SL !!!!

13 for 6 to 24 for 7 and now 35 for 8.

That looks like a pitiful score SL used to heap on the minnows in the haydays of Vaas and Murali. Poor them, they are undergoing the same hammering now.

Wonderful.

Cant stop laughing out loud.

Go bundle them out below 54. Revenge would then be extracted for that pathetic Sharjah night 12 years back.

Where are those talks of character and stuff now ?

PS : I logged onto cricinfo after 2 weeks reading out a superb jab on SL cricketer names on FakingNews.

7/19

7/19.

It isnt a typical Lankan bowling figure against an ODI minnow say a Chaminda Vaas or a Murali or even a Dilhara Fernando or the much hyped Angelo Mathews.

This isnt even a McGrath figures against a top class batting side in his pomp.

Its not even an Indian collapse to their old West Indian nemesis. 

Not even new age Australian collapse to South Africa on a swinging, seaming pitch. 

And fuck its not even a typical Pakistani collapse (until 2010). 

This is a Sri Lankan collapse against a  spirited Pakistani team in the hotbed of Sharjah Cricket stadium. Chasing 201 in 50 overs and when scoreline reads 3/148 and your 2 best batsmen are on crease, the odds are that the batting team shall win this game 10 on 10.

But thats not the case with this Sri Lankan team which is under a superb free fall post World cup final 2011. 

Shahid Afridi's one of the best all round performances in ODI history ensures that SL lose their 7 batsmen for 19 runs and go onto lose the ODI series. 

What is now going to be the excuse from Mahela Jayawardhena in his next syndicated column in Cricinfo remains to be seen. 

The SL captains are known to inflate the praise on their teams even in the darkest defeats and they rarely praise the opposition for outclassing them. Same has been observed in this series too against Pakistan.

Even when the wickets were falling, Sanath Jayasuriya who is pathetic in commentary was quoting "Unfortunately Sri Lanka has lost the series".

Their batsmen aint performing, the much hyped Angelo Mathews isnt performing. He did not score runs in the 3rd ODI when it was a stage well set for him to repeat the Australian heroics of last summer. But he didnt. 

The openers are failing, Dilshan's ideas aint working. 

Whats the road ahead for Lankans ? Their next trip is to South Africa. They are touring the country after 9 years.  What's going to be the fate of the so called good team from subcontinent is anybody's guess when this Lankans, so good in their own home turf(doubt if that is true now) are going to face Dale Steyn, Morne Morkel and Vernon Philander.

Probably the soul of Lankan cricket is dead with the retirement of Muralitharan and Vaas, and they are unable to come to the grips with it.

Anti IPL rheoterics

Sport and politics are different. If Australia is not going to play any more in Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Zimbabwe... If they only play in some countries, world cricket will die and IPL will take over.

Muralitharan spoke.

He fears IPL shall take over cricket if Australia dont play in SL, Pak and Zim.

He himself has been part of IPL for 4 seasons, champion team for 1 year and even he was part of defending CLT20 team. He has made millions of dollars playing for IPL in 4 seasons and he would be back for 5th season too. Then he shall forget this high moral talk of IPL taking over the cricket.

If he feels IPL is so daemonic and monster, then stop being a part of it. Who's asking him to be part of that venture if he feels his country's cricket is going to be rolled over and dead by IPL ?

Its time the Lankan cricketers take a unified stand -- vs or with IPL. And stick to it. Not long back 3 or 4 of their top class cricketers chose to stay back for IPL instead of touring to England.

Kumar Sangakara's MCC Spirit of Cricket Lecture : Dissecting the lecture to bring out the contradictions Part 1.

There is a lot of stirr and buzz created by Sir Kumara Sangakara's spirit of crickt lecture in MCC this Sunday. There have been few cricket writers who have hailed this speech as most remarkable in the cricket history. Just becos he has launched an attack on corrupt SLC, he has been hailed throughout the world. Now lets just dissect his speech in detail (courtesy: cricinfo.com).

