Ever�thingto pla for,and no ingtolose

The Aus v Sri Lanka T20 Series will be agreat platform for the future generation of limited-overs heroes to strut their stuff

...t;i. t,

BYRITAMMIT""

If ever an international cricker rour could be labelled"out of conrext", rhe three upcomingT20 Internationals between Australia andSri Lanka would ordinarilv be in your sights. Following visirs to Australia by South Africa and Pakisran, the T20 series comes after the conclusion of five weeks of almost nightlyBig Bashcricket, and during a time at which several of Australia's first-choiceplayersfind tl1emselves in Dubai preparing for the upcomingTest series in India. Luckily for the viewing public, despire me surroundingcircurnst.'111ces,botl1 sides have plenty co prove; and in an otl1erwise inconsequential series contested in rbe spore's most electric format - a format tailor-made for the bold and the daring- mere is no better platform for the fumre generation of limited-overs heroes to announce themselves onme worldstage.

SciLanka arriveson Australian shores on the back of whatcan only be described as a punishing tour of South Africa. There, rbe tourists edged out thehostsin an incrediblycloseT20 series, but theirsuccess in that format was bookended bya 3-0 whitewashin rhe precedingTest series, and a 5-0 whitewash io me following One-Day fotemationals. It was onlythe second time in SciLanka's immensely proudOne-Day International hisrory tliat ir suffered this particular ignominy; worryingly though, both such occasionshave come in tl1e lase cwo years.

The prevailing issue is chat me SriLankao sideis caught in a state of flux;almough teams such as India andAustralia have also lose some of their greatest servants iothe recent past, me retiremern of Sci Lankao legends Sllch as Dilshan, Sangakkara and Jayawardene arelikelyto be tl1emost damaging. lndiahasbeen blessedwit!, me likes of Kohli, Rahane and Pujara,and Australia too has flollfished withSmim, Warner and Khawaja. Sri Lanka,however, has struggled to discover - and develop -its future greats, through nofault of its own. Revealingly, sinceSangakkara'sretirement in 2015,Sri Lankahas only won 12 of its35 One-DayInternational matches.

An obvious example of the unsettled state of the Sri Lankao teamis the supremely talented Dinesh Chanclimal. Chandimal has long been identified as one of SriLanka's fumrescars, yet, frustratingly,he remains perennially prone to worryingly regular form slumps. Having been Sri Lanka's most consistent batsman in2016, Chandimal has been dropped from the rom: of Australia aftera string of recent failures ar the international level, despire captainingSr:i Lanka in its most recentT20 in South Africa.

ThenthereisThisara Perera, an e.....:plosive all-rounder for whomtl1e T20 format seems me perfect fir. Yet, due tohisinconsistency acme highestlevel,be also failed to secure his p1-tce in the side desp te strong performances for the Melbourne Renegades in tl1e BigBash League.

Chief selector Sanatl1Jayasuriya is aware of the issues plaguing menational team, but is at aloss co identifyme cause of rbe team's slump. "[I] wouldn'rsay tl1ere's a dearm of talent, but we don'tproduce tl1ose champion cricketers as much as we clid in the past," he said, "l don't di.ink it's a problem with the domestic structure or the school structure, because it's the very system that produced all those champion cricketers io me past. So, we need to assess chis situationand find om

Scenesfrom theT20Internationalsduring theSri wheretheproblemisandcorrectit."

Thehomeside'sstocksa.renotnea.rly asbleak.Despitetheabsenceofahostof regularssuchasSteveSmith,David\Xlarner, UsmanKhawaja,MitchellStarc,Josh HazlewoodandGlennMaxwell,Australia's sidefeaturesanenticingblendofyouthand experience,withseveralfascinatingsub-plots toexplore.Theyotmgguns,forinstance, featureplayerssuchasPatCummins,Ashton Turner,BillyStanlake,AdamZa.mpaand JhyeRichardson,whoareallunder25.There aresomeinthesquadthough,whowould debatewhetherthatisthe"right"sideof 25-MichaelKlinger,forinstance,willbe Australia'ssecond-oldestdebutantinany formatin30years,afterfinallyea.minga nationalcall-upattheageof36.AndTim Paine,whowascoutedasafutureAustralian Testcaptainbeforebeingcruellysidelinedfor severalyearsbyafingerinjury,alsomakesbis returntothegreenandgoldaftersixyearsin thedomesticwilderness.

