Sri Lanka 'A' play Northants today (14 July 1999)

14 July 1999

Sri Lanka 'A' play Northants today

Dinesh Weerawansa

Sri Lanka 'A', enjoying a highly successful tour of England, will take on Northamptonshire in their four-day first class tour match to be played at Northampton from Thursday.

Led by Naweed Nawaz, Sri Lanka 'A' has done extremely well winning all their three matches on tour so far - beating England Cricket Board X1 by 64 runs in the opening three-day game, New Zealand national team by three wickets and Lancashire by 179 runs.

The British media gave good publicity to the Lankan second X1 team after their convincing win over Lancashire. 'Whatmore's present lost to Whatmore's future' one headline said referring to Lancashire coach Dav Whatmore's plans to reassume as Sri Lanka's national coach from next month. However, Lancashire's overseas player of the year, Muttiah Muralitharan opted out of this game and did not use his deadly off breakes, which shocked English county batsmen, against his own countrymen.

Spinners Priyankara Wickremasinghe and Rangana Herath were the most outstanding bowlers for Sri Lanka 'A' in the respective Lancashire innings. Wickremasinghe also made a fine 62 while Avishka Gunawardena (62) and Indika Gallage (54 n.o) contributed towards their success as batsmen.

Among the others who have shown promise on tour so far are skipper Nawaz who made a top score of 75 in the first match against England Cricket Board X1, paceman Ravindra Pushpakumara (match bag of seven wickets in the same game. Avishka Gunawardena (79) and T.M. Dilshan (77) were the architects of Sri Lanka 'A's exciting win over the Kiwis.

With Sri Lanka cricket in a crisis situation and needing to regain their lost prestige, it's encouraging to see the younger generation doing well and showing Sri Lanka is not short of talent. At a time when the national selectors are looking to have youngsters included in the team as an investment for the future, it's nice to see Sri Lanka 'A' team making their presence felt in England, only a couple of months after their national team's humiliating first round exit at the World Cup.

All 16 members of the Sri Lanka 'A' team now in England are in a 30-member Sri Lanka national pool for next month's Triangular tournament and September's three-Test home series against Australia. Those who excel in England are sure to catch the selectors' eye when they name the final teams.

Meanwhile, off spinner Muttiah Muralitharan, who is going great guns on his debut in English county cricket with just 37 wickets in three games, could only play two more four-day county championship matches for Lancashire starting from tomorrow, as he should join the Sri Lanka national pool preparing for the Triangular series which also features neighbours India and new World champions Australia.

Source :: The Daily News (https://www.lanka.net/lakehouse/)