Sanga in the limelight

With summer in full swing, cricket dominated this region’s sports calendar in the past couple of months. Right now it’s Australian Open Tennis.

Indians are at the tail end of their tour in Australia. The Big Bash T20 tournament just concluded drew huge crowds. When the Indians leave, Australia will tour New Zealand. Pakistan team is currently in New Zealand. 

Just to recap. Sri Lankans left New Zealand after a disappointing tour. However, it was nice to see Captain Angelo Mathews continuing his form along with Dinesh Chandimal. It was also encouraging to see several newcomers making their mark. As it normally happens back at home when teams have a bad run, there is talk about an inquiry into the behaviour of players. If they had done well, all is good and everybody is happy.

Kumar Sangakkara

It was distressing to see cops forcing some Sri Lankan fans out during the last T20 game. They had turned up in their numbers and even when Sri Lanka was not doing well they were in a jolly mood enjoying a day out in the sun. Though there had been talk about them consuming liquor, several non-Sri Lankan spectators had told the media that whatever they would have done they were never a nuisance. Those who had been at the 2015 World Cup games played in New Zealand remember Sri Lankan fans having a good time with drums playing and the police had not bothered. Why now, they wonder.

Getting back to Big Bash, Kumar Sangakkara was the most talked-about player even though his performance was rather disappointing. Promotional video clips on TV featured Sanga first. Commentators were talking about his achievements all the time. Spectators just loved him. A crowd of 49,100 (imagine it wasn’t for an international game) turned up at the Adelaide Oval where Sanga and Mahela Jayawardena were in the opposing teams. 

Having opened batting, Sanga just got four runs when his partner was hitting sixes in the first few overs. Mahela did not play – he was resting after showing discomfort at the previous game when he got 80+ runs. 

When Sanga’s team – Hobart Hurricanes – were fielding, we could see Sanga being consulted at crucial stages of the game. He was certainly the ‘elder statesman’ whom everyone looked up to. Mahela too was very active when his team was fielding, always offering a world of advice to his mates.

I had an interesting experience recently. We were getting some wok done in the front garden. The fairly youngish looking guy (of Lebanese origin) who was doing the work wanted to know whether I was from India. When I said ‘No – I am from Sri Lanka’, his instant reaction was ‘Ah – Sangakkara’s country’. And he went on to say how much he likes to see Sanga play.

Big Bash is a fine example of how young Australian players who take part in domestic tournaments get selected for the teams in the tournament. The experience they had gained is helping them to perform well at the Big Bash games.  It was clearly seen that this year they were performing better than some of the foreign players who were mostly seasoned international players.

Chris Gayle stole the show most of the time – both on and off the field. What he told a female TV interviewer was the talk of the town for several days. He was fined heavily for the ‘offence’. All was forgotten when he hit 50 in 12 balls equalling the record set by India’s Yuvraj Singh back at the 2007 World T20 for the fastest 50 in T20.It was astonishing batting; Gaylehit seven sixes between long on and backward square amidst massive cheering by tens of thousands. Yuvraj hit England’s Stuart Broad for six sixes during his memorable 50.

When he got back after the hectic hitting Gayle declined to be interviewed – instead he mingled with children signing autographs and chatting to them. He threw his cap to one boy who is bound to treasure it for years to come. Everyone will be waiting for him to return next year.

All in all, Big Bash was high fun.