Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) has been suspended by the ICC board with immediate effect because of extensive government interference in SLC administration. “The ICC Board met today and determined that Sri Lanka Cricket is in serious breach of its obligations as a Member, in particular, the requirement to manage its affairs autonomously and ensure that

In almost certainly the most explosive press conferences of his career, Angelo Mathews called the actions of opposition captain Shakib Al Hasan and the Bangladesh team “obviously disgraceful”. He said he’d “never seen a team or player stoop so low” in his 15 years of playing international cricket. And he said that it was “unfortunate”

Sri Lanka Cricket’s (SLC) administrative malaise took another turn on Tuesday as the country’s court of appeal issued a 14-day stay order preventing the government Gazette that appointed an “interim committee” from taking effect. The move had been spearheaded by the country’s sports minister Roshan Ranasinghe, but had been appealed against by SLC president Shammi

“One of our fielders came to me and said, ‘If you appeal now, he will be out, if you are serious’. Then I appealed and the umpire asked me whether I was serious and whether I was going to take it back or not. I said no if it is in the rule if it’s

According to Angelo Mathews, the on-field umpires who adjudged him timed out on Monday had admitted to Sri Lanka’s coaching staff that they erred in not checking how much time had elapsed between the previous dismissal, and Mathews’ helmet strap breaking. It appears that Mathews heard of this admission second-hand. “The umpires [Marais Erasmus and

Sri Lanka’s sports minister Roshan Ranasinghe has sought to sack the Sri Lanka Cricket board, replacing officials with a government-appointed “interim committee” headed by Arjuna Ranatunga. It is unclear as yet what the ICC’s response to this move is, given the ICC had taken a dim view of Sri Lanka’s last government-appointed committee in 2014.

Big Picture: Problems to address for both teams Well, this might not be quite the must-win scenario either of these sides would have been envisioned being involved in towards the tail-end of this tournament, but the ICC’s confirmation that the top seven finishers (and hosts Pakistan) will gain qualification for the 2025 Champions Trophy has

Sri Lanka Cricket secretary Mohan de Silva resigned from his board position on Saturday. His resignation comes after both widespread criticism of the board following Sri Lanka’s crashing out of the Men’s ODI World Cup, as well as a release from the nation’s sports minister asking SLC’s executive committee to resign or face drastic action.

Sri Lanka Cricket has called for “an urgent and comprehensive explanation from the entire coaching staff and selectors” following the team’s 302-run defeat in their World Cup match against India in Mumbai. Sri Lanka lost five of their first seven games to South Africa, Australia, Pakistan, Afghanistan and India, and have beaten only Netherlands and

Afghanistan 242 for 3 (Omarzai 73, Rahmat 62, Shahidi 58*) beat Sri Lanka 241 (Nissanka 46, Farooqi 4-34, Mujeeb 2-38) by seven wickets For the second game running Afghanistan showcased exemplary calm in the chase, whittling down a sub-par target of 242 with ice-cold composure. A trio of fifties from Rahmat Shah, Hashmatullah Shahidi and

Sri Lanka mascot and superfan Percy Abeysekara, affectionately known as Uncle Percy, has died aged 87. Percy had been a fixture at Sri Lankan cricket matches for more than five decades, but gained global prominence during the 1996 World Cup, particularly when he was seen parading the Sri Lanka flag around the ground at Lahore,

Big picture – Teams look to capitalise on momentum While this World Cup has only belatedly started offering up some nail-biters, it’s been rather more generous in terms of unexpected results. As a result, despite the sides currently occupying the top-four spots in the points table being the likeliest to make it through to the

Lahiru Kumara has been ruled out of the World Cup after hurting his left thigh during training in Pune, where Sri Lanka play their next game of the tournament, against Afghanistan on Monday. He has been replaced in the Sri Lanka squad by Dushmantha Chameera, who becomes the third player to come in as an

Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) has unveiled Lanka T10, their first ten-over competition to be played from December 12-23. The tournament will be held in Colombo, with the player auction to be conducted on November 10. There are also plans to also host a women’s T10 league at the same time. While details about the women’s

Sri Lanka 160 for 2 (Nissanka 77*, Samarawickrama 65*) beat England 156 (Stokes 43, Kumara 3-35) by eight wickets England’s World Cup defence is not dead yet. And more’s the pity, to judge by this latest hollow-eyed display from Jos Buttler’s ex-worldbeaters. The humiliations are coming so thick and fast that they are losing their

The light at the end of the tunnel was a train. England have spent the last four weeks travelling around India talking about responding to setbacks and awaiting the statement performance that has never arrived. If their defeats to New Zealand, Afghanistan and South Africa were bad, this might have been the worst of the