Althoughthelong-termgoalfortheLions maybetounearththeirnextcricketinggreats, theimmediateseepmustbecobuildawinning culture,pa.rticularlyoverseas.Withtalismanic captainAngeloMathewsoutofactiondueto injury,itwillbeupcostand-inskipperUpu.l Tharanga,nodoubtboostedinhismissionby thereturnofthein.imitableLasithJ\falinga, tomotivatehisyotmgchargestomakea nameforthemselvesatthehighestlevel.And itshouldn'ttakehimmuch-it'sloogbeen knownthatstrongperformancesbytourist� inAustraliamaketheworldstandupandtake notice.Afterall,Australiaisthelandofthe ne,1er-say-die,thehomeofthekillerinstinct, andthebackyardofthefearless.

WithanAustraliansidefullofsparkling youthandtwinklingexperience,andaSri Lankanteamdesperatefotamoraleboost afteritsrecemtriptorockbottom,both sideshaveeverythingcoplayfor,andnothing tolose;againsrallodds,thiswillmakefor compellingviewing.

Australia squad

Aaron Finch (c), Ben Dunk, Patrick Cummins,James Faulkner,TravisHead, Moises Henriques, Michael Klinger,Tim Paine,Jhye Richardson, Billy Stanlake, AshtonTurner,AndrewTye,AdamZampa

Sri Lanka squad

UpulTharanga(c), Niroshan Dickwella, AselaGunarathna, DilshanMunaweera, Kusal Mendis, MilindaSiriwardena, Sachith Pathirana,Chamara Kapugedara,Seekuge Prassanna, Nuwan Kulaskera,lsuruUdana, Dasun Shanaka, Lakshan Sandakan, Lasith Malinga,VikumSanjaya

Sri Lanka's golden moments on the world stage

the wilyArjuna Ranarungabad under his command areamoozing wid1 confidence, selfbelief andof course, talent.

BYAJAY NAIDU

In sport,asin art, sexormusic, the thrill of the first conqL1estisas unique as it ismemorable. The unbridled joylasts forever.

WhenArjunaRa□anmga'sSriLankan teamclirnbed theEverest of Expectations againstMarkTaylor'sAustralianson that memorablenight atGaddafiStadiumin Lahore,in the 1996\Xlodd Cupfinals,it sent the beautifulislandnation into a frenzy. Indeed,muchlike the cherryon top of the cake,theSri Lankans seemed ro have reserved theirbest forlast astheyconquered theworld in style - witha sensationalseven-wicker victory over theirfanciedrivals.

With everysinglevictoryin that tomnarnent, Ranamnga's men (outsidersat oddsof 66-1) were makinga huge statement of intent.Eachof theirgiant-killingacts on theirway tothe tide was like asignpost to the fumre,that the entire unitwas totally passionate andcommittedtorealise the Ill1)' island'sdream.

As they put inan inspired performance game aftergame,itwas clear!)' evident that

The mercilessSanad1Jayasuryaand 'pocketdynan1ite' RomeshKaluwitharanaformed die moste,,plosive openersiubusiness.The giftedAtavindadeSilva tookastar turn in d1e semi-final and the final. Andthe experienced Arjuna Ranamngaplayed both the anchorand adventurerinequalmeasure.Then,therewere younggunslikeAsankaGurusinha,Hasan TillkaratneandRoshanMal1anama whoalso played theirparts to perfection.

