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Mathews unhappy for lack of test matches for SL

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Former skipper Angelo Mathews is unhappy with the amount of Test cricket Sri Lanka are scheduled to play in 2023.

Sri Lanka is only due to play five Test matches this year, with two Tests in New Zealand, one Test at home against Ireland – a side not involved in the World Test Championship – and two Tests in Pakistan.

By contrast, their white-ball schedule is full, with 11 ODIs, six T20Is, the Asia Cup and the Cricket World Cup locked in for the remainder of the year.

However, they can still qualify for the 2023 World Test Championship final at the Oval provided they defeat New Zealand 2-0 in their ongoing series and Australia avoid defeat to India in the final match of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.

Mathews said: “[It’s] unfortunate that we are not playing too many Test matches this year – it’s as few as five. We are coming off a long layoff; the last Test was six months back.

“Everyone’s talking about Test cricket dying, but we’re not doing any good for Test cricket playing only five Tests a year. Hopefully, we’ll get more matches this year. Five feels like not enough.”

The World Test Championship table perfectly illustrates the unequal distribution of red-ball internationals. England, for example, has played 22 matches during the 2020-23 cycle while Sri Lanka has only played 10.

The majority of series which count towards the Championship is only two matches. However, the big three – Australia, England and India – frequently play four or five-match series against one another.

West Indies international Jason Holder recently expressed his grievance with the lack of Test cricket for nations outside the big three, commenting: “The way world cricket is going now, apart from the big three, every team is barely even playing Test cricket.”

ශ්‍රී ලංකාවට ටෙස්ට් තරග නොමැතිවීම ගැන මැතිව්ස් නොසතුටෙන්

2023 වසරේ ශ්‍රී ලංකාව ක්‍රීඩා කිරීමට නියමිත ටෙස්ට් ක්‍රිකට් ප්‍රමාණය පිළිබඳව හිටපු නායක ඇන්ජලෝ මැතිව්ස් නොසතුට පළ කර තිබේ.

ශ්‍රී ලංකාව මේ වසරේ ක්‍රීඩා කිරීමට නියමිතව ඇත්තේ ටෙස්ට් තරග 5ක් පමණක් වන අතර, නවසීලන්තයේදී ටෙස්ට් තරග දෙකක්, අයර්ලන්තයට එරෙහිව එක් ටෙස්ට් තරගයක් – ලෝක ටෙස්ට් ශූරතාවලියට සම්බන්ධ නොවන කණ්ඩායමක් – සහ පාකිස්තානයේ ටෙස්ට් තරග දෙකක් ඇත.

ඊට වෙනස්ව, ඔවුන්ගේ වයිට්බෝල් කාලසටහන පිරී ඇති අතර, එක්දින තරඟ 11 ක්, T20I තරඟ හයක්, ආසියානු කුසලානය සහ ක්‍රිකට් ලෝක කුසලානය වසරේ ඉතිරි කාලය සඳහා අගුලු දමා ඇත.

කෙසේ වෙතත්, ඔවුන්ට තවමත් 2023 ඕවල් ක්‍රීඩාංගණයේ පැවැත්වෙන ලෝක ටෙස්ට් ශූරතා අවසන් මහා තරගයට සුදුසුකම් ලැබිය හැක්කේ ඔවුන් දැනට පවතින තරගාවලියේදී නවසීලන්තය 2-0ක් ලෙස පරාජය කළහොත් සහ ඕස්ට්‍රේලියාව බෝඩර්-ගවස්කාර් කුසලානයේ අවසන් තරගයේදී ඉන්දියාවට පරාජයෙන් වැළකී සිටියහොත් පමණි.

මැතිව්ස් මෙසේ පැවසීය: “[එය] අවාසනාවකට අපි මේ වසරේ වැඩිපුර ටෙස්ට් තරඟ ක්‍රීඩා නොකිරීමයි – එය පහක් වැනි සුළු ප්‍රමාණයකි. අපි දිගු දොට්ට දැමීමකින් ඉවත් වෙමු; අවසන් ටෙස්ට් තරඟය මාස හයකට පෙරය.

“හැමෝම කතා කරන්නේ ටෙස්ට් ක්‍රිකට් මැරෙන එක ගැන, නමුත් අපි ටෙස්ට් ක්‍රිකට් වලට කිසිම ප්‍රයෝජනයක් කරන්නේ නැහැ වසරකට ටෙස්ට් තරග පහක් පමණක් ක්‍රීඩා කරනවා. බලාපොරොත්තු වෙනවා, අපිට මේ අවුරුද්දේ තවත් තරඟ ලැබේවි. පහක් මදි වගේ දැනෙනවා.”