"Cricket in Sri Lanka is no longer just a sport: it is a shared passion that is a source of fun and a force for unity. It is a treasured sport that occupies a celebrated place in our society. "

He contradicts himself, his colleague and many of his fans who repeatedly urge in every forum that cricket is just a sport in their country and they dont attach too much beyond the sport to it. This basically is their argument when it comes to comparison with India and repeatedly they point out the unfortunate events of 2007 world cup when some bigots vandalized some of the houses and burnt effigies. But they were very miniscule and to generalise that with the entire country is moron argument. MJ and himself have said it often that they dont value cricket more than a sport and in case of a crushing defeat, they are cool with it. Life doesnt stop for the Lankans even if their team suffers a defeat. But the world cup finals losses in 2007 and 2011 suggest altogether a different belief to the external parties. There have been too many conspiracy theories propogated around to suggest why India or Australia won and why Sri Lanka lost. Squash balls, Indian brothers appeasement and crap.

He talks of force for unity. Really? Cricket is a force for unity in Sri Lanka? Since when ? Suddenly after the end of 30 years civil war, they feel that cricket is a force for unity in Lanka. When the innocent Tamil people were murdered in those dying years of civil war what happened to that unity? On what basis does KS term cricket as uniting force? Did 1996 win saw a reduction in the incidents of Tamil massacre by government forces and killing of Sinhalese people by LTTE? Does he have a proof for that fact conclusion or he is just making a statement in the air?

It is remarkable that in a very short period an alien game has become our national obsession, played and followed with almost fanatical passion and love. A game that brings the nation to a standstill; a sport so powerful it is capable of transcending war and politics. I therefore decided that tonight I would like to talk about the Spirit of Sri Lanka's cricket

Again here he is contradicting his own stand of the past and his colleagues' stand on the level of passion the cricket game evokes in the Lanka land. Focus on the word "fanatical". Thats the difference for me. What he actually tries to portray SL cricket to be and what actually the cricket is in his country. He is talking of spirit of SL's cricket. The history of their cricket is full of:

• SLingers
• Cheats who bowl based on some crazy tweak by the ICC (15 degree rule) and have taken 800 odd wickets in Tests and 534 in ODIs
• Individual records
• Selfish batting thus killing spirits of cricket
• Negative approach to the game when they couldnt win anything, their captain Arjuna Ranatunga suggested them to go and make all sorts of records. And then 952 evolved, 374 evolved, 576, 624 evolved, 443 and 260 evolved in subsequent years.
• Dead batting tracks where the home batsmen and bowlers enjoy unprecedented advantage over touring teams making them grind in the dry, torrid, hot weather of Lanka, sap them of energy and fluids and kill the remaining morale by batting days in and out. And then throw their slingers on the deflated, depressed batsmen of the opposition team.
• Political interference from men who are guilty of heinous war crimes and who take moral high stands based on their fractured knowledge of the history of their own country and of course of the region their country lies in.
• Cheaters who constantly appeal for catches which aint, who ask deliberately to ball a no ball to deny opposition batsmen of worthy 100.
• Captains who pretend to have said nothing in the sea of men in a world cup final during the toss and then have a 2nd toss to have it work for them to their advantage and yet lose the world cup final 2 times in row.

How can such a country be claimed to be the one who has won spirits of cricket award from ICC?

He further says

Ladies and Gentleman, the history of my country extends over 2500 years. A beautiful island situated in an advantageously strategic position in the Indian Ocean has long attracted the attentions of the world at times to both our disadvantage and at times to our advantage.

Sri Lanka is land rich in natural beauty and resources augmented by a wonderfully resilient and vibrant and hospitable people whose attitude to life has been shaped by volatile politics both internal and from without.

In our history you will find periods of glorious peace and prosperity and times of great strife, war and violence. Sri Lankans have been hardened by experience and have shown themselves to be a resilient and proud society celebrating at all times our zest for life and living.

Sri Lankans are a close knit community. The strength of the family unit reflects the spirit of our communities. We are an inquisitive and fun-loving people, smiling defiantly in the face of hardship and raucously celebrating times of prosperity.

