Enemy of your (auld) enemy is your friend

In the Super Eights, in one of the most closely-contested matches of the tournament, Sri Lanka had defeated England by two runs, putting paid to their hopes of making it to the semis. One might have thought that would be an issue of sour grapes but seeing the traditional enemy, Australia, ousted seems to have exerted a greater pull on Englishmen. Most of them are expected to root for the Sri Lankans in Saturday’s final against the Aussies.

Dominick Chilcott, the British high commissioner in Colombo, is certainly one. According to AFP, shedding any pretence of diplomatic neutrality the British envoy led the high commission staff in signing greetings to Mahela Jayawardene and his team-mates ahead of Saturday's game in Barbados.

“The British High Commission wish the Sri Lankan cricket team the best of luck in Saturday's cricket World Cup final," the mission said in a statement signed by all its staff."We're hoping for a repeat of the 1996 World Cup final result. Come on you Sri Lankan Lions. Let's hear you roar,” the message said. Chilcott, dressed in the Sri Lankan team's blue and yellow T-shirt, and 52 staff members were seen gesturing animatedly in support of the Sri Lankan team.

Meanwhile, the government and businesses in Sri Lanka are capitalising on the feel-good factor resulting from the national team’s progress to the final. The country’s official tourism slogan is "a land like no other", and adding gloss to it traditional masks, balloons and placards have become ubiquitous not only in Colombo but in remote hamlets as well describing bleached-haired Lasith Malinga as a "lad like no other" and Sanath Jayasuriya a "master blaster like no other".

Backing the World Cup has also already made good business sense for local companies. The winning captain at Saturday's showdown will walk away with more than two million dollars in prize money and the runner-up will pocket a million dollars. In addition to the prize money other payments associated with the tournament will amount to about 10 million dollars. If all else fails, the fat tournament cheque should revitalise Sri Lanka's sagging rupee, which has lost about five percent of its value against the dollar in the past year.