ලෝක ටෙස්ට් ශූරතා වගුව රතු-පන්දු ජාත්‍යන්තර තරඟවල අසමාන ව්‍යාප්තිය මනාව විදහා දක්වයි. නිදසුනක් වශයෙන්, එංගලන්තය 2020-23 චක්‍රය තුළ තරඟ 22 ක් ක්‍රීඩා කර ඇති අතර ශ්‍රී ලංකාව ක්‍රීඩා කර ඇත්තේ 10 ක් පමණි.

ශූරතාවලිය සඳහා ගණන් ගන්නා බොහෝ තරඟාවලි තරඟ දෙකක් පමණි. කෙසේ වෙතත්, විශාල තිදෙනා – ඕස්ට්‍රේලියාව, එංගලන්තය සහ ඉන්දියාව – නිතර තරඟ හතරක් හෝ පහක් තරඟාවලියක් එකිනෙකාට එරෙහිව ක්‍රීඩා කරයි.

බටහිර ඉන්දීය කොදෙව් ජාත්‍යන්තර ජේසන් හෝල්ඩර් මෑතකදී විශාල ත්‍රිත්වයෙන් පිටත ජාතීන් සඳහා ටෙස්ට් ක්‍රිකට් නොමැතිකම සම්බන්ධයෙන් සිය දුක්ගැනවිල්ල ප්‍රකාශ කළේය: “ලෝක ක්‍රිකට් දැන් ගමන් කරන ආකාරය, විශාල තිදෙනා හැරුණු විට, සෑම කණ්ඩායමක්ම යන්තම් ටෙස්ට් ක්‍රිකට් ක්‍රීඩා කරන්නේ නැත.”

இலங்கைக்கு டெஸ்ட் போட்டிகள் இல்லாததால் மெத்யூஸ் மகிழ்ச்சியடையவில்லை

இலங்கை அணி 2023ல் விளையாடவுள்ள டெஸ்ட் கிரிக்கெட் போட்டி குறித்து முன்னாள் கேப்டன் ஏஞ்சலோ மேத்யூஸ் அதிருப்தி தெரிவித்துள்ளார்.

நியூசிலாந்தில் இரண்டு டெஸ்ட் போட்டிகள், அயர்லாந்திற்கு எதிராக உள்நாட்டில் ஒரு டெஸ்ட் – உலக டெஸ்ட் சாம்பியன்ஷிப்பில் பங்கேற்காத ஒரு அணி – மற்றும் பாகிஸ்தானில் இரண்டு டெஸ்ட் போட்டிகள் கொண்ட இலங்கை இந்த ஆண்டு ஐந்து டெஸ்ட் போட்டிகளில் மட்டுமே விளையாட உள்ளது.

இதற்கு நேர்மாறாக, அவர்களின் ஒயிட்-பால் அட்டவணை நிரம்பியுள்ளது, 11 ODIகள், ஆறு T20Iகள், ஆசியக் கோப்பை மற்றும் கிரிக்கெட் உலகக் கோப்பை ஆகியவை இந்த ஆண்டு முழுவதும் பூட்டப்பட்டுள்ளன.

இருப்பினும், 2023 ஆம் ஆண்டு ஓவலில் நடக்கும் உலக டெஸ்ட் சாம்பியன்ஷிப் இறுதிப் போட்டிக்கு அவர்கள் இன்னும் தகுதி பெற முடியும், அவர்கள் நியூசிலாந்தை 2-0 என்ற கணக்கில் தங்கள் தற்போதைய தொடரில் தோற்கடித்து, பார்டர்-கவாஸ்கர் டிராபியின் இறுதிப் போட்டியில் இந்தியாவிடம் தோல்வியைத் தவிர்க்கலாம்.

மேத்யூஸ் கூறினார்: “[இது] இந்த ஆண்டு நாங்கள் அதிக டெஸ்ட் போட்டிகளில் விளையாடாதது துரதிர்ஷ்டவசமானது – இது ஐந்து போட்டிகள் மட்டுமே. நாங்கள் நீண்ட ஆட்குறைப்பில் இருந்து வருகிறோம்; கடைசி டெஸ்ட் ஆறு மாதங்களுக்கு முன்பு நடந்தது.