In the modern history of South Asia, no other country than Sri Lanka has seen a civil war lasting for 30 years, no other country has seen minority speaking community being massacred cruelly and brutally on the name of culling the civil war, no other country has seen such heinous war crimes than Sri Lanka, no other country has killed its own countrymen for 30 years. No other country has forced minority speaking community to lift weapons against its own state, country and government. No other country has seen forces operating in the mainland to conspire to kill the prime minister of other country. Such a country cannot be called close knit community, such a country cannot be allowed to take advantage of war crimes and killing of humanity on the name of suppression of civil war. You'd not find any other country in the world or the area which is termed as dangerous to be working for the journalists. When you have so many odds stacked against your country you cannot just go around and say this kinda things in honnourable forum as important as MCC.

Over four hundred years of colonization by the Portuguese, the Dutch and the British has failed to crush or temper our indomitable spirit. And yet in this context the influence upon our recent history and society by the introduced sport of cricket is surprising and noteworthy. Sri Lankans for centuries have fiercely resisted the Westernisation of our society, at times summarily dismissing western tradition and influence as evil and detrimental.

Yet cricket, somehow, managed to slip through the crack in our anti-Western defences and has now become the most precious heirloom of our British Colonial inheritance. Maybe it is a result of our simple sense of hospitality where a guest is treated to all that we have and at times even to what we don't have

If they are so alien to the western influence and bothers to preserve the culture of Sri Lanka which emanates zillions of years back to the demonic kingdom of Ravana, then let them give up the game of cricket, for the world of cricket would be cleaned up by huge amount. No cheaters, no war criminals would be around in the sacred game of cricket. Civil war of 30 years negates every morally high statements this guy has made out in the lines above.

Lanka kill spirits of game again

Sri Lanka have won ICC spirit of award couple of times in last few years but they have been the team who put the spirits of the game in doubt most often that any other team does. Playing bowlers with suspect actions, calling them slingers, chuckers, playing players who are long gone past their usability, political interference in the running of the game,  talking high of their record outside subcontinent and falling flat when it comes to the action.

What happened in the 3rd ODI @ Lord's was again a prime example of how Lankans take the game to be. Supposed next captain to be plays out 21 balls for 1 run and allows a certain Chandi to score a 100 on Lord's, unfortunately ODI hundreds dont get honor boards in Lord's. So what was all the fuss about?

Dilshan expressed his anger on the go slow approach but offered a booty in the end by saying stuff like a family unit and all. Who are they fooling? Isnt playing slow or blocking something for good part of 3 and half overs at par with spot fixing or little bit of toned down version of it?  Sri Lankans have got super natural flair for personal milestones and that guides their cricketing setup and attitude. They want to own every batting and bowling record in the game, no matter how it comes and no matter how many times they have to kill the spirits of the game.

The Lankans are going to find it very tough days ahead after all the turmoil in their cricketing setup thats going on.  And as long as they shall continue to put individual glory over team, the spirits of game shall continue to be culled on every Lankan match.

SLC needs to be cautious on IPL issue

The hue and cry created by SLC on the return of its players from IPL is unwanted and not needed. SL players have been in hot demand in this season and 2 of  their players are captains. One of them has led the new franchisee to 3 consecutive wins and the other has led to 3 defeats and 2 wins. 

Both are crucial to the SL campaign in the Old Blighty and their form would decide if the SL return from the tour as winners or as usual losing the Tests. They might still win the ODIs given the pathetic display by England in 2011 ODIs. 

The players have been asked to return to their country for a preparatory camp by May 5 and almost all of them have complied. At least those have who are / will play cricket for Lanka. Murali has slammed the board, but then he isnt supposed to represent SL anymore. 

The latest salvo has come in from Duleep Mendis and Nishantha Ranatunga over Lasith Malinga. He doesnt play Tests anymore and is a superb exponent in T20 and ODIs. But England tour begins with Tests and since Malinga wont be playing in the tests, him returning to Lanka and participating in a rehabilitation program is a bit ridiculous. By playing IPL at least he would be match fit if selected for the limited overs leg for the England tour. 

