I've received a few emails about Arjuna doing a Ranjit Fernando on Sony (I believe) agreeing with Ian Chappel about investigating SLC for the team selections for the match against Aus.
Although this is off the topic of this blog, I'll just leave this post if anyone wishes to add any comments. My take on Arjuna is that he's lost his way mixing cricket & politics. I believe he's just bitter that he's not involved in the administration of the game in spite of "his" government being in power. Good captain who took SLC to great heights no doubt -- and I extend all my gratitude and respect for that. But time's are different now: the team is professional, equal players with even Marvan Atapattu / Vass / Murali taking turns carrying drinks to the field.
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As observed by Ravi in another posting...
But i was extremely dissapointed when our very own Captain Cool (Arjuna) did a RF last night on "Extra Innings" the Sony Max talk show hosted by Charu Sharma and Mandira Bedi. When Ian Chappel stated that ICC's anti corruption unit should investigate the motives behind Sri Lanka's strategy to rest our two top bowlers, Arjuna readily agreed saying that the Sri Lankan cricket adminstration was not in proper hands and that no past players are involved in it. (Obviously refering to himself being sidelined) I lost all respect i had for Arjuna. Here was an opportunity to put the outspoken Ian Chappel in his place and tell him where to get off, becasue he has no right to question any selection our Management makes and he cerainly has no right to accuse the Sri Lankan management of match fixing by suggesting that the anti corruption unit of ICC question the management over the selection decision yesterday. This is yet another attempt by the Aussies to demoralize the Sri Lankan camp before the all importatn semi-final round. Arjuna by agreeing to Chappel's comments betrayed the entire country and our Cricketers. Whatever Arjuna's opinion was on the team selection yesterday he should have come out strongly against Chappel's remarks of match fixing by the Sri Lankan management/selection team. It should not be in our interest to take sides due to personal grudges. We should unite as Sri Lankans in situation such as these. I would have expected such remarks from RF but from Arjuna - I never expected it.
Absolutely son. Regardless of whether he agreed with the selection policy or not, he should never have stood for his country being called 'cheats' in front of millions of people including his compatriots.
If you throw a game you throw an important game...that's where the bookie's money is. You don't throw an inconsequential match and you certainly don't throw it by resting your three frontline bowlers.
Arjuna's bitterness is obvious. Chappelli is entitled to his opinion, but we could and should have refuted it with logic and reason and exposed the Aussie cricketing establishment for the den of hypocrisy it is.
But that's okay because Arjuna's a past cricketer so we have to listen to his comments now don't we?
I agree - TOTALLY! The nerve of that Chappel to even make such a comment! Bottom line- HE'S RACIST!
And Arjuna should take a break before we lose ALL the respect we have for him.
And for the record - GOOD strategy on the part of the Sri Lankans (Leaving out Vaas & Murali & Lasith M). We're there to win the CUP, not the Super 8's!
Arjuna’s attitude has always been negative due to his not being able to play a role in Sri Lankan cricket. His harping on about Marvan, whilst may make sense, may also be due to his relationship (brother-in-law?). However, as the rest of you point out, it was shameful that he couldn’t (wouldn’t) take ‘motor-mouth’ Chappel on. We all know Chappel’s penchant for shooting off his mouth before his brain has a chance to intervene. He didn’t even have the intelligence to ponder on a reason for the strategy – for it surely was a strategic move that had its intention succeed. Ponting was pissed, probably because the Aussies had planned to take the attack to Vaas and Murali in order to demoralize them and set them up for a psychological beating at the (if it happens) final. They were also pissed off that they were caught on the back foot. All that shit about the spectators paying good cash and the TV sponsorship was just another load of crap – who cares about the spectators getting their rocks off? The team is there to win the Cup and all else is secondary, so we do what we think is in the best interests of the team – end of story.
I thought the whole thing was brilliant. Great stuff from Moody, Mahela and whoever else was involved in it.