“எல்லோரும் டெஸ்ட் கிரிக்கெட் அழிந்து வருவதைப் பற்றி பேசுகிறார்கள், ஆனால் நாங்கள் டெஸ்ட் கிரிக்கெட்டுக்கு ஒரு வருடத்திற்கு ஐந்து டெஸ்டுகள் மட்டுமே விளையாடுகிறோம். நாங்கள் இந்த ஆண்டு அதிக போட்டிகளைப் பெறுவோம் என்று நம்புகிறோம். ஐந்து போதாது என்று உணர்கிறோம்.”

உலக டெஸ்ட் சாம்பியன்ஷிப் அட்டவணை சிவப்பு-பந்து சர்வதேச போட்டிகளின் சமமற்ற விநியோகத்தை மிகச்சரியாக விளக்குகிறது. எடுத்துக்காட்டாக, 2020-23 சுழற்சியில் இங்கிலாந்து 22 போட்டிகளில் விளையாடியுள்ளது, இலங்கை 10 போட்டிகளில் மட்டுமே விளையாடியுள்ளது.

சாம்பியன்ஷிப் தொடரில் பெரும்பாலானவை இரண்டு போட்டிகள் மட்டுமே. இருப்பினும், பெரிய மூன்று – ஆஸ்திரேலியா, இங்கிலாந்து மற்றும் இந்தியா – அடிக்கடி ஒன்றுக்கொன்று எதிராக நான்கு அல்லது ஐந்து போட்டித் தொடர்களை விளையாடுகின்றன.

மேற்கிந்தியத் தீவுகளின் சர்வதேச வீரர் ஜேசன் ஹோல்டர், பெரிய மூன்று நாடுகளுக்கு வெளியே உள்ள நாடுகளுக்கு டெஸ்ட் கிரிக்கெட் இல்லாதது குறித்து தனது குறையை சமீபத்தில் வெளிப்படுத்தினார்: “உலக கிரிக்கெட் இப்போது நடந்துகொண்டிருக்கும் விதம், பெரிய மூன்று அணிகளைத் தவிர, ஒவ்வொரு அணியும் டெஸ்ட் கிரிக்கெட்டை கூட விளையாடுவதில்லை.”

Football

SAFF Championship Postponement Exposes Deeper Issues Within FFSL

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The much-anticipated SAFF Championship, originally scheduled to take place in Sri Lanka in July 2025, has now been officially postponed to 2026—a move that has raised serious concerns over the competence and credibility of the Football Federation of Sri Lanka (FFSL).

According to the SAFF Executive Committee, the decision to delay the tournament stemmed largely from pressure exerted by its marketing partner, Sportfive, which advocated for a home-and-away format to increase commercial value. Furthermore, it is reported that Sportfive preferred the event be hosted in Bangladesh or India, citing better sponsor access and commercial feasibility in those countries if the tournament were to follow a centralized model.

However, beyond external pressure, this development highlights a troubling reality: the FFSL’s inability to effectively organize and defend Sri Lanka’s hosting rights on the international stage. This isn’t merely a scheduling issue—it reflects a deeper pattern of administrative shortcomings, lack of vision, and prioritization of media narratives over tangible development.

As previously reported by Sri Lankan Sports TV, the FFSL continues to focus more on optics and media stunts rather than on the foundational work required to uplift football in the country. The failure to safeguard Sri Lanka’s opportunity to host a major regional tournament not only affects the sport’s growth domestically but also damages the nation’s reputation within South Asian football.

For a federation that has long promised reform and transparency, this latest setback exposes how little progress has actually been made. When commercial partners have more sway than the national football body itself, it’s a clear indication that local football governance is being undermined by weak leadership and poor planning.

This should be a wake-up call—not just for the FFSL, but for every stakeholder invested in the future of Sri Lankan football. The time for slogans and staged announcements is over. Sri Lanka needs action, accountability, and genuine commitment to building a sustainable footballing culture. Until then, headlines like this will only continue to reflect a sport lost in mismanagement.

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Cricket

Sri Lanka Unveils Balanced Squad for Women’s Tri-Nation ODI Series 2025, Chamari Athapaththu to Lead the Charge

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Sri Lanka Cricket has officially announced a strong and balanced 17-member squad for the Women’s Tri-Nation ODI Series 2025, with star batter Chamari Athapaththu set to lead the team. The series, scheduled for next month, will serve as a key preparatory tournament ahead of the ICC Women’s ODI World Cup 2025.