Everybody except West Indian players chose country over IPL and the players have promptly left for national duties when called for skipping IPL. So it doesnt make any sense for the players to actually say it in public forum that they prefer country over IPL of course if you are not Bravo or Pollard or Gayle.

SLC in a fighting stance with BCCI could be hurting itself in the long run. They are in debt and unless they play an India series, they tend to lose money than earn it. So it would be in their best interests if they take this situation in a bit more judicious and cautious way.

A fact on team defeating Kiwis in semifinal of a world cup

The team beating New Zealand in the semi-final has not won a world cup on 2 previous occasions.  1999 - Pakistan beat NZ and lost in the final to Australia. 8 years later SL beat NZ and lost to Australia in the final.

4 years on may be it would be SL again who would lose to the team beating Australia.

By the way its going, it seems a comfortable typical Lankan win unless they choke worse than what Saffers did.  Saffers should have been the worthy semi-finalists to halt the Lankan run at home. They choked and got kicked out,

How SL would make it to the final

How'z it going to be an All Asian final this Saturday ?

India or Pakistan shall play cricket and the winner will go through to the final. 

And SL : "we keep our heads down and make sure we cover all the bases we have to cover".

Thats how Lankans would cross over to make it to the finals. When and if they win the semis in Colombo, their captain shall again cry, "why do we need to cover our final base in Mumbai? As co-host we should cover our final base in our home base to lay the base for upcoming slingers, cheaters and non-walkers"

Statements, statements and more statements.

SL vs India -- something Lankan fans dont want

I had always believed SL fans are the most rowdiest on the globe and the following link just proves how much they are obsessed about India. They are hell scared what shall happen if their team plays India in India.

http://www.slcricket.com/cricket-world-cup-2011/26588-group-position-should-we-worry-about-5.html

Not only on the above links, the fans have posted some cheap stuff on the Indian players but also commented lot of shit stuff on "sexuality". Filthy stuff.

Since 2007, whenever I peek a boo in Lankan forums, all  I find is blind hatred and filthy comments on anything Indian. And it gives me a confirmation to believe that they are the most arrogant and unsporty fans in the cricket world.

Dig in more forums on this site and you shall unearth more hatred and unparliamentary stuff on Indian cricket. 

Never knew that Lankans would be so wary of the Indian juggernaut in their psyche so much so that they would openly confess how much they fear the Indian batting. Not to forget the infamous Randi no-ball episode directed, produced and scripted by Sir Kumar Sangakara.

Why should Australia win

Let Australia take care of Sri Lanka tomorrow so that the latter dont play easy opponents in the quarters and make an exit soon. 

But if they dont, then want to see India hammer them again in the semis to avenge the 2007 and 1996 defeats that rankle to this day. I want to see Sehwag hammer Dilhara Fernando in the stands for infinite runs, let Yuvraj take care of Herath, Sachin tackle Murali and well of course Dhoni take the sting out of Malinga.

Last time when SL lost to Australia in final of 2007 world cup a lot of SL fans cried cheating when Gilchrist had squash ball in his gloves. The media had an excuse of "fixing" when they lost to Pakistan. So what excuse cooks up next is remains to be seen. 

Ireland should have been in Lankan group and Kevin OBrien should have hammered Mendis and Murali to that famous win. 

Expect R Premdasa to be slow, low yet again where you'd see a lot of strangling, a lot of bickering behind the stumps 

Whats even more pathetic is that the Aussies would be playing Lanka in 7 years time. Bangladesh has played 3-4 times in that duration, India has hammered them many times in this 7 years.But the Aussies, they were never invited fearing a whitewash.

Go Aussies!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sri Lanka's routine minnow mauling and Mahela's suspicion of being a fixer

There you go. One quick dismissal in the home game of the World Cup and the character hero finds himself in the allegations of match fixing by his own media. Perhaps they too were bored of his rants in the print and electronic media how good his team is.

Freaking. Could not stop laughing when I read in ToI that Mahela Jayawardhena is suspected to be involved in Match Fixing. Well he is not involved in match fixing but for sure in Character Fixating and Blabbering big enough to send non Sri Lankans to laughter.