Well said mate!!! Our absolute goal is to win the world cup and not to boast about a super 8 win over Australia. If we would have beaten Australia in that match it would have definitely benefited Australia to fine tune their game and get more adjusted to our 3 match winning bowlers. Arjuna on the other hand is lately into licking Indian Butt’s for I don’t know what. He is the first one to say that India is the strongest team around the firm favorites to win the Cup, let alone the group stage. This goes on to suggest that Arjuna could have been the ideal partner in crime for RF in doing commentary!!!! What a combination!!!
Technically what the selection committee did was match fixing. Selecting a team that will have a low chance of winning the match. According to the Island Asantha de Mel has stated that the selection was because they didn't want Sri Lanka to be at the number one position of the 8 teams. It's clear that Arjuna doesn't like the current administration of SLC. So it was obvious that he'll blast the selection. But I don't think he did a RF, since he didn't suck up to any white man. Ian chappel also took a que from Arjuna. As far as I think the selection was tactical and they didn't want aussy players to get used to muarli. But in a way it was cowardly and gives the impression to the rest of the team that we want you to lose to Australia. Hopefully we would be motivated from this defeat to crush aussy when we meet them later. But if the idea of playing that match was to lose it I don't think the intended morale booster against Aussy would have been achieved.
Nobody can question our decision of deciding who plays when,we have the total right of using any player out of 15 in the pool.Our team is Aiming for the world cup,nobody can blame us for taking the easiest possible path to get their.If AUS or NEW did something like this nobody will make any objection.Arjuna was a good captain,but he's no longer a sports man,He's brain washed stupid politician now
Absolutely! A very irresponsible comment from someone who is supposed to be a top cricket pundit. He has had some classic
As for Arjuna, its almost like he's afraid that we will win the World Cup again and take away him being the only captain who won it for Sri Lanka.
Ian Chappell was just being a grumpy old man and Arjuna should really have stood up for us.
As for whether the strategy was right or wrong, we will first have to make it to the finals and then we'll find out...who knows, even Oz might not make it there...
Surein, please don't be an idiot. Ian chappell speaking his mind does not make him a racist. I follow quite a few of the message boards and I cringe everytime I read a Sri Lankan comment because it invariably mentions the race card. Sri Lankan's like you obviously have an inferiority complex. Why can't you idiots rationally dissect a stupid argument instead of shouting 'racist'?
Morons!
I second it.. Cricket is a game of tactics! and i think moody and co did a great job resting our MBRL's for the semi's. Malinga is our no:1 asset as well as Vass and murali. Injury during Aus match would have been a big blow to the team. So wise men took lead and rearranged everything! its no corruption. When you get a plate of food. You eat it without complaining! Same analogy here.. Aussies have to play with watever team they get without complaining about it.! Our guys did the best for the team.. Good luck Lanka.. Down u go Ranjith! I wish the media player had a block ranjith button! So will only hear the actual commentators words
Well said. The funny thing is that IF this had been done with a smaller team, such as Bermuda or Netherlands, that might have been called 'strategy', whilst when it is done to the 'oh-so-big-headed' champions of the world, they get so upset and start accusing everyone of what not. Personally, I think Aussy and all Aussy supporters are shocked and disapointed that we considered them in this category of smaller teams, or a team we can experiment with.
Experimentations and resting players has been happening for a long time, when stronger teams meet lesses teams. So why does Aussy get grumpy when we for once push them into that category?
And, I do agree that Arjuna is being a total jerk on T.V, with his sentimental frown, and pointless comments. And Ian Chappell is being his own moronic self, saying that what we did was rubbish. I thought Mandira Bedi made more sense and talked more practically, than the so called lost greats of Cricket on After Innings after the SL-IRL match.
Anyone for a Ian Chappell+RanthungaSucks BigTime.com site? ;)
Dear Benevolent Dictator,
I generally don't, but I do tend to react when being stereotyped ("Sri Lankans like you"), being called a "Moron" and an "Idiot" and have my ability to "rationally dissect a stupid arguement" called into question! (Why one would want to RATIONALLY dissect a STUPID arguement beats me though...) So here goes!
