Rain saves England's blushes

Mercifully the rain came down to save England and save them from another humiliating defeat in final Test played at the newly constructed Galle Stadium.

Sri Lanka did enough to win the series one-nil after earlier losing the one-day series. From the time they walked out to the Asgiriya Stadium to start the first of Three Tests, the England side led by Michael Vaughan did not show signs of being competitors.

Firstly they did not seem to have the balance to push the Sri Lankans who were admirably led by Mahela Jayawardena, who as the tour progressed continued to blossom in his batting and captaincy.

Jayawardena was well supported by his teammates, who backed his every move and gave him 100 per cent and more to see that they stuff the Brits and gain some consolation after timidly surrendering the one-day series.

The series win has taken Sri Lanka to third place in the Test rankings and they will not have another Test series until they emplane for the West Indies in March 2008.

This tour also saw Muttiah Muralitharan going past Shane Warne's Test bowling record and also saw Mahela Jayawardena and Kumar Sangakkara rewriting the record books.

Sri Lanka's next big problem would be to see that they unearth a batting genius of the calibre of Sanath Jayasuriya who quit the longer version of the game.

That there will never be another Sanath Jayasuriya there is no question.

Jayasuriya was a rare star that shone in all its splendour and glory and provided joy and happiness to spectators all over the Test playing world with his magnificent batting.

England a poor show

It was a shocker when England were dismissed for 81, their lowest against Sri Lanka in the first innings of the final Test in Galle. Former great teams and players would have been hiding their faces in shame at this gutless batting display.

During that shameless batting effort, the batsmen proved that they lacked the ability, the temperament, the technique and the concentration to challenge Sri Lanka's huge 499 for 5 declared.

In fact the Englishmen gave a lesson on how not to bat and be competitors. Shame would be too light a term to use to describe that batting debacle.

Coach Peter Moores would certainly have given them a telling off and rubbed it on them as to what poor batting it was that brought dishonour to the game and the country. One hopes that England would learn and be better competitors when they tour Kiwiland next.

Galle Cricket Stadium

Our congratulations to former Sri Lankan bowler Jayananda Waranaweera for making it possible for the final Test against England to be played there.

When the tsunami devasted the entire ground and the buildings, it looked as though that would be the end of cricket on that historic ground.

But one man who took up the challenge and never wavered in seeing that cricket would be played there again was Warnaweera.

Designated as the Ground manager, Warnaweera left no stone unturned to see to the successful completion of the stadium to international standard and when the umpires called play the happiest man would have been Jayananda Warnaweera.

Asoka Atapattu, a keen cricket enthusiast who is here from New Zealand to take in the cricket was lavish in his praise for Warnaweera who he described as having done an unbelievable job.

Sri Lanka Cricket would do well to have Warnaweera's name inscribed in some part of the stadium or a building acknowledging the great man's contribution to see that the game was played there once again.

It is a standout stadium and it is hoped that SLC would further take notice of it and do everything possible to see that it maintains its picturesque looks.

Senaratne no more

It was sad to hear about the passing away of Nisal Senaratne, a former wicket keeper batsman of the pre test era.

Senaratne had his first cricketing lessons at Prince of Wales. Thereafter he continued to show talent representing the Singhalese Sports Club and Moratuwa Sports Club.

He was a successful batsman and wicket keeper and it was not long when he played for the then Ceylon Cricket Association.

After his playing days were over, he joined the administration and served as its secretary for many years. It was during his tenure as Secretary that Sri Lanka obtained Test status. Many were the ICC meetings that he attended and took part in discussions that led to Sri Lanka gaining Test status.

Abu Fuard the great allrounder who was the power behind the throne at that time described Senaratne's passing away as a sad moment for the game and in describing Senaratne said that he was a honest friend and worked hard for the player and the game.

Fuard revealed that Senaratne had at times travelled to London for ICC meetings with his own funds, because at that time the Cricket Board was cash strapped 'Even to his dying day, Senaratne had the country's cricket at heart', said Fuard who further described Senaratne as a once in a life time administrator of the game.

He also served as manager of many cricket teams.

Happy X'mas

A happy and joyful X'mas to all our readers.