campaign, disclaiming responsibility. some fell over themselves in an effort to distance themselves from it, most notably the joker from free media movement.

their confusion was no doubt due to the ltte's initial lack of leadership on the issue (pussies responsible for spin were probably busy spinning the results of their latest handiwork; the bus bombs targeting civilians). peaceniks have a history of going silent when ltte decides to stay silent on an issue. moment the tigers decide on the line to take, peaceniks follow suit faithfully. this happened with regard to mavil aru incident for instance, when peaceniks stayed silent during the whole time when the water was held hostage ignoring people's suffering, but started protesting when the military tried to force the pussies out in order to free the water.

so expect the peaceniks to crawl out of their hiding places to write articles or give sound bites, defending and justifying ai's campaign and called for the sports boycott against sri lanka, now that they have got the 'all clear'. expect peacenik bloggers to write posts with the same purpose.

they are of course free to do that, since in spite of their claims to the contrary sri lanka is a democracy with freedom of expression. in fact it is the peaceniks that actually practice censorship.

however they and their actions should be exposed for what they are; people who propagate (and have consistently propagated in the past) ltte's position in the same way ltte's 'official ' propaganda do.

෴

after yesterday's ltte's announcement backing the amnesty international's disgusting campaign, at least three blog posts have appeared supporting it. while i dealt earlier with why sri lankans should condemn the ai's tactics, today i thought it would be useful set out the arguments i used to counter peaceniks trying to defend it. as such i give below one of my comments submitted to the blog maintained by the so called 'galle blogger', a peacenik. galle blogger was one of the people who published after the ltte announcement. he in fact came out with two posts one yesterday evening or one this morning. this is my comment on the second post (still not published there, as comment moderation is on, it is up to him to decide whether to publish or not. i will link to the comment when it is published). i also posted a similar comment in reply to the other post published yesterday as well.

comment :
(some formating was changed)

your posts published on the day ltte backed this campaign, continue to miss what is wrong about this ai campaign.
it is disgusting bc it targets sri lankan team. as i said in a comment to your previous post it is naive to think this campaign is not against the team, when it is conducted in a cricket world cup in the other side of the world, where just about the only sri lankans are the team. they are after all not asking sri lankans (the ppl who can really put pressure on government) to sign cricket balls here, they are asking foreigners.
it applies double standard bc it singles out sri lankan team, ai has campaigns against england etc. all the more reason to include them i would have thought. so why leave them out?
it is futile bc it will only alienate the sri lankan public against ai. that is not the way to influence policy in a democracy
it is hypocritical bc it is in fact a fund raising publicity stunt .( which explains why they adopted such futile as to supposed aims, and double standard laid, tactics. ) .

you are of course free to support ai after all that, this being a free country. :-)

if you or ai or anyone is really concerned about human rights here they would give support (moral or otherwise) to the government's crack down on convicted human right violators like the ltte terrorists and their leader the convicted mass murderer prabahakaran. one of the reasons why this has gone on for so long, is precisely bc such ppl have been allowed be behave with impunity. as i asked you before, do you agree? pl do give a clear answer.

you also seem to believe the unsubstantiated 'white van conspiracy theory’ type allegations against security forces without evidence. as i asked before, please do provide such evidence to public scrutiny if you have them. mere personal allegations and anecdotes do not count. nor does ai link you provide (updated last in 2002) give any such evidence it merely restates similar allegations or give details of cases where right violators were prosecuted and says such things are not 'systemic'. so far there is no evidence for involvement of security forces (not one or two rogue individuals) in human rights violations. do you think it is right to issue blanket accusations without such evidence against the forces? as before do give a clear answer

if nothing has resulted from all these campaigns of peaceniks and others, ask yourself why? if i fail, i take responsibility for my failure. most ppl in real world do. may be its time peaceniks took some responsibility instead of blaming others.
do they really have the evidence needed to convince the sri lankan public? will the data and cues supplied by the ltte spin office as evidence really believable to independent minded ppl as opposed to naive and biased? are the peaceniks canvassing the sri lankan public using evidence, to convince them to put pressure on government as is proper in a democracy? or are they living off foreign donors while spreading ltte propaganda?

