Many international meets for Lankan athletes

The year 2008 would be a significant one not only for Sri Lanka but the entire international sporting world as the next edition of the summer Olympic Games are scheduled for later this year.

Undoubtedly the Olympic Games, the world sporting extravaganza, would generate so much of excitement and enthusiasm across the globe. We in Sri Lanka fulfilled our dream of an Olympic medal after 52 years when Susanthika Jayasinghe bagged the women's 200m bronze in Sydney eight years ago.

Once again, Jayasinghe would be looking forward for another medal in her farewell Olympiad. Her second IAAF World Championship medal in Osaka last September gave an indication that she has still not lost her old touch and brightened Sri Lanka's prospect of another Olympic medal in Beijing.

Besides the Olympic Games in Beijing, there are many international meets lined up for Lankan athletes this year, beginning with the South Asian Championship in India in March. While participating at all those meets and gaining experience, our ultimate goal should be to win many gold medals at the 2010 Asian Games in China.

If we could groom a good set of prospective medal winners, we could give them the necessary exposure during this year and send them for some serious intensive training next year. If we implement this, we could have a formidable national squad by the end of next year.

In cricket, Sri Lanka should make every endeavour to consolidate its position from the current No.3 spot in the ICC world Test rankings. Especially, Sri Lanka team should prove their consistency and try to make it a habit of winning, especially on foreign soil.

The Lankan team is down to play nine Tests and that would enable our champion bowler Muttiah Muralitharan to consolidate his position as the highest wicket taker in Test cricket. It was in December that Muralitharan erased Australian Shane Warne's world mark of 708 wickets and if he maintains the same rhythm, the spin wizard could well become the first man to capture 800 Test wickets during this year.

We could also expect several champion stuff from two of Sri Lanka's greatest batsmen - skipper Mahela Jayawardene and top order bat Kumar Sangakkara. If they let their willows talk more often, then Sri Lanka could look forward to a great time.

Despite many negative travel advisories by some countries due to terror acts, sports tours brought many foreign tourists. Especially, the recently concluded tour here by England brought many British fans. Those 'Barmy Army' men were in their numbers to support the England team.

Special mention should be made of the Sri Lanka Cricket media team, headed by Samanth Algama. Over 50 top British media personalities, including former England cricketers Derek Pringle, Jonathan Agnew, Ian Botham, Anges Fraser, Christopher Martin-Jenkins and David Lloyd were here.

Taking about terrorist attacks and travel advisory, the National Olympic Committee (NOC) of Sri Lanka too beat the odds to host the recent Commonwealth Games General Assembly in Sri Lanka.

Thanks to the untiring efforts of the NOC President Hemasiri Fernando, the NOC did well to host over 400 participants from nearly 75 countries for the Commonwealth Games General Assembly. It paved the way for Sri Lanka to promote Colombo not only as a sporting destination but also to boost its tourism.

The big news in the New Year was the appointment of Arjuna Ranatunga as the head of Sri Lanka Cricket Interim Committee, replacing Jayantha Dharmadasa. Ranatunga, Sri Lanka's World cup winning captain does not need any introduction. He knows his onions and should fit in well.

But what matters is the people around and opportunists who would be eyeing for contracts and other perks through the SLC. We believe Ranatunga would live up to expectations and would not tolerate any wrong doing. At the same time, we would try to put everything on the right track.

It is important that Ranatunga forms a high profile advisory body comprising some former Sri Lanka cricketers who could earn respect. As the first Test cricketer to head local cricket administration, Ranatunga has a huge responsibility on his shoulders.