Athapaththu, a globally respected all-rounder known for her fearless batting and bold leadership, remains the cornerstone of Sri Lanka Women’s cricket. As captain, she brings not only experience but also explosive firepower at the top of the order.

The Sri Lanka Women’s ODI squad for the tri-nation series blends youth with experience, showcasing the selectors’ vision of developing depth across all departments. Emerging talent Vishmi Gunaratne retains her spot following a solid domestic season, while consistent performers like Harshitha Samarawickrama and Nilakshi Silva will provide stability in the middle order.

All-round strength is a key feature of the squad, with the likes of Kavisha Dilhari and Anushka Sanjeewani (who will also don the gloves as the primary wicketkeeper) offering both batting and bowling options. Batters Hasini Perera and Piumi Wathsala strengthen the order, while promising youngsters Manudi Nanayakkara and Dewmi Vihanga are expected to gain valuable international exposure.

On the bowling front, spin remains Sri Lanka’s biggest weapon, spearheaded by veteran Inoka Ranaweera, with support from Inoshi Fernando and Sugandika Kumari. Their ability to control the game in the middle overs will be vital on slower pitches.

The pace unit will be led by Achini Kulasuriya and Rashmika Sewwandi, both known for their early breakthroughs and death-over effectiveness. All-rounders Malki Madara and Hansima Karunaratne round out the squad, providing versatility and tactical flexibility.

This ODI series is more than just preparation—it’s a chance for Sri Lanka to test its combinations, refine strategies, and build momentum ahead of a major global tournament. With Chamari Athapaththu at the helm and a team full of potential, fans can expect a spirited and competitive campaign.

Sri Lanka Women’s Squad for Tri-Nation ODI Series 2025

Chamari Athapaththu (Captain), Vishmi Gunaratne, Harshitha Samarawickrama, Nilakshi Silva, Kavisha Dilhari, Anushka Sanjeewani, Hasini Perera, Piumi Wathsala, Manudi Nanayakkara, Dewmi Vihanga, Inoka Ranaweera, Inoshi Fernando, Hansima Karunaratne, Rashmika Sewwandi, Malki Madara, Sugandika Kumari, Achini Kulasuriya

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News

Sri Lanka Storm Into Asia Rugby Men’s Championship with Dominant Win Over Malaysia

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Sri Lanka has officially qualified for the Asia Rugby Men’s Championship 2025 after a commanding 59-19 victory over Malaysia, marking a major step forward in their journey toward the Rugby World Cup 2027.

The Tuskers came out charging in this crucial qualifying clash, showcasing a blend of power, pace, and precision as they dismantled the Malaysian defense to book their place among Asia’s top rugby nations. With this win, Sri Lanka joins the elite group set to compete for the continent’s sole direct qualification spot for the Rugby World Cup 2027, to be held in Australia.

What’s Next? The Road to Australia 2027

The Asia Rugby Men’s Championship 2025 will be held between June and July 2025, featuring top sides including Hong Kong China, Korea, Malaysia, and the United Arab Emirates. The winner of the tournament will directly qualify for the Rugby World Cup 2027, while the runner-up will get a second chance through the Asia/Africa Play-Off.

Sri Lanka will now look to prepare for this pivotal tournament, with the goal of becoming the first-ever Sri Lankan team to qualify for a Rugby World Cup.

Global Qualification Overview:

  • Europe (4 teams): Semi-finalists from Rugby Europe Men’s Championship 2025.
  • Africa (1 team): Winner of Rugby Africa Men’s Cup 2025.
  • South America (1 team): Winner of Sudamérica Rugby Championship 2025.
  • Pacific (3 teams): Top 3 from the Pacific Nations Cup 2025 (excluding already-qualified Fiji and Japan).
  • Asia (1 team): Winner of the Asia Rugby Men’s Championship 2025 (which now includes Sri Lanka).
  • Final Qualification Tournament (1 team): A round-robin between four remaining contenders from intercontinental play-offs.

As the race to Australia 2027 heats up, Sri Lanka’s emphatic entry into the Asian Championship is a huge statement of intent. The nation’s rugby faithful will be eagerly following the Elephants as they charge toward a historic World Cup debut.

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