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Bhanuka talks about Asia Cup Preparations…
The team has good experienced players and even players who have played in the UAE in our team are a good strength for the team. The Afghanistan team is also an unreliable team. Before coming to UAE, we participated in some good training sessions as well as training matches. With our good preparation, we hope to give a good match to the Afghanistan team.
- Who will be playing XI in the first match?
The selectors have not said anything about it yet. Good things will happen as we expect. We hope to play the first match with 11 good players.
- What about your personal skills?
Actually, I think that I personally scored well in the last world cup. I was able to give my contribution to the team by scoring as many runs as needed as per a plan at the time the team needed. I have played many matches in UAE stadiums, including Sharjah Dubai. Most of the pitches are designed to suit the batsmen. The team is expected to score the required runs in this Asia Cup as well.
- What is the team plan?
Our team is in a positive mood. As a team, we hope to win by showing our talent again and again. In this tournament, we will be playing against first Afghanistan and then Bangladesh team. It is mandatory to be among the best in both these matches to stay in the tournament. There were no cricket tournaments in the last two or three months. No tournament was held after the Australian tour. So there is a little bit of panic as far as this series because after that we have the World Cup to play.
- What do you have to say to fans?
This is how we know that the audience will love us no matter where we are. We hope to show our best skills. So we request you to stay with us in this tournament as you have always stayed with us. We are doing our best in this tournament to raise the Sri Lankan flag high.
ආසියානු කුසලාන සූදානම ගැන භානුක කියයි…
කණ්ඩායමේ හොද අත්දැකීම් බහුල ක්රීඩකයන් සිටිනව. UAE වල ක්රීඩා කල ක්රීඩකයින් පවා අප කණ්ඩාම තුළ සිටීම කණ්ඩායමට හොද ශක්තියක්. ඇෆ්ගනිස්ථාන කණ්ඩායම කියන්නෙත් විශ්වාස කළ නොහැකි කණ්ඩායමක්. UAE එන්න කලින් අපි හොද පුහුණු සැසි කිහිපයකට මෙන්ම, පුහුණු තරග වලටද සහභාගි වුනා. අපහේ හොද සූදානමත් එක්ක හොද තරගයක් ඇෆ්ගනිස්ථාන කණ්ඩායමට දීමට බලාපොරොත්තු වෙනව.
- පළමු තරගයේ ක්රීඩා කරන 11 දෙන්නා කවුරුන්ද?
ඒ පිළිබදව තේරීම්කරුවන් කිසි දෙයක් පවසල නෑ තවම. ඒ දේවල් අපි බලාපොරොත්තු වෙන විදිහට හොද දේවල් සිද්ධ වෙයි. අපි බලාපොරොත්තු වෙනව හොද ක්රීඩකයන් 11 දෙනෙකු සමග පලමු තරගය ක්රීඩා කිරීමට.
- ඔබගේ පුද්ගලික දස්කම් ගැන කතා කලොත්?
ඇත්තටම මම හිතනව පසුගිය world cup එකේ පෞද්ගලිකව මම හොදට ලකුණු රැස් කලා කියල. කණ්ඩායමට අවශ්ය වෙලාවෙ සැලසුමකට අනුව අවශ්ය වෙලාවෙ අවශ්ය විදියට ලකුණු රැස්කර දීමත් සමග මගේ දායකත්වය කණ්ඩායමට ලබා දීමට හැකියාව ලැබුනා. මම ගොඩක් තරග UAE ක්රීඩාංගන වන සාජා ඩුබායි ක්රීඩා කරල තියෙනව. බොහොමයක් තණතීරු පිතිකරුවන්ට උචිත වන අන්දමට තමා සකසල තියෙන්නේ. මේම ආසියානු කුසලානයෙත් කණ්ඩායමට අවශ්ය විදිහට ලකුණු රැස් කරදීමට බලාපොරොත්තු වෙනවා.
- කණ්ඩායම් විදිහට තිබෙන සැලසුම කුමක්ද?
අපගේ කණ්ඩායම හොද මානසික මට්ටමක සිටිනවා. කණ්ඩායමක් විදිහට අපගේ දක්ෂතා නැවත නැවත පෙන්වීම තුළින් ජයග්රහණය කිරීමට බලාපොරොත්තු වෙනව. මෙම තරගාවලියෙත් මුලින්ම ඇෆ්ගනිස්ථාන කණ්ඩායම හා ඉන් පසු බංගලාදේශ කණ්ඩායම් හා තරග වැදීමට නියමිතව තිබෙනව. මෙම තරග දෙකෙත් උපරිම දක්ෂතා අතරට පැමිණීම අනිවාර්ය වෙනව තරගාවලියේ රැදී සිටීමට නම්. පසුගිය මාස දෙකේ තුනේ ක්රිකට් තරගාවලි පැවතුනේ නෑ. ඕස්ට්රේලියානු තරග සංචාරයෙන් පසුව තරගාවලියක් පැවැත්තුනේ නෑ. ඉතින් මේ තරගාවලිය3 තරම් දුරට පොඩි තැතිගැන්මක් තිබෙනව, ඉන් පසුව අපිට ලෝක කුසලානය ක්රීඩා කිරීමට තිබෙන නිසා.
