Sri Lanka v New Zealand Highlights 1st Semi-Final

World Cup 2011 Sri Lanka v New Zealand Highlights 1st Semi-Final Highlights at Colombo (RPS), Mar 29, 2011. World Cup 2011 Semi Final highlights.

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Asoka de Silva dropped from crucial matches

Asoka de Silva, whose decision-making has come in for intense criticism during the World Cup, will not officiate in a couple of key group games that he was originally marked for. de Silva is the only umpire among the 18 deployed whose success percentage in reviewed decisions is less than 50%.

He was supposed to have been one of the on-field umpires for Thursday's crucial match between England and West Indies, and he was also the third umpire for the India-West Indies game. Instead, according to ICC's revised schedule, he will be the fourth umpire in the Ireland-Netherlands match on Friday, and will be an on-field umpire in the Zimbabwe-Kenya game on Sunday. Both those games are inconsequential, with all four teams already out of the World Cup.

The ICC has said the move was necessitated by the fact that they did not want their best umpires, like Taufel, standing in matches of lesser importance. "It was part of the re-organising for the last part of the group stage, to ensure the in-form umpires are on the field and in the third umpire's room for these crucial matches," Dave Richardson, the ICC general manager said.

de Silva's place in Thursday's match between England and West Indies will be taken by Bruce Oxenford - originally listed as the fourth umpire in that game - while Simon Taufel will be the third umpire. For the India-West Indies match, Taufel and Steve Davies will be the on-field umpires, with Oxenford the third umpire.

de Silva has had a poor World Cup so far, with several of his decisions being overturned by the Decision Review System: of the seven times his decisions have been challenged, only three times has his original call stood. One of those three instances was the lbw decision against Ireland's Gary Wilson in the match against West Indies. Wilson challenged the call, and replays clearly showed the ball had struck his pad outside the line of off when he was attempting a shot, but de Silva refused to change his decision, a move that wasstrongly criticised by Ireland captain William Porterfield. Had that decision been changed, as it should have been, de Silva's score in reviewed decisions would have been two correct calls out of seven.   

Source : ESPN

Dilshan doping reports are false

Sri Lankan cricket officials deny reports that Tillakaratne Dilshan has tested positive in a dope test during the on-going ICC Cricket World Cup.

The Sri Lankan team manager, Brian Thomas, told ESPNSTAR.com that Dilshan did not even undergo the dope test.

"The only two cricketers who underwent the test include Chamara Silva and Ajantha Mendis," he said.

"These are all rubbish going around the media here. These are all false reports," he said.

Earlier, Sri Lankan media reports claimed that Dilshan tested positive with a banned substance.
The only player to be tested positive during the World Cup is Australia's Shane Warne.

Source : ESPN

Sri Lanka vice-captain Mahela Jayawardene is considering legal action in response to commentary that implied he was guilty of match-fixing.

A state television broadcast suggested Jayawardene deliberately played badly for financial gain in Saturday's Cricket World Cup defeat by Pakistan.

Jayawardene said his lawyer was drafting a letter to "get to the bottom" of the accusation.

The allegation was also levelled at batsman Thilan Samaraweera.

Sri Lanka lost the game against Pakistan by 11 runs, with Jaywardene scoring two runs while Samaraweera scored one.

A commentary on Sunday on Sri Lankan state TV network, ITN, written by the editor of a state newspaper, Mahinda Abeysundara, said a businessman had bet about 18,000 dollars on a Pakistan victory and that there had therefore been what he called a "chorus to change the game".

The commentator then remarked: "We just think Mahela and Thilan may have changed the game."
The commentary was accompanied by slow-motion extracts from the match, sad music and blurry shots implying financial impropriety.

Leaving comments on social networking sites such as Facebook, Sri Lankan fans have expressed outrage at the broadcast.

One said: "How dare you tell that Mahela and Thilan are betrayers... this is so disgusting."
Another called the coverage "shameless".

Sri Lanka will face Kenya at the cricket World Cup on Tuesday.

Source : BBC Sports