So ended the World T20 Cup finals of course in a way that does not bring much joy to our hearts. Being unbeaten and inventive throughout the series, our lions were the favourite team to win the finals and bring the second world level trophy home. But, what happened at the finals? Just like the ODI World Cup in 2007, we turned out to be the runners-up.
I am no expert in cricket. But, at least I know the difference between black and white, and such incidents were seen in the final. First of all, what has always been biting me is the question, “what on earth is Mubarak doing in the squad?”. Seriously, I don’t see any value addition he does to the team when required. It is true that he has a handful of pretty interesting contributions. But, I’m sure Sri Lankan cricket has better resources than that. For an example, Indika De Saram had to just hang around in the bench throughout the tourney as if he was taken just to get rid of the media frenzy surrounding him being ignored by the selection committee. I really admire Dilshan as a player, but I don’t think it is wise to try to depend on the ‘Dilscoop’ so much. Specially not as a shot to open scoring like which made him go back to the pavilion for a duck in the T20 finals, when at least a contribution of at least 20 from him would have saved the game for us.
Anyway, my point is, the unwanted influence on the sport as well as embracing unorthodox stuff too soon is very likely to hold back Sri Lankan Cricket. The politics looming above the selections should stop and make way for Cricket to flourish.
Anyway, with that said I am not going to stop by just being critical like most of us would do. There are many good things that happened during the tournament. As always our team played like real gentlemen, and although Sanga needs more experience to get that extra edge as a captain, his drive so far has been superb! Not only as a cricketer but also as an ambassador for the country and cricket. It is extremely inspiring how he uplifts the morale of the players and the spectators through his eloquent speech and I really loved the way he thanked the Sri Lankan supporters in his mother tongue in the end. The performance shown by all the players throughout especially Dilshan, Malinga, Mathews, Mendis, Sanath, Murali was amazing and it was a real treat to watch the ball soaring past the boundary line and wickets being smashed off by the bowlers. Furthermore, we were able to chase away the giants in Cricket like Australia and the West Indies. Therefore, we actually we totally rocked the show out there in England although the ending was not as colourful as we expected it to be.
With the new air of freedom in the country, I wish our lions to get a warm welcome once they reach Sri Lanka despite the fact that they could not win the cup, because, after all we should have the temperament to accept victory and defeat alike. Anyway, the new T20 champs will be here soon. So let’s return the favour, shall we?
Bravo SL Cricket!!!
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