- ප්රේක්ෂකයන්ට පැවසීමට තිබෙන දේ?
මෙහෙමයි අපි දන්නව අපි කොතන කොහොම හිටියත් ප්රේක්ෂකයෝ අපිට අදරෙයි කියල. අපි අපේ උපරිම දක්ෂතා දක්වන්න තමා බලාපොරොත්තුව. ඉතින් ඉල්ලා සිටිනවා අපිත් සමග හැමදාම රැදී සිටිය වගේ මේ තරගාවලියෙත් අපිත් සමග රැදී සිටින ලෙස. ශ්රී ලංකා ධජය ඉහලින්ම එසවීමට අපි මේ තරගාවලියේ උපරිම උත්සහයෙන් ක්රියා කරනව.
ஆசியக் கோப்பைக்கான ஏற்பாடுகள் குறித்து பானுகா கூறியபோது…
அணியில் நல்ல அனுபவம் வாய்ந்த வீரர்கள் உள்ளனர். ஐக்கிய அரபு அமீரகத்தில் விளையாடிய வீரர்கள் கூட எங்கள் அணியில் இருப்பது அணிக்கு நல்ல பலம். ஆப்கானிஸ்தான் அணியும் நம்பகத்தன்மையற்ற அணி. ஐக்கிய அரபு எமிரேட்ஸுக்கு வருவதற்கு முன்பு, நாங்கள் சில நல்ல பயிற்சி அமர்வுகள் மற்றும் பயிற்சி ஆட்டங்களில் பங்கேற்றோம். எங்களின் நல்ல தயாரிப்புடன், ஆப்கானிஸ்தான் அணிக்கு நல்ல போட்டியை வழங்குவோம் என நம்புகிறோம்.
- முதல் போட்டியில் விளையாடும் XI யார்?
இதுபற்றி தேர்வாளர்கள் இதுவரை எதுவும் கூறவில்லை. நாம் எதிர்பார்த்தபடி நல்லதே நடக்கும். முதல் போட்டியில் 11 நல்ல வீரர்களுடன் விளையாடுவோம் என நம்புகிறோம்.
- உங்கள் தனிப்பட்ட திறமைகள் பற்றி கூறினால்?
உண்மையில், கடந்த உலகக் கோப்பையில் நான் தனிப்பட்ட முறையில் நன்றாக அடித்தேன் என்று நினைக்கிறேன். அணிக்கு தேவையான நேரத்தில் ஒரு திட்டத்தின் படி தேவையான புள்ளிகளை சேகரித்து அணிக்கு எனது பங்களிப்பை வழங்க முடிந்தது. ஷார்ஜா துபாயில் உள்ள ஐக்கிய அரபு எமிரேட்ஸ் மைதானங்களில் பல போட்டிகளில் விளையாடியுள்ளேன். பெரும்பாலான ஆடுகளங்கள் பேட்ஸ்மேன்களுக்கு ஏற்றவாறு வடிவமைக்கப்பட்டுள்ளன. இந்த ஆசிய கோப்பையிலும் அணி தேவையான புள்ளிகளை பெறும் என எதிர்பார்க்கப்படுகிறது.
- அணியின் திட்டம் என்ன?
எங்கள் அணி நல்ல மனநிலையில் உள்ளது. ஒரு அணியாக, மீண்டும் மீண்டும் திறமையை வெளிப்படுத்தி வெற்றி பெறுவோம். இந்தப் போட்டியில் முதலில் ஆப்கானிஸ்தான் அணியுடனும், பின்னர் வங்கதேச அணியுடனும் மோதவுள்ளது. போட்டியில் நீடிக்க இந்த இரண்டு போட்டிகளிலும் சிறந்து விளங்குவது கட்டாயமாகும். கடந்த இரண்டு மூன்று மாதங்களாக கிரிக்கெட் போட்டிகள் நடைபெறவில்லை. ஆஸ்திரேலிய சுற்றுப்பயணத்திற்கு பிறகு எந்த போட்டியும் நடத்தப்படவில்லை. அதனால் இந்த தொடர் கொஞ்சம் கடினமாய் உள்ளது, ஏனென்றால் அதன் பிறகு நாம் உலகக் கோப்பை விளையாட வேண்டும்.