And did they not demolish the minnows yet again big time yesterday vs Kenya? Malinga got a 6-for including 2nd world cup hattrick, Upul Tharanga got a 50, Dilshan got a quick fire 40 good enough to declare his intentions for a 100 next game. And well of course prompting Kumar Sangakara to give a lionseque war cry "We are mentally strong and back in business".

How good they are would be proved when they play next against the World Champions Australia.

So would they puncture Aussie balloon flying high since 31 games or they have their hawa tight once again would be an interesting prospect. 

"Pakistan showed they have pride". As if they didn have before all along and suddenly they got pride after beating them.

"We are mentally strong and back in business" only against minnows and we ourselves become minnows against strong teams.

Kumar Sangakar's pricelesss quotes.

Pakistan vs Sri Lanka

On a day of glorious batsmanship from Sachin Tendulkar and unexpectedly Andrew Strauss, I chose to write on the tie between Pakistan and Sri Lanka that took place on the Saturday. It was a tie SL was expected to win hands up, instead they lost hands down.

The 2 old lads of Pak cricket -- Younus and Misbah led the team to a total of 277 followed by some good bowling by Shoaib Akhtar and Shahid Afridi. The Lankans fell short by 11 runs and in the end its heard that a panic has been setup in their camp.

Sangakara as usual made 49 without going on to win a game for his country. Jayawardhena after all praising and writing made just 2 and got his stumped ripped off an Akhtar beauty.  Chamara Silva, Kulasekra and Angelo Matthews tried in the end but it was too late and SL tasted their first home world cup defeat. Huh? Whom they had played before in the home games? 1996 ? Serious teams refused to tour them in 1996 and then they played Zimbabwe and Kenya at home and now Canada and Pakistan.

Period.

As I said before as all the high talk this lads do is good for the weak and hapless teams. When the stronger teams come, this lads just freeze up and lose.

And thats why this team wont win the world cup.

Lanka ki hawa tight

Blabberings vanished in the thin air, the 100 maker is comprehensively bowled, the Test batsman is out stumped to Pathan and now only the Sanga Nanga remains on the crease.

0/75 to 4/93. 

Stuff champions are made of? Mahela's ass. Get off. If you talk big, show it on the field else shut your freaking mouth shut. 

Alle Alle. Wickets fall alle alle.

Russell Arnold is quiet now after boring us of how good every one in Lankan team is. Where is he now? 

That thing called Virender Sehwag

Virender Sehwag, the bloody Indian opening batsman.  Bloody buffoon. Kickass opener. What else should I say about this Delhi Jat. No brains, just brutal power. No messing up. Simple style of play. Bad ball, he would hit it. Doesnt matter who the hell is the bowler. Shakib or Rubell or Bow Wow, Randibaaj Suraj or even the Chuck himself. Ask any bowler around the world. Better ask Pakistanis. Lankans call him Shewag.

He has demolished them too. The merchants of pace, swing and reverse swing. Of course spot fixed no balls too. He deposited even Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis in stands on that glorious Centurion evening 8 years and 2 world cups back. 

Ask Sangakara who is so scared of this idiot Indian batsmen that he asks Randibaaj Suraj to bowl no balls. He might seem poor man's Amir or Asif which occured well before spot fixing saga. If he did not score a 100 on that game day, he yet demonized Sangakara and other Lankans. They swear in private they wont take on Indian ODI or test team which has Sehwag in it. 

Either he would make a 294 in a Test against them or he would make a 146 in a ODI. No respite. No swearing has its effect. The man lives by his own rules, his own standards. Now the bufoon is saying he would bat 50 overs. Like I said before what would happen if he bats 50 overs, the Deshis had a bitter taste of it yesterday in Mirpur.

There are so many wannabe Sehwags around. There is Dilshan in Lanka who emulates Sehwag but runs out of steam around 50-80 mark. Then there is Tamim Iqbal who steps more often than not yet fails to emulate the man. Then there is Shane Watson who is doing a Sehwag for Prick Tonping. 

