Afridi and Vettori to captain Sri Lanka’s “North-East” teams

Six national captains, including four from Sri Lanka, Sanath Jayasuriya, Mahela Jayawardane, Kumar Sangakkara and T. M. Dilshan, will lead seven Provincial teams in the forthcoming Sri Lanka T20-Premier League (SL-T20-PL) Tournament.

The seventh captain will be former Sri Lanka vice-captain, Chaminda Vaas. The Sri Lanka T20 Premier League will feature almost 35 international cricketing stars and will be the first of its kind in Sri Lanka.
The event organisrs, Somerert Entertainment Ventures (SEV) have found a window for the tournament which is sandwiched between Sri Lanka's tour of England and Australia's tour of Sri Lanka.

The event will kick off on July 15th and will go on for 18 days. Twenty four hotly contested matches, including the two semi-finals and the final, will be played at the R. Premadasa Stadium. There will be two matches on certain days.


Dashing opener T. M. Dilshan will lead Basnahira while Kumar Sangakkara (Kandurata), Mahela Jayawardane (Wayamba), Sanath Jayasuriya (Ruhuna) and Chaminda Vaas (Uva) will be the other captains.

Pakistan captain Shahid Afridi (Nagenahira) and New Zealand skipper Daniel Vettori (Uthura) have been chosen to lead two provinces that were isolated from the game for ages due to the civil war.

Five overseas players could be registered to a provincial team but only four will be allowed to play in a match. Sri Lankan national selectors and cricket authorities have agreed to blood as many youngsters and almost 70 Sri Lankan cricketers will be registered in the seven team tournament.

Almost all Pakistani national cricketers will be invited to play in the SLPL. Factually, Sri Lanka was Pakistan's adopted home in the 2011 Cricket World Cup concluded last month as they played all their first round matches in Sri Lanka.

In addition to that, Chris Gayle and the Bravo cousins (Dwayne and Darren) from West Indies, Pathan brothers (Irfan and Yousuf) from India, Herschelle Gibbs, David Warner and Shaun Tait will be seen in action on Sri Lankan soil.

The availability of retired great Muttiah Muralitharan is not yet confirmed but some unconfirmed sources revealed that he is eager to play in the series.

Milind Rege, the tournament manager of the 2011 cricket World Cup will be in charge of all cricketing matters of the tournament. Rege is a former Ranji Trophy captain for Mumbai and recently retired from TATA corporation as a managing committee member.

Source : Daily Mirror

Blond Dilshan back to black for Sri Lanka captaincy

Sri Lanka's Tillakaratne Dilshan said on Wednesday he had ditched his blond streaks as well as his earring to present a more sober image in his new role as national captain.

The 34-year-old has dyed his blond highlights back to black and removed his earring after selectors gave him the captaincy following the resignation of Kumar Sangakkara after the team's runners-up spot at the World Cup.

"Times have changed. I pierced my ear when my daughter cried when her ears were being pierced," he said during a brief two-day visit to Colombo from Indian Premier League duties. Dilshan plays for IPL franchise Royal Challengers Bangalore.

"Now I don't see a need to wear the earring. The same with my hair. It was fashionable then for me, it's not so now," he said while his actress wife Manjula Thilini smiled sitting in the audience.
Dilshan, famous for his signature scoop shot, said he hoped to continue his aggressive batting style when he leads the team on next month's tour of England.

"I'm a bit aggressive. Perhaps I will sometimes change my style a bit. But I might play with it (aggressiveness) even as a captain," the opening batsman said. "Captaincy is a challenging role for me. It's a dream come true. I never expected it," said the father of two.

"I want to give it my best shot. I have played for nearly 12 years. It's been a very long journey to the top," said Dilshan, who led Sri Lanka to a win in a triangular one-day series in Zimbabwe, which also included India.

He had an excellent World Cup, where he was the tournament's highest scorer with 500 runs from nine matches at an average of 62.50.

Source : DailyMirror

T.M. DILSHAN APPOINTED AS NATIONAL CAPTAIN - SLC Media Release

Attention	All Print and Electronic Media
From	Media Unit – Sri Lanka Cricket
Subject	T.M. Dilshan Appointed as National Captain
Date	April 18, 2011

Sri Lanka Cricket is proud to announce the appointment of T.M. Dilshan as the National Captain in all 3 formats of the game for Sri Lanka’s tour of England in May 2011.

The National Selectors have postponed the appointment of a Vice Captain, since the prospective candidates are nursing injuries, and their availability for the forthcoming tour is still in question.
Sri Lanka Cricket will keep the media updated on further developments pertaining to the appointment of the Vice Captain in due course.

“Thank you once again for you continued support to Sri Lanka Cricket”

Tel: + 94 (0)11 4718734, Fax: + 94 (0)11 4718736, E-mail: media@srilankacricket.lk


Brian Thomas
Media Manager
Sri Lanka Cricket

Dilshan exit a blow for RCB.

Royal Challengers Bangalore skipper Daniel Vettori thinks his side will struggle to replace Tillakaratne Dilshan when he is on international duty.