in my experience peaceniks have followed the ltte spin office directives to the letter and have helped spread their ideology and their propaganda without questioning their credibility. faced with the consequence of such all too clear pro terrorist bias, (if the bias is not clear there are lots of ppl who will point that out, as happens in country like sri lanka with freedom of expression) they have been unable to canvas (let alone convince) the public support, which is essential for a sustainable policy change in a democracy. as a result some of the peaceniks opinions and actions have a distinctly anti democratic and anti freedom of expression direction.

if you think this ai campaign is not a just another step (though esp nauseating one) in the same wrong direction that has increasingly alienated them from sri lankan public, do support it. you may also start supporting the sport boycott called for by the terrorists. :-)

bangladesh trash south africa and the points table

i was going to write a political post last night, about how some peaceniks, being spineless cowards, are falling over themselves in an effort to distance themselves from the amnesty international's disgusting publicity stunt aimed at sri lankan cricket team after contributing most of the false information and conspiracy theories that form its basis. fortunately cricket intervened and drew me way from such an unpleasant subject (at least until end of easter) and i ended up watching the match till early hours of today.

bangladesh ranked nine in the world trashed ( i mean trashed) south africa ranked number one ( or was until this defeat ). ashraful's excellent batting supported by others and good spin bowling helped by the conditions contributed.

the bangladeshi win threw the cricket world cup wide open. now after 10 super 8 matches ( in fact 14 if we count as we should, the group stage matches played against fellow qualifiers) or half way through the 28 match long super 8 stage, seven of the eight teams are still in contention for the four semi final berths. at the beginning of last week however things looked very different, with everyone saying that big four - australia , sri lanka, new zealand, and south africa - were assured of going through. it only took one match to show how wrong that was and that until a team gets at least five wins ( and 10 points ) it should not count on going through. four wins ( 8 points will give it a chance, but only just ). three wins (6 points) will not get them through.

it is quite unlikely that more than 2 teams ( if that ) will be tied up for the fourth semi final berth with 8 points, because likely candidates will be playing each other in the remaining matches. only way to get through is to win.

let us look at the standings at this half way point

team	points	played	wins	ties	defeats	nrr
australia	6	3	3	0	0	+2.01
sri lanka	6	4	3	0	1	+1.55
new zealand	6	3	3	0	0	+1.44
south africa	4	4	2	0	2	-0.63
england	2	3	1	0	2	+0.02
west indies	2	4	1	0	3	-1.18
bangladesh	2	4	1	0	3	-1.77
ireland	0	3	0	0	3	-0.93

australia needs to win two (or one for merely a chance) of the remaining matches against sri lanka, new zealand, england, and ireland. as far as normal probability goes they are through, though probability is no certainty. lets hope england gives them a jolt today

sri lanka has australia, new zealand, and ireland, matches remaining. they will have to win two to be sure ( at least one to have a chance). however unlike with most other teams it would take big losses to push our currently high nett run rate down significantly. so even if we win only one, we will probably get through ( we along with australians are likely to end up with a nrr of around +1 if the remaining matches are close or average wins or losses. other teams will probably end up below + 1) . but imo that is not the the way to win the world cup so we better have two wins at least.

new zealand has australia, south africa, sri lanka and ireland. they need to win two ( or one for 8 points ) they too should not have much trouble getting through ( injuries permitting) though their nett run rate though currently high ( based on the runs scored for and against and overs bowled for and against ) is much less assured than ours and has more likelihood of coming down below +1 even without big losses or wins. it is almost impossible (ireland has to win against one or the other for that to happen) that we will tie with new zealand at 8 points.

of the so called 'big four' south africa was the weakest placed in terms of points from the start, but sri lanka lost an opportunity to kick them out completely ( if we won that match they would be in a big hole now). anyway they still have to play new zealand, england, west indies. they will have to win all three to be sure (or two to have a chance). i personally would not mind them crashing out. imo they are the most boring cricket team in world cup and never deserved the number one rank ( i should write a post explaining why icc ranking system is weighted too much towards past performance and does not reflect the current form. the rating average is way too sticky). they are good at sticking to a set plan and crumbling under pressure. their captain is as unimaginative as can be. for instance he would never be able to try out anything like the sri lanka's new power play tactics.