There can be many emulators, but there is one and only Sehwag. Rattle him with short stuff, he wont play pull. Bowl him in his ribs, he would counter it. Sledge him he would deposit you into stands or even throw you out of the stadium, be it Mirpur or Hamba ka tota or his own backyard of Kotla. Rajkot too.

Dilip Vengsarkar is now proved an idiot and to an extent MSD too, who had dropped this idiot from the CB series finals in favor of Sir Rohit Sharma.  When Sehwag bats the way he does most of the times, the opposition reduces to the local club side. There are many who try to be "shahahne" like Ponting or Sangakara, but they are soon proved assholes by the man who knows no stopping when in full flow. That is Virender Sehwag for you. Unique and unparalleled.

A night in Lankan camp before their game against Canada

When Sangakara and Mahela Jayawardhena, the Indie commando were retiring to the team rooms to go to their respective wives, a night before the world cup kick started and they had ranted enough to put the remainder of Lankan team to sleep in the confrence room itself, they saw a fat man barging the hotel in deep anger.

Alongside the fat man the blabba kings saw a familiar figure step in but in an apologetic mode. 

The fat man came to Sangakara and Jayawardhena and said "You fools, you are good for nothing idiots. You let the bloody Indians take away the record for highest world cup total in 2007. BD and you guys kicked India's ass out, but they kicked my team's ass out of the record we had for the highest score in a world cup game. I bloody dont care if you send off Murali on a high note or not, dont care if you, the talkative bufoon joins me in the world cup winning captain group of this Ravana country. All I want is the record back. Beat the 413 record and get it on the name of Ravana country."

The familiar man was in tears and nostalgic mood. He said "I remember Saar making 145 runs in that game in Kandy vs Kenya and we made 398 runs and that stood until that Prick's Australia made 438." And he bursts into tears. 

Sanga and Mahela are still stunned. 

The fat man continues " You mofos, I installed pride in Lankan krikat by going for all sorts of records thus killing the spirit of krikat. I told my boys to make records and have all records on their names. Beat minnows big, continue batting for 3 days, 4 days and let wins go to hell, but Sri Lankan krikat should hold all records. See we have 576, 952, 624, 374, 287 and we had 398. We also have 443. But we dont have highest record for a world cup match. Make it you fools or else I would ask President to put you in jail like he did to the army chief Fonseka."

Sanga felt motivated and his character tonic felt an unimaginable rush. 

Fat man and the apologetic man left and Jayawardhena was motivated.  Sanga called up the entire team and started ranting about the records and Mahela said "Yes we are the Ravana country. Like he had record for 10 heads, we would have records for all batting and bowling. I would rant it in cricinfo, Sanga you rant in the match conf".

Suddenly Thilana Samaraweera got up and said "Sanga saar, I am the king of batting long, long and making double hundreds. Dont worry saar, I would bat long as i can and block the balls. I would put the opposite captain to sleep and yawn. I would make 200 runs and I would bat 3 days in row in the World Cup".

Sangakara got and hugged Samaraweera. He went up and called fat man. "Saar, can you ask ICC to mend the records of ODI krikat to ensure that Sri Lankan batsmen can bat for 3 days in row. And then we shall reclaim all our records. Please do it as you did it for Murali to tweak the 15 degree rule to allow him to throw balls, err...bowl his regular stuff".

Fat man agreed and called up Sharad Pawar, the ICC chief who tried to speak to him in Bangla, but fat man knew just Englis and Sinhala. With help of a translator fat man explained Pawar his intention, but Pawar rebuked him and reminded that "this is one day cricket which is over in 6.5 hours".

Fat man was angry but he could not do anything. Later he called back Sangakara and said "Ask Thilana Samaraweera to bat long in Tests, not in ODIs.  Have somebody make 300 and ensure team crosses 500 in 40 over mark and then declare the innings."

Sangakara and Mahela nodded and decided to toe the fat man's order.

Character Rant to kick off!!!

Minnow marauders Lankans have shown their intentions to gobble up the minnows mercilessly by thumping Holland by 156 runs in their first warm up game. So much for their win that their 2 best men in character rant, best men in defining how good Sri Lanka and the youthful team is, didnt need to bat.

