Despite winning the last few matches, word (on Daily Mirror SMS at least) is that TM Dilshan is resigning as captain of the Sri Lankan team. Following the resignation of captain Kumar Sangakkara and Vice Captain Mahela Jayawardena, this (to me) seems damn close to a strike by the cricket team. There has been terrible political interference and mismanagement, and worst of all, the politicians have blamed the cricketers.

Sri Lanka lost its bid for the Commonwealth Games. The Economist blogger Banyan is reporting that many people are glad. I guess I’m glad too. The last Commonwealth Games were a disaster in Delhi, and Hambantota is definitely not the place to have them.

I grew up with Joe Paterno, at least, on TV. Football is a passion in Columbus, Ohio, even for an immigrant Sri Lankan boy. I wanted to grow up and be Quarterback for the Ohio State Buckeyes, until Brett Hughes broke my collarbone in third grade and I realized that my indic frame could never compete. It’s really quite unfair. It’s physically impossible for the average brown person to play football or basketball.

Kumar Sangakkara is trying to raise around Rs. 3 million to buy bicycles for kids in the North. You can make a simple donation or donation per run he hits in the Pakistan tour (which I think is over now). He recently became the fastest to reach 9000 test runs so perhaps the simple donation is the best bet.

Halik has another interesting idea, why not bring the Commonwealth Games to Colombo? Sri Lanka has put in a bid for Hambantota, but building public transport there has a long term effect of pissing off elephants. In Colombo it could actually be used by people. Note that following the Delhi debacle, I don’t think the hosting the games is a very good idea at all, but having them in Colombo is a better one.

I was watching a cricket game at Smoothie Park. It started with a few kids just batting back and forth. Then younger kids started hovering around. First they were spectators, then they chased down errant balls, then they were fielders, and then they were allowed to bat. Some old men got tired of walking around and stepped in to catch and play. And like that, they had a game.

I’m sure Sanga has no shortage of enemies now. He gave a wide-ranging speech in England, of which different people have picked different parts. Since the speech was in English (since translated to Sinhala), mainstream audiences in Sinhala and Tamil are getting the interpretation largely second-hand. Perhaps preying on that information gap, the Island group’s Sinhala paper has been running stuff alleging that Kumar Sangakkara is pally with the Americans.

Attached is SangaTalkMCC-Sinhala, in full, in Sinhala. This is important so more people in Sri Lanka can understand what he said. I got this through a friend. Please download and circulate widely. As a sum, what he covered was the spirit of Sri Lankan cricket and how that spirit has been corrupted by the money and bad administration. More than that, it’s also very entertaining and educating. So here it is.

I wrote something further on Kumar Sangakkara’s Cowdrey lecture and the accompanying blowback for MyLaw.net, and Indian law portal. I’m actually the first Samarajiva for two generations to not be a lawyer. But that’s neither here nor there. The article is about Kumar’s speech, and the general nonse that’s been messing up Sri Lanka cricket quite publicly for the past year.

Sri Lankan cricket is great. Sri Lanka Cricket is awful. To quote DJ Shadow, It’s the money. As Sanga has exposed, after Sri Lanka won the World Cup in ’96, a bunch of unsavory interests got involved. One of them was big-time bookie Thilanga Sumapthipala (per Roebuck on Cricinfo). Now we’ve got a Member of Parliament playing on the team and the President’s witch doctor giving steroids to players. Things are completely messed.