When I first agreed to delve in to the World Cup for the mutiny, I did so because I knew it was important to South Asia, our diaspora and several cute commenters here…but I had no idea how powerful the sport truly is, until now.
Apparently cricket can do what diplomacy, prayers and tears cannot (all quotes via Reuters, Thanks Karthik):
Cricket fever has gripped Sri Lanka after their team secured a place in the World Cup final, diverting attention — at least for the time being — from a worsening civil war.
Cricket-mad fans sat glued to their television sets until the early hours of Wednesday morning to watch Sri Lanka defeat New Zealand by 81 runs in Jamaica.
The success of the cricket team in the Caribbean has provided a welcome distraction from the worsening military conflict between the government and Tamil Tigers, which has left a 2002 ceasefire agreement in tatters.
The two-decade civil war, which has claimed around 68,000 lives, has intensified in the past year with almost daily battles, denting business confidence and contributing to spiralling inflation.
One higher power, many paths; one fervently-desired wish, many prayers:
Multi-faith religious ceremonies are being planned in the lead-up to Saturday’s big game to bless the team, and President Mahinda Rajapaksa will even fly to Barbados for the final.
Yo, this is serious:
The Excise Department has even delayed the start of an alcohol sales ban for Buddhist Wesak holidays by one day. It will now come into effect after the World Cup final.
I got my hopes up…
Even many Tamil Tigers, who control swathes of land in the north and east of the country and are fighting for independence, are watching.
“There are people in the controlled areas watching,” rebel military spokesman Rasiah Ilanthiraiyan said by telephone.
Then felt them sink, even though I’m not Sri Lankan, Tamil, or particularly conscious of this violent, on-going tragedy:
But he added: “Our activities will not change because of these matches. These matches are not going to make any difference.“
I hope he’s full of it. I stupidly and naively hope that cricket really will do for Sri Lanka what nothing else has been able to– give diverse communities a reason to stop killing each other, at least for a little while. As far as I know, it’s difficult to cheer effectively if you’re holding a gun. Yes, that was paneer-laden…but I’m serious. In 1996, Sri Lanka destroyed Australia to win the World Cup; I hope they do so tomorrow, too. If ever there were a country which deserved some cheer…::
For an alternate take on the significance of Sri Lanka’s World Cup success, I’d recommend a post by kettikili over at Pass The Roti.
I, like Mandira Bedi, am not capable of this kind of commentary:
Likewise, today in Sri Lanka, cricket appreciation at its best is hailed as a force of national unity, a testament to the plural, multi-ethnic, multi-linguistic, and multi-religious country we should aspire to be.
After all, our Murali is a Tamil, Sri Lankans, diasporic or not, are wont to say.
This is true. But is this enough? Can we simply rest on the laurels of the team? Sri Lankan cricket represents the ideal nation and its aspirations, not the realities of all its citizens. Sri Lankan cricket, in some sense, is what we hope to be. (I’m bracketing the gendering of that abstract model of citizenship– for now.)
But, as is all too evident now, cricket fanaticism at its worst serves as a distraction from the war, and a convenient way to suppress debate and dissent in favour of a superficial image of national unity.
The rest of the post is here.
Maiden from Slinga.
Vaas is screwing up big time. He better get a wicket soon.
well fernando, time to earn your place. and hello ranjit-bleeding-obvious fernando
Can you hear the drums Fernando?
ah, it does my heart good to see good ol’ Jaya huff down to the boundary
Note to Fernando: AIM for the WICKET
Cripes, Gilchrsit is on FIRE
Well, I think I may safely succumb to asleep now. Maybe when i wake up i’ll find it was alla horrible dream and they are replaying the match with 50 overs a side without Fernando and Dilshan..
they will do well in the batting, they got to, they have to, i need them tooo!!
Looks like the rain delay has hurt Sri Lanka’s focus. Gilchrist is singlehandedly taking the game away from Sri Lanka. Why isnt Malinga bowling?
Prema, he only has eight to bowl! Then again its not as if saving him will be any use right now…
This is utter disaster, not single wicket arrrgggghhh….Sangakkara you pillock!!!
Cricket is boring.
Man, you go out for groceries and find Neel Shah in GQ and Sri Lanka in all sorts of trouble.
Oh, I wish they would get at least one of those tawny scalawags out! The run-rate is not pretty at the moment. For those of you with a willow tv feed: fuck citibank nri accounts; fuck shaadi.com; and fuck western union wire money to brownland and get a free friggin t-shirt. The ads are ridiculoulsy intrusive. Though perhaps slightly better than watching cheering Australians.
good god, what a slaughter. deja vu – shades of 2003 final. india’s bowlers were splendid until the final and then fell apart. malinga deserves a wicket though. and in typical aussie fashion, gilchrist rediscovers his form just in time for the final, reducing the prolific hayden to a mere spectator by comparison. this is all so depressingly familiar and predictable. oh well, you never know. jayasuriya/tharanga/sangakkara may do the same, but against mcgrath/bracken, not so sure, especially if they’re under pressure chasing a huge total.
and gilchrist hits fastest world cup 100, just when it’s needed. fantastic knock.
fastest 100 in a wc final i think.
Whose God: yep fastest 100 in a final. Total slaughter.