They shall murder Kenya, Canada big time in the league games and if they do the same to the strong teams -- Australia, Pakistan and Kiwis would be a question. SL are no longer invincible in their home turf, last few years have shown this to the world. Plus every team that travels to the subcontinent comes with the staple dose of spinners. So if Lanka would be able to maul strong team would be a keen thing to watch.

I am waiting for the talking bufoons in Sanga and Jayawardhena to kick start their rants!!!

Why are Lankan grounds hosting games when they are not ready?

It seems that the Lankan grounds of Pallekele and Hambanatota are not ready yet. Despite this, the matches would go on those grounds as scheduled.  The training facilities at those grounds are not yet ready and Sangakara himself has voiced the disappointment over that fact


On the same hand, the renovation in Eden Gardens was not complete and it has already been snatched of a marquee clash thus robbing Kevin Pieterson an opportunity of life time. 


Why different yardsticks for 2 different countries for same fact?


Mr Sharad Pawar what are you doing? Punishing your own Eden Gardens while sparing the Lankan grounds?Why ? The Jaggu factor?


Have same yardsticks ICC for all grounds even if they belong to relatively poor Sri Lanka.

World Cup Team Previews --1 : Sri Lanka

Starting a new series from today till the start of the world cup, where in I shall put my 2 or 3 Sri Lankan paise on every team that matters in World Cup campaign. In short, analyse every team and run down their chances in the world cup or run up their chances. 

Starting with the romantics' favorites and one of the world cup co-hosts Sri Lanka. 

SL is set to play 5 of its 6 games in its home ground and none of them at SSC. And they would have to play all 6 games to have a chance to go to the next round this time. Unlike 1996 when they qualified to QF on back of the 2 forfeited games and that helped them reach out as champions in the end. 

No volatile war situation and security concerns now for them. 

They are grouped in group A with Australia, Pakistan, New Zealand and minnows Canada, Kenya.  They shall murder Canada and Kenya ruthlessly. So they have to beat just 2 of the rest 3 teams to go ahead to the Quarters. Pakistan and NZ would be the ones to lose out to the spin quartets of  SL. If Sangakara would have his way he would pack his team with all spinners and just one fast bowler in Malinga if he is fit.

Their first game is vs Canada, which they hope would score 450+ runs and bowl the Canadians out by 70 odd and win by 380 runs. Quite possible. 

They next play Pakistan and they would fancy chances against a team who has yet to have a captain named for the world cup. Although its going to be Shahid Afridi, but Butt thinks he is not in the news for long time now, so he has to create some drama and he is doing just that. 

SL team:

Sanga, Jayawardhena, Dilshan, Kapugedara, Angelo, Muralitharan, Malinga, Fernando, Herath, Mendis, Kulasekara, Perreira, Silva, Samaraweera and Tharanga.

Opening pair

Dilshan and Tharanga would open the batting in most games unless Sangakara has a brain freeze and he promotes his chaddi buddy Mahila to the top. 

Middle Order

Sangakara, Jayawardhena, Kapugedara, Silva / Samarweera would form the middle order. 

Fast bowlers:

Malinga, Perreira would be sureshot starters.  Mathews, if fit  could be the 3rd seamer.

Spin:

King of spin Murali would be sure starter in all games lest he is injured and he would be partnered by one of Bow Wow Mendis or Colored Herath.

Chances:

They would maul Canada, Kenya. They might succumb to unpredictable Pakistanis and might get past the Kiwis too given they have been pathetic in the subcontinental ODIs.  It would be tough to beat Australia, though they would be looking forth to avenge 1-2 defeat in the home series. 

The only game they play outside SL is the league game against Kiwis in India.  3 of their games are at R Premdasa stadium, 1 in Hambanatotatata and 1 in Wankhede, Mumbai. Yes Wankhede is in Mumbai.

They can go to QF, but with the form they have been in 2008, 2009 and 2010 they look impossible to go beyond that stage. 

And if they dont do that, this would be the end of Kumar Sangakara as the captain of Sri Lanka. And a respite for us of his character rants. 

