Since my last post I had the opportunity to look up Daya Sahabandu on Google and found this link: for those interested in our formative years of the late sixtees and seventees it is really precious: http://rcpeople.blogspot.com/2007/10/daya-sahabandu.html. The match I referred to was in 1969 and included amongst others Colin Cowdrey and Tom Graveneyin addition to Edrich. I reproduce a quote on Sahabandu courtesy Premasara Epasinghe from the above article: "Your left arm bowler Daya Sahabandu, is easily the best I have faced in my 20 years of big cricket. I am positive, he should be able to find a place in any county side in England. No bowler could have bowled so well as he did on that plumb placid wicket", stated England's Tom Graveney, after scoring a century against Sri Lanka in Colombo. It is aslo noteworthy that Daya batted for over 4 hours at n0 7 in making 32 n.o. in our unofficial Test against India at Hyderabad in 1975 facing the likes of Bedi, Prasanna and Chadrasekhera.

I think a very important left arm spinner has been overlooked: our equivalent to Derek Underwood, no other than Daya Sahabandu. I saw him bowl against an English team somewhere in the late sixtees that included amongst others John Edrich and Daya had some fantastic figures for the number of consecutive maidens bowled !!

I am surprised that he had been left out as one of our pannelists, Mahinda Wijesinghe, knows Daya well.

MY PREDICTION: Jury is going to select the following team: 1), Sanath 2)Atapatu, 3)Mahela, 4)Arvinda, 5)Ranatunga(c), 6)Sangakara (W), 7)Vaas, 8)Ramesh Tatnayeke, 9)Malinga, 10)Murlidharan, 11)Mandis.

MY TEAM: 1.Atapatu 2.Sanath 3.Dilshan 4.Arvinda 5.Mahela 6.Rana 7.Sanga 8.Vaas 9.VB Johan 10.Malinga 11.Murlitharan

Posted by   on (March 24, 2010, 11:48 GMT)

I will chose Murali and Ajith. This will give a left arm right arm combination to work with. (Just like Malinga and Vaas). Interestingly there is no photograph of him in the article. Say What? Ajith failed to live to expectations in the 4 matches he played!!!!!. Well anybody who saw him play may have a different opinion. How many overs was he given in those matches?. Who were the batsmen he took out including Gooch, Tavare, Fletcher(Considered the destroyer of spinners by many at the time). I think Somachandra might tell how Ajith made the preasure from the other end. However if he played more tests we would have seen his true colours, unfortunately just like Mahes he went to SA and the fans lost a great player.

i agree that outside of Vaas and Murali, SL is lacking true world class elite bowlers but saying that how can some people say that dilshan and mendis are too new and havent done enough so far but still want to include mathews..angelo mathews is my fav. player and i belive is the next great elite all-rounder and sanga's successor as SL captain but he is in the same boat, way to early to include him in anything.

Its ridiculous, the spin wizard has come down to number two, and also KumarDarmasena is excluded in the list, who gave a great support to murali, in 90's

Picking the greatest team cannot be achieved by picking the best individuals fitting the 5 batsmen,WK,3pacemen and 2spinner formula. You need balance, depth and flexibility under different pitches. In the absence of a genuine allrounder you need 6 specialist batsmen which would exclude a genuine WK. Apart from Vaas and Murali there are no great bowlers. The second spinner in this list involves 3 men who were not penetrative and MENDIS who has faded after great start and the idea of 2or3 part timers may be as effective and Thilan could bowl offspin. My revised team is 1.sanath 2.Attapattu 3.Sanga 4.Aravinda 5.Mahela [captain]6.Thilan 7.Prasanna[WK] 8.Vaas 9. Rumesh 10.Malinga 11.Murali and12.Mendis or Matthews could be substituted depending on the pitch. I will stick with the same ODI team 1.Sanath 2, Dilshan,3.Sanga[WK] 4.Aravinda 5.Mahela 6.Arjuna[captain]7.Matthews 8.Vaas 9.Malinga 10.Murali 11.Mendis

This is bull shit...!!! Rangana Herath is a quality spin bowler...He is not in the list... Kumar Dharmasena, Upul Chandana and Sanath Jayasuriya are also not there...

Posted by   on (March 23, 2010, 10:28 GMT)

My choice : Murali and Herath

Murali will be the number one choice.But there are quite a few who mentioned & not mentioned by Sa'adi for the second spot. Don A was not a match winner of course, but he was a partnership breaker. Have heard lot about S De Silva. As I always say it was after 1992 Aussie tour the test drought ended for SL thanks to late Tyronne Fernando who was then President of BCCSL. During this era we witnessed quite a few promising spinners in the likes of Warnaweera,Kalpage, Dharmasena, Jayantha Silva,Upul Chandana who made marathon bowling spells with Murali. There were super spinners like Nimesh Perera in the domestic circuit who never represented SL. I think Ajantha has long way to go & too early to take no.2 . I do not agree with the inclusion of ADe Silva since he was banned from the gentleman's game after SA tour on disciplinary grounds. Same with Bandula Warnapura & I wish Saddi would not short list him for the best captain.