- பார்வையாளர்களுக்கு என்ன கூற விரும்புகிறீர்கள்?
நாம் எங்கிருந்தாலும் பார்வையாளர்கள் நம்மை நேசிப்பார்கள் என்பது இப்படித்தான் தெரியும். எங்களின் சிறந்த திறமைகளை வெளிப்படுத்துவோம் என நம்புகிறோம். எனவே நீங்கள் எப்போதும் எங்களுடன் தங்கியிருந்ததைப் போல இந்த போட்டியிலும் எங்களுடன் இருக்குமாறு கேட்டுக்கொள்கிறோம். இந்தப் போட்டியில் இலங்கைக் கொடியை உயர்த்துவதற்கு எங்களால் முடிந்த அனைத்தையும் செய்து வருகிறோம்.
News by Thilina Madusanka
Sri Lanka stand on the brink of a potential breakthrough at the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2026 as they prepare for a decisive Group Stage encounter against West Indies, with a place in the semi-finals firmly within reach.
After reviving their campaign with an impressive victory over New Zealand, the Sri Lankans have injected fresh life into their tournament aspirations. The win not only boosted confidence within the squad but also placed them in a strong position heading into one of their most important matches of the competition.
A victory over the Caribbean side would leave Sri Lanka well placed to secure a coveted berth in the last four, marking a significant achievement for the women’s team on the global stage.
Captain Chamari Athapaththu will once again carry much of the responsibility at the top of the order. Although she has shown glimpses of her class in previous matches, the experienced all-rounder will be eager to convert promising starts into a substantial innings capable of steering her side to victory.
Sri Lanka’s batting depth will also be tested, with Harshitha Samarawickrama, Vishmi Gunaratne and Nilakshi de Silva expected to play key roles. Their ability to anchor the innings while maintaining scoring momentum could prove decisive in a contest where every run may carry added significance.
The bowling attack has been one of Sri Lanka’s standout features throughout the tournament. Disciplined performances and timely breakthroughs have enabled the team to remain competitive against strong opposition, and another collective effort will be required against a powerful West Indies batting line-up.
Sri Lanka can also draw encouragement from recent history. Ahead of the World Cup, they secured a bilateral series victory over West Indies, a result that demonstrated their ability to challenge and overcome the Caribbean outfit. While major tournaments often present different pressures, that success provides a valuable boost to confidence.
West Indies, meanwhile, enter the match in formidable form after registering consecutive wins in the tournament. Armed with experienced campaigners and a fearless approach, they will be determined to preserve their winning momentum and strengthen their own semi-final ambitions.
With both teams chasing a place in the knockout stage, Sunday’s showdown in Bristol promises to be one of the most significant and closely contested matches of the group phase.
Sri Lankan media reports indicate that ICC Chairman Jay Shah has arrived in Sri Lanka for talks with government representatives and cricket stakeholders regarding the future governance of Sri Lanka Cricket.
Reports state that Shah is scheduled to hold discussions with President Anura Kumara Dissanayake and other key figures during his visit.
The meetings are expected to address the current interim administration of Sri Lanka Cricket and explore possible pathways for the sport’s governance moving forward.
Shah’s visit comes as Sri Lankan authorities continue to engage with international cricket bodies on matters relating to the administration of the game and compliance with international cricket regulations.
As of publication, neither the ICC nor the Sri Lankan government had officially confirmed or commented on the visit.
Sri Lanka’s rising athletics star Rumesh Tharanga Pathiragae reinforced his status as one of the world’s premier javelin throwers by capturing gold at the prestigious Ostrava Golden Spike meeting in the Czech Republic on Tuesday.
The 23-year-old delivered another commanding performance at the World Athletics Continental Tour Gold event, producing a winning throw of 86.57 metres to finish comfortably ahead of a high-quality international field.
Rumesh signaled his intentions from the outset with an opening effort of 85.87m before improving to 86.30m in the second round. He then produced his best throw of the day, 86.57m, in the third round, a mark that remained unbeaten for the rest of the competition.
Grenada’s double world champion Anderson Peters had to settle for second place with 84.27m, while South Africa’s Douw Smit completed the podium with a throw of 83.90m.
The latest triumph comes just weeks after Rumesh announced himself on the global stage with a sensational 92.62m effort in Rome, a throw that elevated him to eighth place on the all-time world rankings and established him as a genuine contender for major international honours.
Unlike in Rome, where he arrived as an emerging talent, Rumesh entered the Ostrava meet carrying the weight of expectation. Widely regarded as the athlete to beat in men’s javelin this season, the Sri Lankan was among the headline attractions of the competition and featured prominently in pre-event promotions.
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