On the bowling front,ChamindaVassand PramodyaWickramasiughe excelled in the pacedepartment. However,it was thespinners Muttiah Muralid1aran,Kw11arDharmasena, SanarhJayasuryaandAravinda deSilva who kept theopponent5on atight leash.

Having stunnedIncliain itsown backyard in ahigh-profile semi-final at Eden Gardens, theSri Lankanshada date with destiny in the megaEna! againstAustralia.

Ineachof the fivepreviousWorldCupfinals, itwas the teambattingfirstwhicl,badwon. Again,theconventionalwisdomtillthen was tobar firstinabig-matchpressuresituation.As itwere,justashe waswalkingoutfor toss,the greatLnranKhan had somegoldenadvicefor theSriLanka□c.'lprain."Barfirstif you winthe toss,"Imranqu.iedycoldRanatunga.

However, d1eSriLankans hadd1eirown blueprintfor success,evenif itmeant pitting themselves against history.ArjunaRanamnga followed his own wisdomas he called correctlyand invitedAustraliato bat first.It wasadecisionwhich surely leftMarkTaylor pleasantlysurprised.

They say,it's never,vise tojudgea day untilit isevening.And on d1at historic clay at Gaddafi Sradimn,Rananmga and his team showed justwhy this is true.

\'v'hen it matteredmost,themercurial Aravinda deSilva produced amagi.cal performance,both with thebat and wid, d1e balJ, leaving SriLankan fansalJ over the world ecstatic.

Astheeveningwore on,Atavindaproduceda dreamhundred tomatchdiehistoric occasion. AUshimmeringstrokesandsupreme style,he battedasif couchedbythe divine,goingon to score a gorgeousunbeatencenrury.

And,in fitnessof diings, ArjunaRanatw1ga too wasin themiddleas dieSciLankans scripted agolden chapterin theircricketing folklore.

\'v'hen d1atmagic momentcame,as Ranatunga lifted theWorldCuptrophy,there wasa lump in the throatand rears in d1e eyes of everySriLankan.

Thescores:Australia241for7in50overs(Mark Tq)lfor74,Ric�•Po11ti11g45,Michtu:IBevan36*. ArmlindadeSilva3.fo,·42)losttoSriJ_,ank.t1 245for3in46.2ovct:r(Asank11Gumsinha65, Aravi11dadeSilva10711.0.,A,j11naR.a11aflmga47 n.o.)I?)71JJickets.

After the 1996World Cup triumph,Sri Lanlrnhad to endure a long, frustrating wait before they could ,vinanother world tide. Andyet,it was not that they were nor doing well on the world stage.Ir was just that d1ey were the proverbial bridesmaidrepeatedly.

The Srj Lan.kans lost four WorldCup finals in 2007 (50Overs \Xlorld Cup), 2009 (T20World Cup),2011 (50OversWorld Cup)and 2012 (T20World Cup).

Eve□tually, they broke rbe 18-year long World Cup jinx by winning the T20World Cup tide in Dhaka in 2014. The title was aL�o a bewtiful farewell gift for their legends KW11ar Sangakkara andMaheiaJayawardene who were playing their final T20games.

Kumar Sangakkaraalso did wellto pm the icing on the cake by striking a matchwinning half-century to fasbioo Sri Lanka's six-wicket triumph over 1hhendrn Singh Dhoni's Team lncUa.

The veteran left-hander scored a 35-ball 52 not out to guide the Sri Lankan chase of a modest 131-run target in 17.5 overs at a packed Shere Banglastadium.

"It'sbeen a long time coming, (we've) waited five fi11als,"said Sangakkarain his crowning glory moment. "I am pretty happy that I was able to do something for the team.It means a Jot to all of us.V/..le are very humbled by d1is."

,, The Sri Lankans were the proverbial bridesmaid repeatedly. They lostfour World Cup finals in 2007 (50 Overs World Cup), 2009 (T20World Cup), 2011 (50 Overs World Cup) and 2012 (T20 World Cup) ''