south africa's weakness is england's (and west indies') gain. england has australia ( today), south africa, bangladesh , and west indies. they need to win four ( or at least three). their games against south africa and west indies will be crucial. i would not mind them going through in place of south africa

same goes for west indies , they however cannot get 10 points now. most they can get is 8 and for that they will have to win every one of the remaining matches against south africa, bangladesh, and england. win or get out, simple equation.

with yesterdays win bangladesh too have a slight chance.however they need to win all their remaining matches against england, ireland, and west indies to get 8 points. one can never be certain. if they do win all three there probably won't be a tie at 8 points and they will get through.

ireland will be the spoiler. any win for them will be fatal to the defeated side.

new power play tactics?

what a game! "too close for comfort... great cricket”. mahela jayawardene's words sums up the sri lanka vs england match from a sri lankan point of view. both english batsmen and sri lankan bowlers kept their nerves till the end to give everyone a great game of cricket. to use the usual but correct cliché, we were glued to the tv.

michael vaughan was right when he said his team can be proud of themselves. though i am glad we got them, i am not so sure whether mahela was right when he said we 'deserved' the two points. one point each would have been 'fair'. but we got them and like an inside edge that misses the stumps and runs away for four, it is the result that matters in the end.

england performed above their reputation, our batsmen below theirs. exception perhaps is jayawardene (it's great and one less worry for sri lanka that he is now back in the runs) but even he got out at the wrong time. there is no doubt that unlike in '96 this time our strength lies not in batting but in bowling. (imo we have the best bowling attack in the world cup).

game also showed what a real cricket loving crowd, untroubled by nauseating agendas of outsiders, can do to lift the game of both sides, even when crowd is biased towards one side. let us hope for more of the same in the rest of the tournament.

points table
this match again showed that only actual securing of at least 5 wins (or 10 points) will ensure a semi final berth. we only have 6 points after this match. we must get 4 more or two wins. we are almost certain of 2 points from ireland match, so we must win at least one of the matches against new zealand and australia, hopefully both. yes there is a chance we can go through even if we lose both, and end up with 8 points. our net run rate, now at +1.55, is so good that it will take big loses to bring it down below +1 before the ireland match, at which we can probably push it up again. to push it below zero before our final super 8 match, we have to lose by 300 runs cumulatively (or its equivalent in case we bat first or rain delay) in the other two. but frankly that is not the way we should go to semifinals, if we hope to win the world cup.

power play
to finally come to the supposed subject of this post, everyone must have noticed the new power play tactics used by mahela in the last 3 games. this is something new and imaginative.

before this the usual ploy was to use the power plays consecutively when the opposing team's scoring was at manageable levels. it took a hard trashing from opposing batsmen to get the captains to change power play order. if the run rate was under control and wickets have fallen it was never changed. in other words captains did their best to get them out of the way with least damage.

sri lanka is definitely not doing that. both west indies and england were below par at the end of 15 overs. any other captain would have used the third one right away in similar situation. but mahela delayed the third power play and used his secondary spinners (sanath, dilshan, and arnold). he then used the power play in the overs ranging in twenties or early thirties. power play was delayed in south african game as well. it was actually used in that match in overs 44-49, malinga got his 4 in 4 in a power play. but since it was a very low scoring game and scoring rate had to be controlled early on, it was, though unusual, predictable, as far as that game is concerned. not so with others. in west indies game some commentators said it was because of the threat of rain, but there was no rain and spinners continued after the 20th over. there was certainly no such reason for england game.

no. it is clear this was a deliberate tactic separate from particular circumstances of the game.

with what intent then?
as far as i can speculate, it may be an attempt to unbalance the opposing batsman's pacing of innings. batsmen in that situation would not know what to do. ( change gears and mentality, take risks and target the secondary spinners for boundaries, score singles, keep his wicket till reintroduction of power play, uncertainty about what is the reasonable score at end of 20 overs with no power play but with 'lesser' bowlers operating, etc. ) .

