Yes, Ryan, the laws are very
Yes, Ryan, the laws are very clear about this. However, I still haven’t met, in person, a person who is on the “Spirit of Cricket has been violated” side of the fence. When I do, I intend on asking him/her to explain the logic behind their argument.

IMO, the umpires make it far worse by consulting the fielding captain, rather than just raising their finger. They should be fined for this.

Frankly, even within England,
Frankly, even within England, no-one really takes Geoffrey Boycott or Mark Nicholas seriously. They can croak all they like, but it ain’t going to change the fact that what Sachi did was within the law, and within the spirit of cricket. Michael Vaughan, a much cherished former captain, is also dragging himself into the mud after having got into the commentary box. They all know that we’re going to beat them 1-0 in the test series, so they’re talking all sorts of rubbish to put us down. Hope our boys do us proud!

Gusgemba, it is bigoted
Gusgemba, it is bigoted people like you that are the reason why Tamil people are so distrusting of Sinhala people. You have somehow come to the conclusion that I am a MR hater by reading just one of my posts. Great detective skills. Perhaps you should join the CID.

I feel that you should start reading newspapers and news sites more often. That way, you will realize that a lot happens in Sri Lanka Cricket that doesn’t always come out into the open. Some of these facts may be pretty surprising, but I am not the type who just throws out rumours without verifying them. S.R. Paranavitana had reported during the T20WC that the team management/captain had received a call asking him to put Sanath up the order. However, it was Lanka News Web (a site which, if I’m not mistaken, is run by England-based Sinhala people and criticises the UNP and SLFP in equal measure) which has revealed the names.

Moreover, for anyone to say that I have a vendetta against Sanath is just plain tom-foolery. I may not have expressed it in my personal blog. However, many of my friends will attest to my supporting Sanath about a year or 2 ago. In the period after the Asia Cup 2008, there were calls to axe him after a run of poor scores. With great difficulty, I had to justify to so many people about Sanath’s value at the top of the order as an impact player and that the day he comes good, SL will surely win.

However, when a player can’t play a fluent innings for nearly 18 months, how can I justify his place in the side? Moreover, I absolutely hate players who stay on beyond their “used-by” date. Why can’t they retire like McGrath or Warne, guys who retired at the peak of their powers?

Thanks for the compliment,
Thanks for the compliment, PKZ. However, I don’t think Jehan Mubarak is any better than Silva. In fact, if given a choice between the 2, I’d pick Silva solely because, at least once ago, he DID have a good run of form (the period leading up to the WC2007 and the initial stages of that WC). However, Mubarak has been given more than enough chances and has failed to make good use of them. The only instances I can remember where Mubarak played substantial innings was once in the 2005/2006 World Series Cricket tournament (made 60-something) and when he delivered the killing blow to Australia in the 2009 T20WC with a nice cameo.

However, Silva had plenty of good moments but, sadly, he got into bad form and hasn’t been able to recover since then. A real shame, TBH.

Thanks for the compliment,
Thanks for the compliment, Hilal. Yes, I have heard about Mark Greatbatch and, yes, Krish “Cheeka” Srikkanth was quite a flamboyant batsman. However, he didn’t have an equally aggressive partner like how Sanath had Kalu.