It's not Ian "speaking his mind" that makes him racist, but what going on IN is mind. What kind of arguemet was Ian making? That people had paid money so we should play the team HE thinks we should? That we can play a second string team against Ireland, but not against the Aussies?
Lets not forget that the Aussies are the masters at this type of tactic (Case in point their game agains the West Indies in the previous WC - blatently tryig to keep the NZ team from the next round!) Ian himslef is a proud exponent of some rather under-hand tactics himself (Or should I say Under-ARM?!)
So, my "inferiority complex" has nothing to do with the way I see Ian and a good number of the cricketing world's pundits (Like those who still refer to Malinga as 'fast medium' or Murali as a 'chucker')as being racist! We're not a traditional (i.e. white) cricketing nation... and they can't appreciate the fact that we play THEIR game as well, if not better, than they do!
So cringe away my friend... the world is full racists!
And I'm one of them! Ha!
Hmmm...this site does seem to be hotting up quite a bit I must say. Well dont whoever the creator! It's a very timely venture. Kudos to u! As for this whole tactical vs. unethical/cowardly dilema of the Aussie match, I'd have to say that I have progressed from one camp to the other over the past couple of days. Initially, I was pissed beyond words at the exclusion of Vaas and Murali (purely on selfish grounds) cos' I had been psyching myself up for this match and we had all gotten together to watch our guys cream (or atleast try our best to cream) the Aussies! When I discovered that they were playing full strength and we were not, I was not just dissapointed but to a certain extent disheartened by the sort of defeatist attitude we had adapted cos' it was obvious that Vaas and Murali weren't in fact resting! Anyways, I have to agree with Surein that Aussie (and Chapel ofcourse) took it as a personal affront that we could actually consider them a team worthy of experimenting against. He even said it himself. Chapel said, why couldn't they rest the bowlers against Ireland. Proving beyond a doubt that it was not in fact the decision to rest them that he was against, but the fact that we were resting them against the so called "MIGHTY" Aussies! He just couldn't believe our "audacity" as it were. Poor baby...
There is one thing though that I observed and thought was in fact unfair and not inkeeping with the team spirit we're reknown for. And that was that we just threw our 2nd string bowlers quite literally into the deep end, with every expectation of them failing. Bowlers like Kulasekera and Bandara (most likely the future of our team) were being thrashed around unmercifully, for little or no fault of their own. They were given hardly any real match practice and then suddenly thrown up against the "giants" and miraculously expected to perform! How is that a just request, even from the most experienced of our bowlers??? That in my opinion was not just cruel, but could also have resulted in totally killing the camaraderie and general smooth momentum within the team. In addition, it couldn't have done much for their personal records either. Even if they were made to understand the rationale behind the move, it's quite blatently saying, these 3 (M, V & M) guys are the only significant bowlers we have, so we must do anything and everything to safeguard them from the "Big Bad Aussies" until the Big Day (which hasn't even been bagged as yet) So all in all, I'd have to say that tactical or not, team's best interests or not, we must make decisions keeping in mind the over all morale of the team as well. It's not always about the end, sometimes the means matters too! - Tinkerbell
dear surein,
Ian chappel is someone who is known for straight talk (right or wrong) and someone who backs his team to the hilt. So when you say he's racist without any substance, what you do is you lose your own credibility and undermine the other sri lankans who make valid/rational arguments against big mouth arjuna and chappell. So please, Wise Up!
p.s - The under arm tactic was used by his brother Ggreg.
I also find it really embarrassing when Arjuna makes stupid comments about Australia. I don't mind him having a go at the Aussies, but his comments are usually not based on fact. Like last time when he said "we put Australia under pressure, no one else did that". He should get a life. Gavaskar's comments were much better, saying the Aussies were the best team, but they are unpopular and their behavior is bad.
