Michael Roberts
My cricketing mate from Peradeniya days, the Trinitian, Errol Fernando, is not only a maestro on piano keys, but has also a way with words. As a prankster. Reviewing the final rounds of T20 World Cup matches in Australia, he has penned a few ‘screaming’ circulars to a mystical mate named Gavin
They are worth musing over. ….
One:
How interesting, Gavin, that the whole planet, especially Australia, is cheering for SRI LANKA this evening [Saturday 5th November!] In fact, the whole UNIVERSE is cheering for Sri Lanka. Most surprisingly, there are Sri Lankans who stopped cheering for Sri Lanka as soon as they arrived and settled in Australia. They felt a need to cheer for their NEW country and forget about the old. Today, those same people are cheering for Sri Lanka after many, many years! Wow!
Well, Gavin, there is just ONE person and one person only in the galaxy who is cheering for England. Of course, you can guess who it is. RISHY SUNAK, of course! Rishy, all by himself, is England’s one and only supporter.
Now let me tune in and see how the game is going. Hope it is as exciting as Australia vs Afghanistan yesterday. The difference there was just ONE BALL! Australia won by just one single ball!
Cheers and happy watching, Gavin.
********************
Two: A Prediction
I am the only person on the planet, Gavin, who thinks well of my cricket predictions. I think that my predictions are excellent. A small and unimportant detail is that most of my predictions happen to end up being wrong. Didn’t Greg Chappell famously say,’ I am batting extremely well. It’s just that I keep getting out’. I understand that perfectly.
In this tournament I was absolutely certain that Australia would win the World Cup. Quite simply, they had by far the best team in the competition. They had one bad match on one day and that put them out of the tournament. I failed to see that.
Now I make a confident prediction that the one team that will definitely NOT win the tournament is England. Yes, they beat Sri Lanka today, but they were absolutely pathetic. They haven’t a hope. Their middle order batting made me ill.
I shall give you more predictions later.
All the best,
***************
ERROL playing recently at Trinity Chapel …..
Yet another great article of awesome reminiscing!
Thanks Michael.
Australia has capable cricketers and Australia is capable of winning the T-20 series. What is lacking is the consistency in their performance.
I am told that many of the Sri Lankan cricketers are injured. They cannot be replaced and that’s our problem?
Lanka lost Chameera, the paceman, to injury early and also Madushan. …and both instances were major blows. they were replaced but then Binusha Fernando, one of the replacments, got injured in the midddle of his first game.
Our team were always going to find it tough in Aussie conditions and within their large grounds; so their performances have been about par with my expectations. Note. too, that their travel schedule has been quite exacting….and meeting Australia in Perth was always going to be a killer.
Always learning something ” about different” in your blog – thanks Chris