Lets see how much character stock Sangakara has gathered in 2 months when he was quiet and didnt play any cricket. Oh no he was playing with his balls, only in the bed room.

Keep all cisms about World cup till the end of it

The World Cup has already got into shambles before it could start for India. The venues are not yet ready, the politics over the venues have already begun. All it seems to be a replica of Commonwealth games Delhi 2010.

The English media is already creating bad omens about the world cup good 3 weeks before it begins. And they are building up the list of excuses should England crash out as usual they do in the world cup. The blame would go to the heat, humidity, food, crowd and what not except the performance.

Sri Lanka, if they lose in the semis stage in Kolkata and if they dont have a default this time, they would blame this conditions too as Sangakara tried to build that hyperbole before 2009 series which they eventually lost.

Few bloggers are already declaring this world cup to be the last ODI world cup. The health of ODI world cup already remains in questions and doubts. There have been very little runathons in the build up to the world cup in last few months. There have been few very closely fought ODI series in England, Middle East and South Africa.  Thats a good sign though, but the cynics and critics would obviously chose not to see it.

I am skeptical of quarter final format and  believe that the super 6 or super 8 was a better format and its strange how ICC pushed in QF format yet again after 16 years.

For me the best format is every one plays every one like it happened in 1992 world cup and that gave us a fair idea of the best team to win the cup in the end  2015 would be on that lines.

BCCI has been too lax in the end to ensure that the venues are complete and they meet the necesary standards for the world cup. Only if they had diverted their attention from screwing Lalit Modi's ass, the Kolkata's pride would have been still holding the 4 games it was supposed to. No doubt that game would now either go to Chennai or Nagpur or even Mumbai. Chennai cos Srini is from Chennai, Nagpur cos Manohar is from that place and Mumbai is Sharad Sugar Pawar's baston.

The win-win situation for every one this point ownwards is to hold the skepticism, cynicism, criticism and all other cisms till the end of the world cup and I am sure that barring minnow games, every game in the world cup is going to be full house and eagerly watched till the end, cos a hopeful nation would want that title to be captured after 28 years because nothing gets bigger than this.

ODI world cup title is what we want and that is what we want to win desparately.

We would feel sorry for Sangakara after this world cup is over

I just digged out the archives of 2007 world cup and was pained to see 2 defeats to BD and SL that knocked the steam out of the Indian campaign and that ended the world cup campaign of Ganguly, Dravid and Kumble. 17 March and 23 March were painful days in India's world cup history. 

13 March 1996 is one such painful day in the history where SL rolled through final at India's expense in Eden Gardens.

And then there was this article from ever fucktard Kumar Sangakara

"India at home and India overseas are two different teams.

To be honest, though, I feel sorry for India's cricketers. They'll now face a torrent of criticism and abuse in the coming weeks. Fanatical fans will no doubt be burning effigies as I write. The huge expectation places their players under enormous pressure. And when that expectation is raised a degree or two, it can easily have a crippling effect."

In Sri Lanka, the general public seem to have a more easy-going perspective. Yes, most Sri Lankans are passionate about sport, especially cricket, but we also seem to understand that sport is sport. I am not sure whether that more balanced attitude is the product of two decades of civil war, or merely reflects the more happy-go-lucky style of an island nation. The attitude of our fans makes it easier for us. Yes, we still get our fair share of criticism. There can be mud-slinging in the media too. But our houses are not stoned when we lose and we can still walk down the street without fearing for our safety. I am grateful for this and really don't envy the situation of India and Pakistan's top cricketers.

This is right time to ensure Sangakara and his men are steamrolled in this world cup ruthlessly and also to ensure he is never able to speak such a crap again. We would then need to feel pity for Sri Lankan cricketers. Yeah they are easy going people who killed their own countrymen who spoke Tamil for 20+ years and were subjected to inhuman war crimes in the war zone over past few years. Something that never happened in India or even in Pakistan.

Its time India or some other team beat SL huge so that none of their overrated players are able to write articles full of venom like this. Once they lose, the normal fans of SL who are no more than waterboys in the world cricket would come out and stone the houses of idiots like Sangakara. Fucker!!!!