Thuppahi's Blog

Item in  The Island, 26 February 2026, withthis Title: “Samra, Airee headline Associates’ team of the tournament

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Danyal Rasool

in ESPNcricinfo, 00 February 2026,nwhere the title runs thus: “Ravindra, Santner and McConchie eliminate Sri Lanka”

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Desert Wanderer

Australia is recalling diplomatic staff from embassies across West Asia, including Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq and the UAE.

Australia has also advised all Australian citizens to leave the region immediately, saying the situation in West Asia is unstable and unpredictable. If they don’t leave now, and war breaks out, all commercial airline flights to and from the region will cease and there will be no way out.

This development suggests Australia has either been informed by the US of the date war will break out; or that Trump’s State of the Union address indicates to Australia that the decision to go to war has been made, and that war is imminent.

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Andrew Fidel Fernando in  ESPNcricinfo, 25 Feb 2026, where the headline reads “Harry Brook restores order on another rowdy night for England”

It was in the early days of England‘s winter, way back on October 31, when Brook got into an altercation with a Wellington bouncer hours before going on to captain the third ODI against New Zealand. As with the cricketing variety, being struck by a bouncer can really change a guy. If you’re smart, evasive action tends to be taken. Since arriving in mid-January in South Asia, about a week after this story emerged in the press, Brook has made it a point to stress team curfews, remaining level, and generally just laying off them beers, lad.

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Vijayarajan Subramanium, in Facebook, 26 February 2026

October 14, 1964. Tokyo. Inside the Japan National Stadium, seventy thousand spectators watched the men’s 10,000 meters final at the 1964 Summer Olympics. Among the runners was Ranatunge Karunananda, wearing uniform number 67. He represented Ceylon, now Sri Lanka, a small nation that had struggled to send athletes to the Games. Karunananda was his country’s national record holder. He was also ill, weakened by a cold that had lingered for days.

The pistol fired. Thirty-eight men began the 25-lap race. The pace was punishing. By the tenth lap, the leaders had already lapped Karunananda. By the twentieth, he was several laps behind. Nine runners abandoned the race entirely. Dropping out would not have been disgraceful. It would have been practical.

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These historic photographs are in my stock by the grace and initiative of LAM SENEVIRATNE of Colombo, a venerable follower of a venerable game.

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Usvatte-aratchi in https://island.lk/why-so-unbuddhist/…. 24 February 2o26

Hardly a week goes by, when someone in this country does not preach to us about the great, long lasting and noble nature of the culture of the Sinhala Buddhist people. Some Sundays, it is a Catholic priest that sings the virtues of Buddhist culture. Some eminent university professor, not necessarily Buddhist, almost weekly in this newspaper, extols the superiority of Buddhist values in our society. Some 70 percent of the population in this society, at Census, claim that they are Buddhist in religion. They are all capped by that loud statement in dhammacakka pavattana sutta, commonly believed to have been spoken by the Buddha to his five colleagues, when all of them were seeking release from unsatisfactory state of being:

‘….jati pi dukkha jara pi dukkha maranam pi dukkham yam pi…. sankittena…. ‘

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Desert Wanderer, whose incisive & startling READINGS have been subject to highlights from the  Thuppahi ‘pen’

Israeli Knesset Member Almog Cohen says the month of Ramadan, when Muslims all over the world are fasting, is the ‘best time to kill’ the people of Gaza because they’re weak and tired’….. See middleeastmonitor.com/20240326-the-ramadan-is-the-best-time-to-kill-them-theyre-weak-and-tired/ He called on Netanyahu to invade Rafah and kill them all. By ‘all’ he means all Palestinians.

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Dadhi  Bidi !!  …. Dadhi  Bidi !!  ….  

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Michael Roberts

The ongoing T20 World Cup in India and Sri Lanka involves quite a logistical challenge for the principal units involved in arranging air and land travel for the several teams involved in the competition –– EIGHT teams all told: namely, England, India, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa, SriLanka, West Indies, Zimbabwe

Premadasa Stadium

There are SEVEN VENUES involved, two in Sri Lanka and 5 in India: N Modi Stadium, AHMEDABAD; …..MA Chidambaram Stadium, CHENNAI; …..Premadasa Stadium, COLOMBO; ……. Arun Jetley Stadium, DELHI; ….. Pallekele Stadium, KANDY; …..Eden Gardens Stadium, KOLKATA; ….. Wankhede Stadium, MUMBAI

Wankhede …Mumbai 

Chidambaram … Chennai

… AND, then, there will be the vicissitudes of WEATHER!

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