Dilshan, who was the top run-scorer at the 2011 ICC Cricket World Cup after amassing 500 runs in nine innings, will exit the side's Indian Premier League campaign to play for Sri Lanka when they tour England through May-June.

The loss of such a star will hurt Vettori's side, but the New Zealand spinner is hopeful some of the younger players in the squad can shine in Dilshan's absence.

"He's a pretty important player for us, he obviously opens the batting," Vettori said.

"He's a very good fielder and more often than not he's going to bowl four overs, so there's not too many people that offer you that and it'll be tough to replace him, but we have to."

"We've got Luke Pomersbach, Rilee Roussow, they're both young batsmen who can bat at the top of the order."

"But they don't quite offer the bowling option that Dilshan does and obviously the experience that Dilshan has and how good a performer he is."

The Challengers take on the Deccan Chargers on Thursday, hoping to avenge a defeat to Mumbai.

Source : sportal.co.in

Duleep Mendis to lead the New Selection Committee

Former Sri Lanka Skipper Duleep Mendis has been appointed by Sports Minister Mahindananda Aluthgamage as a new Selection Committee head for the Sri Lanka Cricket, the sources said.

The Committee also comprising former Sri Lanka off spinner Don Arunasiri, Wicket Keeper batsman Brendon Kuruppu, and Spinner R. Madurusinghe the sources further revealed.

Sri Lanka Cricket sources also said that the new Selection Committee will meet shortly to select a suitable successor to the Kumara Sangakkara as the team is scheduled to tour England in May.
Veteran opener Tilekarathne Dilshan is a possible successor to the Kumara Sangakkara, Sri Lanka Cricket Sources further said.

The Sources have confirmed also that the Sri Lanka cricket authorities are willing to appoint him as a captain for next two years and later on transfer it to 23 year all rounder Angelo Mathews.

As per year 2015, Cricket World Cup Leadership Preparation, authorities are also considering appointing Angelo Mathews as a Vice Captain.

Sri Lanka Cricket recently promoted assistant coach and former Australian batsman Stuart Law to guide the national team ahead of next month's tour of England.

Source : Asian Tribune


P.S. : SLC Selection Committee not appointed yet - Sports Minister http://bit.ly/gxnU3T

Atapattu likely to be Sri Lanka's batting coach

Former Sri Lanka batsman, Marvan Atapattu is likely to be the new batting coach of Kumar Sangakkara's team. This was revealed by the Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) chairman D.S. de Silva.

Speaking exclusively to this scribe, he said, "Atapattu has shown interest to be associated with the team and therefore we are considering him to be the batting coach of our national team. We have Champaka Ramanayaka as bowling coach and Ruwan Kalpage as fielding coach and we were looking for a good batting coach and Marwan may be the "ideal choice" for the post.

The former Sri Lanka captain, Atapattu, towards the end of his career joined the Indian Cricket League (ICL) and captained the Delhi Giants. He also has experience of coaching the Singapore national team.

Atapattu was one of the most technically correct batsmen that Sri Lanka had ever produced. Making his Test debut in November 1990 just after his 20th birthday, his first six innings yielded five ducks and a 1, but supporters insisted that his debut-innings duck put him in good company with batsmen such as Michael Atherton, Graham Gooch, Len Hutton, Saeed Anwar and Wasim Akram, who all made debut-innings ducks but went on to score at least 2500 Test runs.

 He was controversially left out of the squad for the 2007 Cricket World Cup, and as a result, asked for his removal from the list of Sri Lanka contracted players. Interestingly, Atapattu was to miss the 2007-08 tour of Australia, but was added to the squad after the intervention of the then Sri Lankan Sports Minister Gamini Lokuge. Atapattu played solidly in the first Test, but subsequently angrily labelled the selectors: "A set of Muppets, basically, headed by a joker," at a post-stumps press conference.

He is one of the few international batsmen who has scored centuries against all Test-playing nations.
Married to Neluni, and a father of two daughters, Atapattu, an accountant by profession was a good fielder too.

Source : Daily Mirror

De Silva urges Sri Lanka to copy Australia

Sri Lanka's outgoing chief selector and former batsman Aravinda de Silva on Thursday urged players to develop the never-say-die spirit shown by Australia.

"We are superior in talent to Australia, but it is the character and the fighting spirit which we must inculcate in our players," de Silva, vice-captain of the 1996 World Cup-winning Sri Lankan team, told reporters.

A three-member Sri Lankan selection committee led by de Silva quit on Wednesday, less than a week after the team's defeat against India in the World Cup final inMumbai.

De Silva, who scored 6,361 runs in Tests and 9,284 in one-day internationals, said he felt players became "emotional" during the final as the match tilted in India's favour.

"Maybe they were thinking about lost opportunities and became emotional," he said. "This is the difference between an Australian side and ours. They don't give up the match until the last ball is bowled.

"They (Sri Lanka) should know how to fight until the last ball and not to give up the game. These are the things that we don't have in our culture."

Sri Lanka skipper Kumar Sangakkara and vice-captain Mahela Jayawardene have stepped down following the World Cup defeat, while Australia-born coach Trevor Bayliss' four-year stint with the team also ended after the tournament.




Source : THE TIMES OF INDIA