another reason may be to preserve the sri lankan bowling options as long as possible. since one of the aims of fielding side is to keep the run rate low, if batsmen do not go after secondary spinners, introduced in place of power play, in a major way, we have used our resources in the most efficient way possible.

if successful, when the power play is reintroduced, we will have our best bowlers with full complement of overs, low economy rates to the credit of secondary bowlers, and opposing batsmen having to change gears in a hurry in the middle of the innings. not bad at all.

of course success here partly depends on other team's unpreparedness to this tactic. no doubt by now others have noticed and worked out their plans on how to handle the situation. it will be interesting if this happens in australian match.

so far this was used when the opposing side was chasing. will mahela use it when bowling first? and what about delaying the second power play as well?

condemn amnesty international's disgusting campaign against sri lankan team

while terrorist pussies in typical fashion bombed a bus with civilians, in just as typical peacenik ngo fashion amnesty international launched a campaign called 'play by the rules' in west indies during the cricket world cup allegedly aimed at installing human rights monitors in sri lanka. ( btw we sri lankans know and remember how some foreigners used alleged cricket rules interpreted as they wanted, to attack sri lankan team.)

the headings in a flyer used in this campaign; 'send in the umpire!' 'sri lanka breaks the rules'. click the pic to enlarge. darrell hair should send his cv to ai straight away. he will fit right in.


btw a voice in colombo has already written about this. great.

what ai should have done if they are sincere
if their aim is to improve human rights situation as they are saying, (as if!), they should help the government here to crack down on terrorists. that is the best way to bring the rights violators to justice, including the main one; the convicted mass murderer prabhakaran. that is what justice and human rights demand. they can also put pressure on foreign governments to cut off funding to terrorists and their fronts (some of them disguised as ngos). in other words there are lots of more productive ways to bring results in sri lankan human rights front if ai really wants to act on that front.

if they want to put pressure on sri lankan government (for whatever reason) they should try to convince the sri lankan public, since this is a democracy and the proper way to influence the government is through public pressure.

but they are not doing any of that.

instead what are they doing ?
they hold a campaign in other side of the world, aimed at (since because of the cost only a few hundred sri lankan fans at most will be there) 15 players plus coaching staff and other teams and fans. ai reportedly said it is not aimed at sri lankan cricket team, though no such statement is in any of the flyers. anyway then who is it aimed at as there will not be many sri lankans there?

is it aimed at disgracing sri lanka (and by implication sri lankan team since it is being conducted at world cup, nowhere else)? especially when other teams and their fans will be informed; 'sri lanka breaks the rules'. no doubt some of the stupider fans of other teams will like that. will australian fans used to calling 'no ball ' every time murali bowls hold up ai banners this time around? i would not bet against that.

in other words one is forced to assume that amnesty international by holding this campaign at the world cup, is in fact aiming to disgrace our team. sri lankans in general will assume just that, justifiably.

(if ai wanted to put pressure on sl government indirectly, results of this will be counter productive in the extreme. there can not be any doubt that sri lankans will support any attempt by the government to counteract this campaign now. rightly so.)

why would ai launch a campaign to disgrace sri lankan cricket team?
nothing is simpler. it is aimed at getting the attention of the donors who fund ngos like ai. cheap mass publicity available at high profile media events like world cup is their actual aim. for that purpose they have decided to trample on sri lankan team.

we should all unreservedly condemn this disgusting ai campaign seeking publicity (thus funding) through taking aim at sri lankan cricket team. let us hope sri lankan government and cricket board have the backbone to face this down. let us also hope that eventually such condemnations accumulated through the years will convince ai's donors about the contemptible fund raising tactics used by the ai.

ai's local connections
amnesty international and other such parasitic organizations, get their false 'white van' conspiracy theory type information on which they base these campaigns, through the sri lankan peaceniks like paikiasothy saravanamuttu, jehan perera, jayadeva uyangoda, sunila abeysekera , sunanda deshapriya, and their ilk ( and their underlings like sanjana hattotuwa).

if they say they are not involved (as if! these people follow murderous pussy spin orders to the letter after all) we should call upon them individually to condemn this ai campaign unambiguously.

best reply
it is certain that in the high pressure situation of the world cup where victory depends on performing at the optimum, such distractions intentionally created by ai will be unwonted obstacles on our team's path. however let us hope they have the strength of mind to reply to undeserved calumnies of these disgusting creatures in the way they know best; playing great cricket.

