Red Bull is sponsoring campus cricket tournaments across the subcontinent, including Sri Lanka. This is interesting for bloggers because anyone who can blog coherently about the upcoming games can win a trip to Bangalore to cover the finals. Not a bad shot. If I could write about sports at all I’d go for it, but, excluding grand emotional events like World Cups, I can’t. In SL, the semifinals are coming up on the 19th. If you’re a sports blogger you might as well give it a shot.

The Indian Board Of Cricket Control banned a lot of independent news agencies from the recent India-England series. The stated reason seems to be that they wanted to provide their own images, but the result was that a lot of mainstream media pulled out. So there wasn’t much coverage for fans. On the plus side, however, outlets like the Telegraph did their own sorta coverage, in this case through drawings in what seems to be MS Paint.

Well, I was there. The West Indies came from way behind and pulled off a stunning win over Sri Lanka. You could feel the mood in the crowd go from surprise to elation at the run of excellent early bowling from Sri Lanka, getting two maiden overs and getting the powerhouse Chris Gayle out for three. Then, somehow effortlessly, Samuels destroyed Malinga for six after six. However, when their innings ended I thought Sri Lanka was winning. But then we couldn’t hit fours or sixes at all. Then we all got out. Then it was over.

Australia are like the Yankees of cricket. Nobody likes them and they always win. Except tonight, wherein the West Indies thrashed them like a bunch of public school kids, Gangam Style. That was a vicious and amazing game with Chris Gayle paddling the Aussies like they were a canoe. The final run rate was an insurmountable 10 for a total of 205. Which, for 20 overs, is pretty insane. As much as I like to see Australia lose, for West Indies to win so dominantly is a bit terrifying. Sri Lanka will face them tomorrow, in the finals.

Just did a short user guide on R. Premadasa Stadium, where the World Cup Final will be. Right now B tickets are going for like Rs. 20,000 (they cost Rs. 1,540) on the black market, AKA, the only market really running. The ICC/Ticketmaster chaps are seriously incompetent, but that’s another story. If you have tickets great, if you don’t then you probably just don’t.

Last night’s match was electric. You could feel it in the day even, leading up to the 7 PM match, as there was less traffic than usual and everyone had something to talk about. It was the semi-finals of the World T20 Cup, Sri Lanka vs. Pakistan. We actually went to the match (5 overs late) and it was amazing. Here are some photos.

Pakistan is a Muslim country and, despite extremists there actually trying to kill our cricket team once, a lot of Sri Lankan Muslims support them. But against our own team? I would think not really. However, HalaalSL tweeted “Muslims are requested to avoid deliberate support/overjoy in today’s match arousing the feeling of hatred among our Sri Lankan brothers-ACJU”. As in, I think, don’t support Sri Lanka too much, because other Sri Lankan Muslims might be supporting Pakistan.

The T20 World Cup has been a lot of fun so far and now it’s getting quite exciting. Since it’s held in Sri Lanka I’ve been able to go for a few matches, so here’s some pictures. One of the best things is the fans. I often find myself missing what’s happening on the field, but there’s always more proximate entertainment in the stands. There’s the Indian fan with full body paint, the horrid cheerleaders and cheerful amateur cheerleader fans. Then, of course, beer and T20 World Cup food.

Ever since the IPL introduced cheerleaders it has boggled the Janusian sub-continental male mind. Like Indian MPs watching Sunny Leone in Parliament, they like but don’t like. In Sri Lanka we briefly resolved this tension by having cheerleaders in semi-normal outfits with spandex tights underneath. Which looks insanely bad. Honestly, it would be much better if they just danced in sari.

Afghanistan qualified for this ongoing T20 World Cup and, according to the BBC, three fans have arrived in Sri Lanka to cheer them on. To Zia, Islamuddin and Ihsan, welcome. The team is not so terrible, they’ve beat Scotland, Bangladesh, etc. This is their second T20 World Cup and they seem to be the first nation to emerge naturally into the shorter form.