Three Sweet Victories but?
Amidst the worst economic crisis faced by Sri Lanka in the post-independent era, the country’s sportsmen and women excelled to clinch two major Asian titles on 11th September 2022. Sri Lanka national Cricket team was crowned the Asian Champions while the national netball team beat Singapore to bag the Asian title in Singapore. Incidentally, these two tournaments took place on the same day in two corners of the world. On the top of it, Sri Lanka’s veteran Cricket team led by Thilakaratne Dilshan beat the formidable Australian team in the ‘Road Safety World series’ held in India once again on the same day.
Sri Lanka national Cricket squad entered the Asia Cup tournament virtually as underdogs due to the team’s ‘not very impressive’ performance in the recent past. At the qualifying first round, Sri Lanka team was surprisingly routed by minnows of World Cricket; Afghanistan in the very first match faced by them. This upset win by Afghanistan broke the spirits of the local fans to such an extent that they expected a humiliating exit of the team from the first round itself. But, it was not to be. Thereafter, the spirited Sri Lankan team maintained consistency and supremacy throughout the tournament.
The turnaround began with Sri Lanka cruising to a victory against Afghanistan in the quarter finals. After that, The Indian team which was the hot favorites to defend their Asian title was convincingly beaten by Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka continued to maintain its winning streak to beat Pakistan and enter the final in style. Before the beginning of the tournament, Sri Lanka was rated down the table with remote chances of winning the Asian title. Furthermore, the Sri Lanka team was downgraded, humiliated and belittled by some biased commentators and social media activists. But, Sri Lanka team went to the tournament with their head high undeterred by outrageous comments cast against them.
This was notwithstanding the fact that even some Bangladeshi and Afghanistan players and administrators unleashed a verbal barrage against Sri Lanka to lower their morale. But, Sri Lanka’s new outfit was a highly inspired lot which they proved in no uncertain terms at the end. Sri Lanka encountered Pakistan once again in the final and emerged victorious putting all ill-conceived predictions of Cricket pundits into the dustbin. Sri Lanka won the final by 23 runs. It is apparent that the poor Sri Lanka team had to face this humiliation because of the chaotic situation back in Sri Lanka. This is a good indicator how the world is looking at bankrupt Sri Lanka as of now. It was indeed a commendable act of plucky Sri Lankans who annexed its 6th Asian Championship title in a no nonsense mindset against all odds.
Before Sri Lanka’s triumph in Asian Cricket circuit, Sri Lankan women Netballers beat Singapore convincingly to clinch the Asian Championship for the second consecutive time. In fact, Sri Lanka’s victory was spearheaded by 6’9’’ tall Tharjini Sivalingam from Jaffna. Sri Lanka’s netballers dominated in the last three quarters to record the victory in the margin of 63 to 53 at the end. This win was further sparked by the Sri Lankan Cricket team later in the day. Meanwhile, Sri Lanka’s Legends Cricket team taking part in the ‘Road Safety World Series’ pulled off an exciting win against a strong Australians. Sri Lankan skipper Thilakaratne Dilshan played a captain’s inning thereby scoring a splendid century. He was ably assisted by another frontline veteran Dilshan Munaweera. Sri Lanka being the runner up in the first episode of this world series is hoping to bag the championship this time. All Sri Lankans hope that their determination will bear fruits in the coming days.
However, Sri Lanka’s economic woes are far from a permanent solution. The government seems to heavily bank on the forthcoming IMF bail-out loan of USD 2.9 Billion. In the run up, chaos still prevails in the country. Meanwhile, the government is being accused by local and international communities for suppressing protestors and the spree of arrests being made. In the underlying, Sri Lankans have nothing to rejoice over in the economic front. Inflation is uncontrollably high in Sri Lanka at present. Basically, Sri Lankans are pressed to the wall. Sri Lanka is now a country in peril. People are so hopeless. It is a great thing that our sportsmen and women were able to bring a smile on 22 million people in Sri Lanka.
Namo magazine would also like to take this opportunity to congratulate Sri Lanka’s national Cricket and Netball teams for their flamboyant feats in the international sports arena and also to extend best wishes for veteran Cricketers to rewrite the history this time.