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terrorists to change their logo?

it seems likely that pussies will unveil their new logo today (1st). the idiotic looking circus tiger pathetically failing to jump out of the loop in the earlier logo has been removed and an artistic depiction a vulva has been substituted in its place. unfortunately all my efforts to obtain an early mock up failed. you may fill in the blank area in the following with your imagination if you want, while waiting.

big pussy's motivation for the logo change is unknown. some have speculated that it was aimed at attracting teenage males to the terror organization. reportedly any teenager staring at the new logo (remember tiger have banned all porn etc. in areas under their control) will be considered a volunteer and will be recruited.

while not confirmed they were going to change their motto too. new one was going to be ’fuck us at your peril'. however second tier pussies supposedly muttered under their breath that since they are getting fucked in the east anyway pussy leadership should come up with some thing better. anyway the motto plan was shelved.

peacenik spin
reportedly pussies are preparing to launch a spin campaign concurrently with the unveiling of the logo under the theme 'pussies for love not war' while carrying on with the usual murdering, child abducting, etc.. as you may have noticed on any given day ( and i mean any given day) peaceniks take up the exact same position as the open propaganda of the murderous terrorists. you will not be disappointed this time round too.

in fact peaceniks have been busy since yesterday, when they received the details of the logo change, to meet deadlines. paikiasothy saravanamuttu, jehan perera, jayadeva uyangoda, etc. are reportedly going to say in articles to be published in various sunday papers (in spite of their frequent claims of suppression of media these people's articles are regularly published. as they should be), that big pussy by choosing this symbol instead of the male counterpart, is indicating he is all for love not war. kumar rupasinghe is going to say the same in some tv talk show. they will call upon the government to immediately stop all military operations in response, regardless of actual actions of pussies. "that is the least sri lankan government can do" said one. "only an authoritarian regime will not take big p at his word" another one added.

sunila abeysekera is going to east on a centre of policy alternatives(cpa) funded 'fact finding mission' to gouge the response to logo change. however since she has no intention to leave her accommodation there and never intends to meet anyone, she has already come to the conclusion (that ppl in east welcome this and believe it indicates big pussy is all for love not war) and have instructed her underlings before setting out, to prepare the resulting report accordingly, using borrowed prose if needs be.

sunanda deshapriya, the joker from free media movement, is going to hold protests because some newspaper editors have refused to publish the new logo given what is depicted. fmm insists this was due to government interference and is going to hold protests (all 20 ppl participating) till all newspapers are forced to publish this.

as for peacenik bloggers, sanjana hattotuwa is already busy inventing statistics to back up his upcoming (and rather long) post to be published in his ict4appeasement blog. the post will argue that information and communication technology (ict) contributed to this, love not war, attitude of the pussies, through the influence of online porn industry. he is however still insistent that all information should be censored moderated in order to prevent any abuse, embarrassment, or impertinent questions. he admires pussy achievements in this regard. (in fact he believes that they have achieved the golden mean with regard to censorship.) that is one of the reasons why he advocates that the democratic sri lankan government should give pussies more power, regardless of what the public thinks. anyway he intends to keep tabs on the porn industry in the future, in the same way he is keeping tabs on the computer game industry. we are sure to be informed of any new developments in online porn industry through his 'tastefully' moderated posts.

it is all for 'peace' after all. (who cares if it is murderous. huh?)

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btw pussies have announced that they will be holding a competition to choose the next logo and motto in a year or so. bloggers who want to participate are requested to send their entries early.

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update:
after the comment exchange below, sanjana unsurprisingly did not have the grace to acknowledge the receipt of my name through email in a comment here . i have decided to preempt any claim that i did not provide it by posting the relevant part of last email sent to him as a jpg . name is visible to all. after this any further claim that my name is unavailable is spurious.

for reasons already given several times in several places, my name will not be posted in text format.
since i prefer not to reveal my name in that format, actions of anyone else doing that without my consent, will be equivalent any other revelation of names of bloggers who prefer to keep their names private .