Angelo Mathews had made peace with the circumstances that led to him not being a part of Sri Lanka’s initial World Cup squad, but wasn’t ready to throw in the towel yet. It didn’t matter that he had played all of seven ODIs since the start of 2020 – including three earlier this year in

Pathirana is Sri Lanka’s second injury loss this World Cup after their captain Dasun Shanaka was ruled out due to a quadriceps tear, which he had also picked up during the match against Pakistan. Chamika Karunaratne had taken Shanaka’s place in Sri Lanka’s squad, with wicketkeeper-batter Kusal Mendis standing in as captain. They are also

Sri Lanka 263 for 5 (Samarawickrama 91, Nissanka 54, Dutt 3-44) beat Netherlands 262 (Engelbrecht 70, van Beek 59, Madushanka 4-49, Rajitha 4-50) by five wickets An unbeaten 91 from Sadeera Samarawickrama shepherded home a tricky chase as Sri Lanka overcame a resilient Dutch outfit and finally got points on the board. The result means

Big picture: Netherlands are catching up When these two sides met a little over three months ago, the picture could not have been more dissimilar. Sri Lanka had just racked up a clean sweep of the World Cup Qualifier and dispatched the Dutch twice over the course of the tournament. While the first was an

Chameera, 31, would have been a first-choice pick in Sri Lanka’s World Cup squad but was not fit enough for selection by the deadline. He last played for Sri Lanka in June against Afghanistan and in the warm-ups of the World Cup qualifier. After that, he was initially out with a torn pectoral muscle, which

But an “independent inquiry committee” appointed by SLC has now recommended an “immediate lifting of [Gunathilaka’s] cricketing ban, allowing him to resume regular activities and return to national duty”. Gunathilaka, 32, has himself expressed a strong desire to return to training and cricket since being found not guilty in a Sydney court on September 23.

Sri Lanka’s batting has been lopsided in all their three World Cup games so far but it was only against Australia that it was truly exposed. After racking up a 125-run opening stand, they lost 10 wickets for just 84 runs. While it’s easy to say it was just a bad day, it would be

Australia 215 for 5 (Inglis 58, Marsh 52, Labuschagne 40, Maxwell 31*, Stoinis 20*, Madushanka 3-38) beat Sri Lanka 209 (Perera 78, Nissanka 61, Zampa 4-47, Cummins 2-32, Starc 2-43) by five wickets Australia chased down Sri Lanka’s sub-par 209 with some ease, cantering to a five-wicket win in Lucknow to revive their flagging World

Big Picture Even in a tournament with nine group-stage matches which allows room for a slip up or two, you don’t want to be 0-3 early in the competition but that’s the situation which will confront one of these teams after they face off in Lucknow in what already shapes as a contest to retain

Sri Lanka’s team management confirmed to ESPNcricinfo that Kusal Mendis will lead in Shanaka’s stead, as he has served as the team’s vice-captain for the past few months, and in fact led them in one of Sri Lanka’s warm-up matches, which Shanaka had missed. Team manager Mahinda Halangoda also said that despite Shanaka exiting the

South Africa 428 for 5 (van der Dussen 108, Markram 106, de Kock 100) beat Sri Lanka 326 (Asalanka 79, Mendis 76, Shanaka 68, Coetzee 3-68) by 102 runs Progressively more emphatic centuries from Rassie van der Dussen, Quinton de Kock and Aiden Markram would in the end prove to be the decisive contributions as

Sri Lanka will be without Maheesh Theekshana for their World Cup opener against South Africa, head coach Chris Silverwood has confirmed on the eve of the game, with the spinner not yet fully recovered from the hamstring tear he suffered in the Asia Cup. Sri Lanka, however, will have the services of both Kusal Perera

Afghanistan 116 (Zadran 51, Thushara 4-17) beat Sri Lanka 108 (Arachchige 22, Qais 3-16, Naib 3-28) by eight runs After opting to field, Sri Lanka struck with the seventh ball of the match when Nuwan Thushara cleaned up Sediqullah Atal. Noor and Mohammad Shahzad then added 54 for the second wicket but both batters struggled

Afghanistan 261 for 4 (Gurbaz 119, Rahmat 93) beat Sri Lanka 294 (Mendis 158, Samarawickrama 39, Nabi 4-44) by six wickets via DLS method After Afghanistan lost opener Ibrahim Zadran early in their chase of 295, Gurbaz and Rahmat played steadily and was unbeaten on 53 and 51 respectively, when rain halted the play in