I'll get a few things straight: I have absolute respect for Ian Chappel as a commentator and past cricketer. Along with Barry Richards, he is one commentator I can rely on to break down aspects of the game and make it understandable to all. And he always, strikes me as being as impartial. I remember him having a go at Steve Waugh during the great man's initial days in the captaincy. Chappel felt then, and he continues to feel, that Warne would have been a better choice for a captain and he made no attempt at hiding it. So, basically, this is a man who is about as frank as they come.
However, he is going overboard with his reaction to the selection decisions. Sri Lankan team has to answer to no one other than the SL public when it comes to performance. And risking our two greatest bowlers for a dead rubber is silly beyond belief. If they had played, and one of them had got hurt, can you imagine the ensuing furor? I certainly would have gone insane.
As for Arjuna, I think I've said this in a few other blogs, but I'll say it again: he probably hates the fact that we made it easy for the Aussies to beat us.
I don't see what Jaywardene and Moody did as anything else beyond exercising caution over their three great bowling assets. To suggest otherwise - that we manipulated the system to get a favourable draw - is simply outrageous. What would they have achieved by such underhand methods?
If Sri Lanka had beaten Aussie and subsequently beat Ireland, then we'd have had 12 points. Aus would then have to beat NZ to be level on points with us. Conversly, NZ could have beaten them and ended up with 12 points. Let's assume that Australia win.
The table would have looked so:
Aus- 12 points
SL - 12 points
NZ - 10 points
South Africa - 8 points
*Australia get first ranking due to higher NRR.
SL would still face NZ. Aus would still face SA.
Simple.
The race card is so outdated, dull and lacking in any credibility.
OMG white man is critical of our tactics. He is obviously a racist!!!!1111
Christ. Get a life.
Ian Chappell is not a racist, but he does have a big mouth, and he is a "know it all". Listening to him commentate, 'one would think that' he has never got out and never lost a match. He makes stupid predictions and then keeps his mouth shut when it does not come true. He has already predicted an Australia-NZ final - let's hope he got that wrong.
I totally agree with Surein. ONE should not be afraid to call a spade a spade. Ian Chappel is a racist and ONE must not be shy to call him that!
Jokes apart I really don't get the whole 'ICC-call-for-an-inquiry' commotion, because we played eleven players out of the fifteen that we named for our squad. Isn't that our prerogative?
Ian Chappel thinks he is be all and end all of the game that is cricket!
Please... enough with the racist card, it's really pathetic that when we can't take a white old man's criticism we play the racist card. It's smacks of a huge inferiority complex.
Having said that it was a shame that Arjuna didn't stand up for us but he completely fell for Ian Chappel's praise. If you watched that telecast Chappell followed up his crticism of the SL team with praise for the way Arjuna handled the Aussie/Windies no show for the '96 WC... you can't expect Arjuna to stand up and defend when he's being handed full tosses (from a full tosser) like that.
It would have been great though if he said "well at least they didn't bowl underarm" it would have put that hypocritical old coot in his place.
With respect to his support and praise for the Indian cricket team... hell I would daub myself in blue paint if it meant I had a shot at boning the delectable Ms Bedi... she could give a dog a bone (with apologies to Wayne Campbell)
He certainly seems to know about cricket than you buggers do.
There is nothing Arjuna agreed about a investigation. I was watching this over CBNSAT. But anyone would agree, in case of betting scandals going on ICC should have checked on this matter anyway.
I totally agree with Arjuna that we should have played the full team. See the way Chaminda bowled in the last match, he looked totally out of touch.
As for Ranjith Fernando, he is where he is because others do not even come up to the low standards he has set, the poor voting the inthe poll shows that. So may be till Sangakkara retires and be a commentator we would have to stick with him as all the other mentioned are not even there.
Having had to live in Aussie myself for sometime now, I have to agree with Surein on the racist factor. Even if the Aussies don't make it public notice, there is the 'black' mentality working within them and once in a while the cat jumps out of the basket. Like when Darren Lehmann got worked up and called us "Black monkeys". I don't know if it's the same thing that drove Chappel to make that remark, but I wouldn't rule it out.
Secondly, yes the Aussies do think that they are DAMN IT!!! It's perfectly ok for them to pull the same tactic (in 1999 wc) but not for us.
