Malcolm Conn in/for NewsCorp Australia, 22 December 2022, where the title reads “Hiring suspect spin king Muttiah Muralitharan a huge philosophy shift for Australian cricket”
THE appointment of Muttiah Muralitharan as a spin bowling consultant by the Australian cricket team shows a huge philosophical shift in Australian cricket and the ruthless pragmatism of Darren Lehmann.
Previous Australian spin bowling coaches such as Terry Jenner and Ashley Mallett have refused to teach the doosra to their understudies in the belief it cannot be bowled legally.
The Royal Thomian match of 1951 will for long be remembered for its nail-biting finish, and for the manner in which the Royal College team led by skipper T. Vairavanathan extracted a victory from the jaws of defeat. It will certainly occupy a top position in the history of the series, the second oldest school cricket encounter in the world, (the first game being played in 1880).
Padraig Michael Colman is an experienced journalist and writer who pursued his trade in England and Europe before moving to Sri Lanka with his vivacious Sri Lankan wife Tiny and a coterie of dogs. They settled down awhile in Uva district; but have moved to the outskirts of Colombo in more recent times…. and have since moved back to Great Britain.
Ref to the subject, each year on 11th November, Britain and the Commonwealth countries remember their war dead in a formal manner by laying Poppy wreaths at their respective national war memorials and war graves related to those fallen in battle and those who died while in service during the two World Wars. 11th November 1918 is the day WW1 came to an end with the signing of the Armistice. Hence this day is considered as the remembrance day.
An extraordinary speech for our times by Vladimir Putin at the Valdai Club to an audience of dignitaries and intellectuals from 47 countries including the former Sri Lankan Ambassador to Moscow who presented a question directly to Putin.Questions also came from India, China, Indonesia, Korea, Armenia, Canada, South Africa, Venezuela, to name a few.
In a recent email message, a good friend of mine residing in Sri Lanka, Richard Simon, contended that he was “particularly concerned to open Facebook this morning and find two posts sharing Thuppahi articles.” One of these references was to the item “Is Sri Lanka Creating a Dungeon for Itself?”
Induction of Tiger recruits into fighter ranks with receipt of the kuppi containing cyanide
Tiger soldiers relaxing in camp with cyanide kuppi around their necks — Pix by Shyam Tekwani
Historical Background
Understanding the role of religion in the Tamil insurgency requires an understanding of Sri Lanka’s cultural mosaic and of the development of modern nationalism before and after independence from British colonial power. Sri Lanka is a geographically small yet culturally rich and complex island, with numerous ethnic, linguistic, religious, and caste subgroups. The majority of the population identify as ethnically Sinhala, and they speak Sinhala, an Indo-European language. The great majority of the Sinhalese are Theravada Buddhists who live mostly in the south and central regions of the island. A small minority of Sinhalese are Catholics, and some also belong to evangelical Christian churches. The largest minority group in Sri Lanka is the Tamils, who speak Tamil (a South Indian Dravidian language) and comprise several subgroups. The largest of these are the so-called Sri Lankan Tamils, who traditionally have lived in the north and east. The so-called Indian Tamils are labor immigrants from India who were brought in by the British to work in the plantation sector in the highlands. The majority of Tamils are Hindus of the Śaiva Siddhanta tradition, but there are also a significant number who are Catholics and a few to smaller Evangelical denominations. The Tamil Muslims identify based on religious belonging, not on a common ethnic identity, and they speak Tamil. Historically, the Muslim communities are scattered throughout the island; they form a stronghold in urban trading centers in the south but are also farmers in the Tamil-majority Eastern Province. Social stratification based on caste and regional identities was strong in precolonial Lanka, and then the colonial classifications of the island’s inhabitants produced new identities with intensified religious and racial signifiers. These were reproduced in the emerging Tamil and Sinhala nationalisms of the late 19th century.
Putin announces partial mobilisation to boost the forces in Ukraine, as the two Donbass republics and two regions of Ukraine go to a referendum to join the Russian Federation. If the referendums support joining Russia, then the four areas must formally apply to join Russia. It then goes to the Duma for approval, and if they do, it goes to Putin to sign into law. Perhaps the mobilisation is timed to coincide with these 4 areas joining Russia which would mean Ukraine is at war with Russia, no longer against the two republics in the Donbass.
“Amidst the prominent history of imperial expansion by Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands, Britain and France, the imperial intrusions (and outrages) by such European nations as Italy and Denmark during the early modern period can be passed over.Senaka Weeraratne in Colombo reminded me of this dimension of the past by sending me the tales of Denmark’s ‘work’ in this arena…. a world arena…. captured in Wikipedia: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danish_overseas_colonies
………… and especially the Maps of Danish colonies/or settlements acroos the world.
Malcolm Conn in/for NewsCorp Australia, 22 December 2022, where the title reads “Hiring suspect spin king Muttiah Muralitharan a huge philosophy shift for Australian cricket”
