Saturday 9th July, 2011 Karunaratne to make debut Hettiarachchi receives Presidential pardon ’s rugby scene was Kaluarachchi denied having Conditions could favour a buzz with the news that rugby any knowledge of Hettiarachchi player Nuwan Hettiarachchi receiving a pardon. had received a Pardon from SLRFU Secretary Lasitha President Mahinda Rajapakse. Guneratne too said he knew President’s spokesman nothing about Hettiarachchi Bandula Jayasekere has been receiving a pardon, adding, ‘if Sri Lanka in series decider quoted in stating that the player had received a par- Hettiarachchi had received the don, it has nothing to do with REX CLEMENTINE pardon. rugby’. reporting from Manchester Hettiarachchi was taken into Guneratne said that there Navy custody after officials of was an injunction order issued After being shot out for 174 at Trent Bridge the sea going force protested by the court against on a green top, conditions could favour the Sri that the player had violated a Hettiarachchi and it was valid Lankans here at Old Trafford in Manchester as contract he had with Navy till July 15. searches for his moment of Sports Club and joined another Officials from Kandy SC glory on his first tour as of Sri Lanka. team which contests the domes- maintain that Hettiarachchi is The series is leveled at 2-2 with today’s final ODI tic league tournament. their property and should rep- here becoming the decider at Muttiah The Navy SC coach Ronnie resent the Nittawela Club this Muralitharan’s home ground for years where he Ibrahim and manager season. (RN) was the overseas professional for Lancashire. Although scattered showers form the weather prediction, the game is a sell out here at one of England’s oldest ground where the first Test Match was played in 1884. The Sri Lankans were forced to do their Old Trafford – training indoors yesterday due to rain and only had a brief look at the pitch at the end of their training session. A special venue Vice-captain Thilina Kandamby is dropped from the side for this game and his place goes for 23-year-old opening batsman Dimuth Tillakaratne Dilshan Karunaratne, who will make his debut. While James Anderson for Sri Lanka the debutant will open the innings with Mahela ber three and now we are num- Lancashire. He went onto Jayawardene, captain Tillakaratne Dilshan will ber two. We want to win this REX CLEMENTINE claim over hundred in move down to number three. series and we need to groom reporting from Manchester two seasons for the county. As part of Old Trafford’s redevelopment youngsters as well,” Dilshan Another former Sri Lankan plans, the square has been turned by 90 degrees. said. Of all English cricket great, Since that happened early this season, When Alastiar Cook was grounds, Old Trafford has a played here one season. Lancashire’s county games have been dominat- appointed as the captain of special place in the history of Currently, all-rounder Farveez ed by spin bowlers with the county at times England ODI team there were Sri Lankan cricket. The Sri Maharoof is the overseas play- playing even four spinners. quite a bit of murmurs, with Lankans played their first ever er of the county and is very “Normally when you come here it’s hard and former captain Michael One-Day International at this popular here. you’ve got plenty of pace and carry. The adjust- Atherton, now the Chief Cricket venue, a disaster actually as Sri Lankan born Gehan ment to the square may have changed the char- Correspondent of The Times, they were blown away for 86 Mendis, whose first class acteristics more recently,” England captain leading the way. runs by the mighty West career in county cricket Alastiar Cook told journalists. “Lancashire has While Cook has silenced his Indians. But four years later, spanned for two decades and been playing three or four spinners here and critics with the bat as the top they would go onto create his- over 300 games, played the first that tells us the story. The characteristics of the run scorer in the series from tory winning their first ever half of his career here before have changed a bit,” Cook added. either side a series win will do a world of good ODI, against India in the 1979 moving to Sussex. That is a welcome sign for the Sri Lankans for his credentials as the full time England cap- World Cup. On both occasions, Apart from losing that very who were blown away by England seamers at tain, as Sri Lanka were the losing finalists of the Sri Lankan side was cap- first ODI against the West The Oval and Trent Bridge where they were the World Cup. “As we said at the beginning of tained by Anura Tennekoon, Indies more than 30 years ago, bowled out for scores of 121 and 174. the season, we had two teams coming here this the current Manager of the Sri the Sri Lankans have never With ruled out for four summer; Sri Lanka and India. If we beat Sri Lankan team. Interestingly, lost an ODI at this venue win- weeks with a side strain, the natural thinking Lanka tomorrow, it will be a very big feather in Duleep Mendis, who is on tour ning all three games. would be to bring in to partner our caps. As I said, we want to test ourselves with the team as the Chief Russel Arnold scored a Test his namesake Jeevan and Suraj Randiv. Dilshan against the best sides and we are doing that,” Selector, was the Man of the century here in 2002. wasn’t too keen for that combination and Cook said. Match in that game against Old Trafford cricket ground explained the reasons for it. Sri Lanka (Probable XI) India for his swashbuckling 64 is situated a few yards away “We have Suraj and Jeevan. I can bowl spin , , before being run out. from the world famous too. So that’s three and there’s no point in bring- T.M. Dilshan (Captain), , a few shots against him,” he said. “Different tac- Old Trafford is also pretty Manchester United Football ing in another