Recently when Murali got the Wisden cricketer of the year the sport headlines on the Australian paper read "'Chucker' gets Wisden award".
And as for Arjuna, he has forgotten all about cricket, he's just another politician now, taking sides on whatever looks good for his personal position.
As for me, I'm here (in Aus) defending our team against the everyday comments I have to face from these hypocrits! (Waiting to get back to SL asap!)
Did anybody know what Tony Greig had to say about this entire scenario?
I have found him keeping away from Sri Lankan afairs these days.I am yet to see him doing an Extra Inning on Sony Max during a Sri Lanka game.Also he did not come to Sri Lanka in years.Is he upset with SL for anything?
A few days before the Australian match I told my friends that we should rest our key players against these convicted bastards. Imagine my surprise and delight when I woke up at 2am (yes I live in Aus) and heard Ian Healey on telly, absolutely hot under the collar dishing it out to us left right and centre. His exact words were "they're going to pay for this". He even went on to say that the partnership of Mahela and Silva was "not that impressive". I absolutely love it when we get under their freckled white skin.
The tactic was nothing short of brilliant. We're only there for one reason, and that is to win the world cup. We're not there to win every match.
I've been living in Aus for 11 years now, but still hate anyone and everyone who's involved in Aus cricket with an absolute passion.
Hope we go on to beat those arrogant pricks in the finals. Go Lanka!
Ranjith Fernando is boring so as many other commentators in 2007 world cup. We are missing excellent commentators like Tony Graig, Geff Boycott and to some extent Ravi Shastri. Guys like RF , Sanjay Majrekar , Wasim Raja are not very good commentators who could entertain the TV Audience.
Arjuna Doing a Ranjit Fernando?
I disagree with Ian Chappel about investigating SLC, coz the once the team is selected for ICC world cup, it is up to the skipper who play on the day of the game and I for one at the time was known to be said that it was dum move to make. But now knowing what the out come was, I have to say as risky as it was for the team, our skipper had made an inelegant move. Who is Chappel to say who one play on the day if so then why Aussie not play they top ballers against New Zealand for the New Zealand tour before the ICC world cup. Chappel is just at lost for the Aussie team did not get a full feel of top SL team, they will team in the final.
As for Arjuna I have to say I agreeing with you. He was a greatest skipper the one with the ball to stand up for the co. player (Murali) or the team. I ever forget the day the he took the team of the field at SA only to come back and kicked ass. As much as he was a great skipper he left the cricket behind for politics. However one as to agree If he has the need to be connected to cricket he should give up the politics or be fan and just watch like the rest of us.
I for one have can not remember him behind the microphone as a commenter, there for unfortunately I can not comment on him as commenter. However as do recall seen him with a microphone as our Skipper and I have to say I for one can image him as a commenter “ the boys…” this and “the boys…” that. There for I do not wish Arjuna to be an commenter. Thanks you
Hi all..interesting comments from all of you and I cannot be more agreed with all of you when it is down to Arjuna's character. I had loads of respect to the guy when he won the world cup and i was at Ananda when he came for one of our school assemblys with the trophy.good day for everyone at school on that day and we were very proud of the guy.But after the world cup it is been all down hill.loosing the captency and entering into politics. Just because you are a good cricketer doesn't mean you can run a country.He always wanted to get the sports minister post for unknown reason and when he didn't get it blamed everyone in sports. Am sure he had a vision for future of sports in Sri lanka but then again he never told anybody what it was.He should always stand by what the current team is achieving and stop the Aussie Bullies taking control of our cricket team selection.Am sure when they picked the squad for the WC they all had an equal oppertunity to play in any given game on any given day so sod off you Aussies..For Arjuna he should pack his bags do something he is good at definitly not a politician nor a commentetor.So shame on you Mr. Ranatunge!!!you lost all my respect...period..
att he end of the day it would not have made a diff... coz at the end of the day it was oout batmen who didn't give us the start we were hopping for.
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