FINALLY Malinga comes good.
Shit.
Fucking FINALLY! Someone needs to stop Gilchrist here, though.
A century off only 72 balls for Gilchrist. Man of the match for sure. Where’s the fat lady?
The one good thing that could come out of this perhaps is the realization that the fad of gora coaches for desi teams has run its course. Sri Lanka’s coach is an aussie. Talk about divided loyalties. Pakistan and India, also coached by goras, were humiliated in this World Cup. Bangladesh on the other hand, with a Sri Lankan coach, enjoyed two major upset wins. All the World Cup Championships won by desi teams have been under desi coaches.
Now even Malinga’s getting smacked around. The end is nigh.
if jayasuria goes out in the single digits again I will be pissed. also weren’t they supposed to bring in another guy in place of dilhara for the final?
Prema, Dav whatmore = Bangladesh Coach. He just quit. Let’s not make it gora vs brown, black, green coaches. Some are good some are not.
Jayasuriya is good in tense situations and he can go crazy just like Gilchrist – though he’s not quite as mad. Here’s hoping he comes through.
So if Aus win this, who other than McGrath do you think will retire?
Whats your point? Whatmore is a Sri Lankan. He was Sri Lanka’s coach when it won the World Cup. If India is smart it will hire him to coach the demoralized indian team, now that he is available and has shown interest.
let’s not forget that whatmore coached sri lanka during their 96 world cup final win. sri lanka were rumored to be dropping fernando for the final in favour of maharoof, but decided to stick with fernando. the match was well within sri lanka’s hands after the first 10 overs – apparently that was the lowest score for australia in their first 10 overs in this world cup – but have lost the plot since or had it almost single-handedly taken away from them by gilchrist. maybe it’s a good sign for sangakkara. both wicketkeepers/batsmen were in less than stellar form with the bat during this world cup.
Whatmore’s Lanka-born Aussie.
enjoy the rest of the game guys, going to get drunk and hurl abuse at ozzies, good chance i will get my arse kicked, all in good fun.
enjoy.
this run rate is goddamn ridiculous.
I am going back to being Indian. 🙂
gilchrist is out ..lets hope SL can contain the runrate at least now.
FINALLY!
wow dilhara did something useful.
Again, whats your point? He is not a gora coach. He is a Sri Lankan who grew up in Australia.
oh and it was on gilchrist’s 149.
I say they reach 340. and SL, as they say, “crumbles”.
“Whatmore’s Lanka-born Aussie.” – means is he is a gora born in sri lanka, not the other way around. He isnt an aboriginal either 🙂
Whatmore is a product of Australian, translation Gora cricket system. He introduced a lot of Aussie concepts to Lanka’s WC winning team. It’s not a simplistic Gora vs. whoever world. Some coaches are good and some are not. Enjoy the game.
<
blockquote>I’m a little worried about all the negativity towards Australia on this thread; some of it seems to border on simple national prejudice. I want Sri Lanka to win, but not because I hate the Aussies; instead, it’s because I always tend to go for the underdog (and I enjoy the infectious enthusiasm of Murali and co). I admire the Australian team for what they’ve done over the years; in players such as Warne and Gilchrist, they have produced genuine entertainers as well as winners. True, there have been moments when the Aussies haven’t been exactly noble (I’m thinking here mainly of Darren Lehmann’s “black c***s” outburst before the last World Cup), but to tar them all as racists is simplistic (and hypocritical); it also ignores counter examples such as Steve Waugh’s charity work with child lepers in India, and Brett Lee’s duet with Asha Bhosle (although I could understand why you might want to ignore the latter).
<
blockquote>
You are right, you can’t paint all Aussies with the same brush. But I will say there is a something troubling about a country that attracts a large amount of Afrikaaners who couldn’t stomach a Black South Africa. I do hope Indians back home become more assertive when dealing with foreigners, welcoming but not obsequious
bah I didn’t realize they’re already capped to 38 overs.
Finally.. what a mammoth final score of 281 just in 38 overs ( rain shortened match) – Good luck Sri Lanka.
As expected, Australians are firing on all cylinders and then some. The bigger the stage, the better the Australians perform. This is not a contest of equals. Its a coronation party for the team from down under.
Australia is at 280/4 off 38 overs. Lets see if they can cross 375.
Good luck Sri Lanka.
They will need more than good luck 🙂
Ok, the Sri Lankans have an outside chance now as the game has been reduced to 38 overs.
The match is not 50 overs but shortened to 38 overs (due to rain). Australia’s 280 in those 38 overs are almost unreachable. If only Jayasuriya gets going, we have some hope. The 1st wicket partnership must be atleast 75 for any realistic hope.
Stop jinxing it.
I hope that everyone who is supporting Sri Lanka in the final is doing so because of any reason other than that they are brown too. Imagine if in football/soccer if the final was against Germany and Japan (unlikely of course but I’m trying to make a point) and then all the people from other European countries like the UK started saying ‘we are all German’ / ‘go whites’.
Tharanga gone.
Your point is not well-taken, Ajit. On so many levels. And if you do have issues with brown solidarity, why on earth are you reading this blog? I can’t imagine how frustrated it would make you, considering we’re ALL Brown, ALL THE TIME.