In Sri Lanka, triumphs in cricket and netball bring joy to a nation in crisis
In Sri Lanka, triumphs in cricket and netball bring joy to a nation in crisis: In recent months, Sri Lanka’s capital city, Colombo, has seen record numbers as anger over the country’s economic collapse sparked protests that ultimately toppled a political dynasty.
On Tuesday, crowds returned to Colombo, but they were celebrating two sports victories rather than protesting corruption this time.
On Sunday, Sri Lanka’s men’s cricket team defeated Pakistan in the final of the Asia Cup played in the T20 format, the shortest version of the game. Nearly everyone was taken aback by the outcome of the tournament, which had been shifted from Sri Lanka to the United Arab Emirates due to the country’s political and economic turmoil.
Also, on Sunday, Sri Lanka’s women’s netball team won the Asia Cup in Singapore. Netball is comparable to basketball and was introduced to South Asia by British colonial authority, like cricket.
The winning teams were greeted by thousands of applauding supporters as they rode in open-top buses in a parade that began at the Colombo international airport early on Tuesday morning.
The performance was a welcome diversion for many Sri Lankans when the island nation suffered from power outages and shortages of food, fuel, and medication.
Statements
Andrew Fidel Fernando, a cricket writer and author of “Upon a Sleepless Isle: Travels in Sri Lanka by Bus, Cycle, and Trishaw,” observed, “There is a big crisis ripping through homes all over the country at the present time, and political divides have intensified as well.”
It’s difficult to exaggerate the significance of sporting accomplishment in such a setting, he wrote in an email. “It draws people together, helps a lot of people feel proud of their nation for however long that lasts,” the author writes.
Months of protests against an entrenched political class that basically bankrupted Sri Lanka led to the country’s president, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, resigning in July and fleeing the country on a military plane.
Essential supply shortages have subsequently lessened, but we’re still far from normalcy.
Sri Lanka and the International Monetary Fund reached a preliminary agreement this month on a rescue package costing almost $3 billion that would force the government to revamp its economy (which will still require final approval from the IMF’s executive board). The former president Rajapaksa went home a few days later, implying that his family still had strong ties to the political establishment.
In a country where cricket has been respected for decades, the current success of the men’s team without a marquee player is surprising.
In particular, in July, they beat Australia, the number one team in the world in tests, the longest and most time-consuming form of cricket, on their home ground after suffering their first loss.
Protesters encircled the stadium in Galle, a city in the south, on the second day of that five-day match, while others stormed Rajapaksa’s home in Colombo. Days later, he would resign, run away to the Maldives, and send his resignation by email from Singapore.
After their victory over Australia, some fans started to believe that the men’s squad, many in the country believe to be in solidarity with their political revolution, could actually win the T20 Asian tournament this month. However, such optimism was met with formidable headwinds from the emergence of sports analytics that favored more formidable sides like India and Pakistan.
Declarations
“We were the absolute underdogs going in,” said Mevantha De Silva, 29, the head of sales and marketing at a Sri Lankan company that owns luxury homes and an avid cricket fan. “We were considered hopeless by everyone.”
Sri Lanka lost their tournament’s opening match to Afghanistan, a lower-ranked cricket side.
When I saw what Afghanistan was doing to us, I thought, “What are India and Pakistan going to do to us?” On Monday, cricket pundit Mark Machado made this claim in a podcast about Sri Lankan cricket. If we lose to Bangladesh, we might not even have the chance to face them.
Because of their “electric,” “almost without exception,” fielding, the squad was able to pull off shocking upset victories against India and Pakistan in subsequent rounds.
Although netball is not nearly as popular as cricket in Sri Lanka, the country’s women’s team has consistently ranked in the top three of their region, so the team’s triumph at the Asia Cup did not come as much of a surprise as reported by Estelle Vasudevan of the sports news website ThePapare.com.
Remarks
According to Vasudevan, the team’s small budget makes that victory all the more impressive given the frequent power outages and gasoline shortages the players have to endure. Because it occurred around the same time as the men’s cricket success, she continued, many more Sri Lankans paid attention to it.
The 28-year-old lawyer and former member of Sri Lanka’s under-19 national netball team Hiruni Kasturiarachchi said she hoped the women’s Asia Cup would bring attention to a sport that most Sri Lankans were generally “not so keen on.” That big victories of any kind, in any sport, were welcome at this juncture in the country’s history.
She explained that the current crisis was to blame for the widespread pessimism. The triumphs of these sporting teams definitely constitute a bright spot in otherwise dreary situations.