Have your say, what do you think?

Well we all know Sanath Jayasuriya has done a lot of good for Sri Lankan Cricket and world cricket as well but I don’t really understand what his intentions are now?

Well his performance is absolutely rubbish, duck duck and then a 1 or 2 after every five or six matches. It’s really unbearable and annoying, Sri Lankan has so much young talent to put forward and a person who should be working in the best interest of the country (i.e. for the people and the parliament) is blocking every avenue available to these youngsters. At this rate you may still be playing cricket when your own son would find it difficult to make it to the team. What you should be doing at the time is serving the people of Matara, am certain the people didn’t vote for him to travel all around the world to play cricket.

As time passes by I am slowly loosing every bit of respect and gratitude I’ve had for him. I absolutely hate it when I see him playing on TV.

I don’t know how the people of Sri Lanka feel as a whole about this so if you could share something on this thread if would be great.

It seems to me that there is a certain class in Sri Lanka.. let it be from the rich, poor or the middle class.. Their unending authoritarianism, greed, self sufficiency and fooling everyone seem to be the only thing in their minds during their existence.

no one from lankan except a very few like him any more! its really sad, he has lost all his respect. just check daily mirror or adaderana for the comments regarding him!

Playing on a 'Political wicket?'


As England and Australia prepare to meet in the final of the ICC World Twenty20 cricket tournament, there is festering discontent in Sri Lanka whose team was one of the losing semi-finalists.

Sanath Jayasuriya
probably the best cricketer ever produced in the country

The unhappiness is over the continued inclusion in their squad of Sanath Jayasuriya, a former captain who attained legendary status in earlier times but is now widely accused of being past his best – and of using political influence to continue playing.

World record

In the current Sri Lankan cricket team, sport and politics are well and truly mixed up. For the first time anywhere in the world, an elected Member of Parliament is playing international cricket – namely Sanath Jayasuriya, who’s just become a legislator for the President’s party and is continuing his sporting career aged nearly 41.


Sanath Jayasuriya
passed his 'hayday?'

Sri Lanka did reach the semi-finals of the World Twenty20 in the West Indies. But Jayasuriya scored only 15 runs in six matches despite opening the innings for the last four games.

The sports minister has to confirm the selectors’ squad.

sports minister's influence

And there have been unconfirmed rumours that he insisted on Jayasuriya’s inclusion for the tournament, and that the national captain, Kumar Sangakkara, almost resigned in protest.

In the media and the blogosphere there are growing calls for Sanath Jayasuriya to quit cricket. The independent Daily Mirror says he was the best cricketer ever produced in the country; but that his continuation because of what it calls political patronage is “disgraceful”.

It is not 'cricket'

It says cricket was one of the few things that held Sri Lanka together during its war and that this should continue to be so.

On cricketing websites some fans have been scathing, saying that Sri Lanka playing is now like its governing party playing, or that Jayasuriya is “dancing to the tune” of the President.

But one more sympathetic fan questions why people should turn against him just because he is a politician; he is still fitter than many younger players, the fan says.

In an interview with the BBC Sinhala Service, Team Manager Anura Tennakone said that there was no political influence during the team selection process for twenty 20 games.

Source (http://www.bbc.co.uk/sinhala/news/story/2010/05/100515_sanath.shtml)

Well-done Jayasuriya for your self-inflicted destruction

By Lankaputhra

(May 16, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) Sanjay Manjrekar, analyzing the Sri Lanka's defeat against England in the T20 world cup semi-finals, commented that performance of Sri Lanka team was below par and the obvious reason being Jayasuriya at the top and failing. He said Sri Lanka would realize that persisting with Jayasuriya at the top was a mistake.

Yet, who knows cricket better than Rajapakse. He is the person who ordered return of Jayasuriya to the National team when he was dropped after his repeated failure. However, the President’s shallow decision forced the entire nation to pay heavily. Persisting with failed Jayasuriya not only denied the cricket loving public the only joy the game of cricket brought to them but it also inflicted a heavy damage to the confidence of the entire team.

No body in the team wants Jayasuriya there, as he was a heavy burden to the team. The body language of the Captain and the rest of the team summed everything up. Beyond doubt, he is an old horse of no use. How come a man who was dumped by the Mumbai Indian, the team he represented in the IPL, becomes good for the national team of Sri Lanka? Allowing Jayasuriya to play was a big blunder, as all other nations except Sri Lanka took the tournament very seriously and played their best 11 players. As a result of poor decision making, at the end Sri Lanka cricket suffered heavily and lost every plausible chance the national team had to reach to the finals. In fact, under the cirucumstances, Sri Lanka was lucky to reach semifinals with only 10 players and it was a pity that Jayasuriya was allowed to rob everything singlehandedly.

His utterly selfish conduct, lacking national interest, ruined the balance and moral in the team and finally it boiled down to a stage where cricket lowers wished him get out with the first ball he faces without wasting the valuable fist six overs with field restrictions in place. People felt sorry about Sangakkara who was made a scapegoat by the selectors who simply dance according the Rajapakse’s tune. He was utterly helpless. No matter what, he had to persist with Jayasuriya. People cannot reckon this kind of jokes occurring in any other nation except Sri Lanka where democracy is nothing more than a farce.

Now greedy Jayasuriya has achieved his burning desire, however, at an enormous cost and his popularity is now at rock bottom. He scored only paltry 15 runs during the entire six innings he played denying a chance to a young upcoming player. When Tendulkar, who was younger to Jayasuriya and the best batsman of just concluded IPL he simply refused and said that his time in the national team was over and he did not wish to hinder the younger players of their chance to play for the national team.

Having inflicted the maximum damage to Sri Lankan Cricket, Jayasuriya can now conveniently join hands with his ‘political team’ to rob the rest of the country. The irony is that the very game of cricket that lend a hand to this man to reach the pinnacle in his career has turn on him for his downfall, not for anything else but for his utterly self-centered attitude.

SLG (http://www.srilankaguardian.org/2010/05/well-done-jayasuriya-for-your-self.html)

the man's performance is admirable to watch. amazing batsmen imo!