spinner because we can’t be (Wicketkeeper), Angelo tics could probably work for us as Anderson is special for some of the Sri Ground. It became the second going into a game with just two seamers. The Mathews, , , the key man for them. On both occasions we lost Lankan greats. The venue was Test venue in England after problem is Angelo is still not 100 percent fit to Suraj Randiv, Dhammika Prasad and Lasith because he took some early wickets. We need to the home ground for off-spin- The Oval, when the ground bowl and we have to have three seamers.” Malinga. have a clear plan against him.” ner , hosted Billy Murdoch’s Dhammika Prasad, who replaced Dilhara England (Probable XI) Personally for Dilshan the tour has been a who played several seasons for Australians in 1884. Fernando in the squad, will return to the side, Alastiar Cook (Captain), Craig. Kieswetter success, although he’s yet to fire in ODIs, as he playing his first ODI in two years. (Wicketkeeper), Jonathan Trott, Kevin broke Sidath Wettimuny’s long standing record It was Lancastrian James Anderson, who has Pietersen, Eoin Morgan, Ian Bell, Tim Bresnan, at Lord’s for the highest score by a Sri Lankan troubled the Sri Lankans most, claiming early Stuart Broad, Graeme Swann, James Anderson in . He will regret losing the Test wickets in both games England have won. At and Jade Dernbach. series as two hours of bad batting at Cardiff Trent Bridge he bowled eight overs up front Umpires: Billy Bowden (NZ) and Nigel Llong cost them the series, but he has an opportunity unchanged and inflicted massive damage when (Eng) Renegades sign Shahid Afridi to put things right in the ODIs. “We generally he accounted for three wickets. Third : (Eng) play very good one-day cricket. We were the run- BY JESSE HOGAN While Razzaq’s profile pales com- Dilshan promised that Sri Lanka will come Match Referee: Alan Hurst (Aus) with fresh plans against Anderson. “Maybe play ners-up in the World Cup. We came here as num- The form bowler of this year’s pared to Afridi’s he is a reliable cricket World Cup, Shahid Afridi, performer in both disciplines, is the marquee international sign- particularly his accurate medium- ing for the Melbourne Renegades fast seam . team. Afridi said the lure of playing Cash strapped SLC postpones SLPL The exuberant Pakistani, who with Razzaq this summer “was an BY RUSSELL PALIPANE league, which was scheduled to start on July 19, Karthik, R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Manoj has captained his country in all opportunity that I couldn’t turn was taken at a meeting between Sri Lanka Tiwary, Saurabh Tiwary, Umesh Yadav, Vinay three formats and is a renowned down even though I had better he inaugural edition of the ’s new interim committee and the Kumar, Manish Pandey and Paul Valthaty - after limited-overs player, is believed to money offers from other teams”. Premier League (SLPL), after facing a league’s organisers, Somerset Entertainment speculation was rife that the tournament was have resisted overtures from Razzaq is yet to debut in the Tseries of problems, including the with- Ventures. organised by a private party, which is close to Adelaide, where he played in the Big Bash League, which has been A four-week window in August next year has suspended IPL chief Lalit Modi, and based in drawal of Indian players from the tournament, Big Bash in 2009-10. expanded for the coming summer been identified as the best time to host the Singapore. has been postponed to August 2012. Leg-spinning all-rounder from six state-based teams to Sri Lanka will have the domestic Twenty20 event. Another major blow the league suffered was Afridi, 31, will be joined at the The BCCI had refused No Objection that the SLC committee that created the tourna- eight city-based teams. league in its place featuring five teams, but that Etihad Stadium-based Renegades Nevertheless, he lauded its repu- will not involve foreign players. Certificates to 12 Indian players - Praveen ment was dissolved last week by Sri Lanka’s by Abdul Razzaq, another 31-year- tation. It is likely that the decision to postpone the Kumar, Munaf Patel, Irfan Pathan, Dinesh sports ministry. old all-rounder from Pakistan. Dilshan backs Kandamby REX CLEMENTINE the side didn’t help his cause. reporting from Manchester “He has done really well in domestic cricket and with the ‘A’ Sri Lanka captain team. He has played 30 odd Tillakaratne Dilshan yesterday ODIs, but the point is he never backed his deputy Thilina got a fair chance. After two or Kandamby, who was dropped for three games he is out of the side the deciding fifth and final One- and then he’s out for six months. Day International against I want to give everyone a fair England here at Old Trafford chance,” Dilshan, who himself after failing to get a decent score underwent the same treatment in the ODI series. earlier on in his career said. Kandamby, a former Sri Kandamby was in the run- Lanka under-19 and ‘A’ team cap- ning for a slot in the middle tain, was a prolific run getter as order for the ICC Cricket World a schoolboy for Ananda College Cup early this year, but narrow- and has done well in domestic ly missed out to Thilan and ‘A’ team cricket. However, Samaraweera and Chamara the left-hander has failed to con- Kapugedara. vert that form in his 37 One-Day “I want to give everyone a fair Internationals for Sri Lanka. Thilina Kandamby chance and I want to give This series he managed scores terday addressing a media brief- Kandamby a fair chance,” of six, 11 and 19 and didn’t get a ing. Kandamby, who turned 29 Dilshan said. “If he doesn’t play chance to bat at Leeds. this month, has never got a con- tomorrow he will play the next “We have to give a fair chance sistent run in the side and two games in Scotland,” he to Kandamby,” Dilshan said yes- Dilshan felt being in and out of added.