Imagine the scene. You’re the captain. A captain who had been thrust into the role a couple of matches into a World Cup. And your team? They have just lost two games on the bounce. Actually, five of the last seven. The latest one was against India – a perfectly in-sync, cricketing destroyer of worlds.

As the Sri Lanka squad arrived home after a disappointing 2023 World Cup, consultant coach Mahela Jayawardene attributed much of the team’s struggles the types of tracks being produced for domestic cricket in Sri Lanka. These pitches, he said, neither allowed their batters to be in top hitting form heading into the World Cup on

Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) president Shammi Silva has warned that the country could lose out on hosting the men’s Under-19 World Cup in January and February if the ICC’s suspension of SLC was not lifted. He also said the ICC wanted to suspend Sri Lanka back in July, but he prevented it. However, ESPNcricinfo understands

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

New Zealand 172 for 5 (Conway 45, Mitchell 43, Mathews 2-29) beat Sri Lanka 171 (Perera 51, Boult 3-37, Ravindra 2-21) by six wickets New Zealand all but by the most improbable of mathematical possibilities locked in their place in the World Cup semi-final with a dominant five-wicket win – with 160 balls left –

Big picture: All to play for And so it comes down to this. After a month of non-stop cricket – 40 matches leading up to this one, to be precise – there’s a very good chance that it will be the weather in Bengaluru which might end up deciding which team takes up not just

In an interview with CricBlog.Net, conducted soon after the Bangladesh team returned to their hotel in Delhi, Donald said, “It was disappointing to see. I can understand Shakib taking his chance. His words were ‘I was doing everything to win’. You can sense in my voice that I don’t like it… “I don’t like that

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

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. It was “unfortunate” his helmet strap broke

Bangladesh teamed up on one rare occasion in this World Cup, against Sri Lanka on Monday in Delhi. They kept Sri Lanka down to 279. They chased down the target in 41.1 overs. They did enough to jump up two places on the points table, and got the net run-rate boost that they were looking

Angelo Mathews became the first player ever to be timed out in international cricket after he asked for a helmet change after walking onto the pitch, subsequently not being ready to face his first ball within the two minutes the ICC Playing Conditions allow. The strap of Mathews’ helmet broke just as he was tightening

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 cancelled their training session in Delhi on Saturday afternoon following advice from team doctors, owing to the severe air pollution in the city. Bangladesh, however, trained from 6pm onwards on Saturday evening, having called off their practice on Friday. The two teams are scheduled to play their World Cup league match in Delhi

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

India 357 for 8 (Gill 92, Kohli 88, Shreyas 82, Madushanka 5-80) beat Sri Lanka 55 (Shami 5-18, Siraj 3-16) by 302 runs India’s fast-bowling trio was so sensational with the new ball that the scores of Sri Lanka’s top five read like a line of binary code: 0, 0, 1, 0, 1. When Shami

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,

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

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

Permutations, combinations and mathematical equations aside, England are all but resigned to the fact that their World Cup defence is over. Their eight-wicket drubbing at the hands of Sri Lanka left them with more questions than answers, which does not auger well for a quest to win the next four remaining matches, which is the

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 Men’s 2023 ODI World Cup is now past the halfway stage as it builds towards the final on November 19. Each morning we will round up the latest action and news from the event and bring you the insights from our reporters on the ground. — Top Story: Warner, Maxwell one-two knocks Netherlands out

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

The Men’s 2023 ODI World Cup is underway in India and runs from October 5 until November 19. Each morning we will round up the latest action and news from the event and bring you the insights from our reporters on the ground. — Top Story: Klaasen sends England’s title-defence hopes spiralling South Africa 399

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