Sri Lankan cricket has not had good times recently while their team is going through the transition phase. Since the retirement of ace players like Kumar Sangakkara, Mahela Jayawardne, Tillakaratne Dilshan to name a few, Sri Lankan team has struggle to find the right balance in the team.
They didn't had the best of tournament in the recently concluded Champions trophy. They lost their matches to Pakistan and South Africa and couldn't make it to semifinals.
Now, as they are lined up for the bilateral series against Zimbabwe, their team has landed into another trouble. Team has been selected for the series but the players will have to go through a fitness test to make to the final team. Whoever fails to pass the fitness standards will be shown doors out of the team. It all started when Sports minister of Srilanka Jayasekera recently commented on the poor fitness standards after the team's poor display in the Champions trophy. He was found quoting that Srilankan team did not performed well because of the poor fitness levels of the players. He said that Srilankan players have extra fats on their body. Before the selection for the series against Zimbabwe all the players had to go through a fitness test which most of them failed to pass. Further, all the players were warned to control their fats and get fit before the final selection or get ready to leave the team. Interestingly, when the same Srilankan team won the Cricket world cup in 1996 they had players who were not the fittest of all. But 21 years later things have changed with players around world giving proper attention to their fitness levels. That is the reason that srilankan players have been warned to raise the fitness standards.
Meanwhile, Lasith Malinga was not very pleased with sports minister's statement and openly showed his displeasure against the minister making absurd statement. He soon faced the consequences and was penalized with 50% of his next ODI fee and also a ban of one year was imposed upon him. Later he apologized for his statement which resulted in reduction of his ban to 6 months.
-Navdeep Sharma
"Cricket is our religion Sachin is our God" For me these lines have always been true. For me Sachin Tendulkar is a name as high as a name of God in cricket and I can safely say that this is same with many more Tendulkar fans like me. For all such fans who can see him bat even now in those recorded clips with same dedication as we used to watch him play live, for fans who can read about him without blinking the eyes, for fans who still have his image(holding his bat and helmet in air after scoring his numerous tons) in their mind, for fans who feel nostalgic listening to those magical words - Sachiiiin Sachin Sachiiiin Sachin, here is my effort to take you to the memory lane of a splendid cricket career. His illustrious career has spanned for 24 long years and it would be difficult to finish in one blog. So this will be a series of blogs. Lets begin it with Part-1, from his childhood to his first international series in Pakistan. From a child learning to hold th...
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