The Other Way Around

By Harsha Amarasinghe

The non-political revolution of the Sri Lankan youth took a massive blow on Tuesday when Police opened fire on unarmed protesters in Rambukkana which must be condemned, and ignoring this in any discussion today would be an insult to the innocent man who lost his life.   

In other news, who has been an absolute revolution is Dinesh Karthik.   

The Tamil Nadu wicketkeeper batsman’s greatest ever moment in cricket was his majestic knock in the Nidahas Trophy final in 2018 held in Sri Lanka which has been viewed over 129 million times all over the world via YouTube. This was also a memorable moment for thousands of Sri Lankan fans who were cheering the Indian team simply because they were disgusted by the other finalist’s – Bangladesh – ‘cobra dance’ soon after knocking Sri Lanka out. It was such a heated rivalry that the Sri Lankans probably celebrated the Indian victory more than the Indian fans themselves, but now the Sri Lanka government takes loans from Bangladesh. Talk about rivalry!   

However, since that knock Karthik went off the radar, obviously with India not short of super stars. In the last couple of years, he was more renowned as a commentator; his one on one with Virat Kohli for Sky Sports would go down as one of the best interviews ever conducted by an ex-cricketer.   

Usually, so many greats of the game would gradually move to the commentary box at the end of their careers such as Sunil Gavaskar, Nassar Hussain and our very own Russell Arnold.   
Since Karthik’s move to the com box, he was meant to be a high class commentator, but the 36-year-old seems to do it the way around as he is bidding a sensational comeback to the most competitive cricket team – India – ahead of the T20 World Cup later this year.   

What Karthik has done during the ongoing IPL is beyond imagination scoring 210 runs at an average of 105 and a strike rate of over 200 batting at 7. While IPL legends such as Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma have been struggling horribly for runs, the impact Karthik has made for RCB is so astonishing that former England and RCB star Kevin Pietersen went on to say that Karthik is the player of the tournament thus far.   

Should Karthik make it to the Indian squad for the World Cup, it will be remembered as one freak comeback.   

Rugby on halt

For two years rugby was not possible in Sri Lanka due to the Coronavirus. Sri Lanka Rugby (SLR) went through a lot of hardship to get the ball rolling. During that period certain players retired from the game at a young age and some players made the decision to leave the county. Jason Dissanayake, one of Sri Lanka’s finest sevens and fifteens players, left the country last week as the League Tournament was postponed following former Sports Minister Namal Rajapaksa’s suspension of the parent body. It was his last act as the Minister of Sports, and thanks to him hundreds of rugby players in Sri Lanka are now baffled as to what the future might hold for them.   

Liverpool too hot to handle   

Liverpool Football Club’s quadruple bid was given a major boost on Tuesday as they hammered Manchester United 4-0.   

Having already secured the League Cup, the Reds from Merseyside are well on course to land three more titles this season booking a FA Cup final with Chelsea, a very favourable Champions League semi-final fixture against Villarreal and of course going toe to toe with Manchester City for the Premier League. 

 
Egyptian Mo Salah has been their talisman all season along and while contributions from Sadio Mane, Robert Firmino and Diogo Jota have also been effective for Jurgen Klopp’s side, the man who has given them a real chance of the quadruple is Colombian winger Luiz Dias who was signed in January.   

Football has seen some amazing teams over the years. Messi’s Barcelona and Ronaldo’s Real Madrid have been the most recent examples, but should Liverpool secure the quadruple, they should go down as the greatest ever given they’d have done so in an era of pretty strong teams such as Bayern Munich, Manchester City, Chelsea, Real Madrid, PSG and Inter Milan.