An OVERVIEW of India’s Test Performances ….

S Rajesh

S Rajesh

27-Nov-2025      in news Item entitled India’s Test debacle: outbowled, outbatted and out-tossed too”

The last time India lost five out of seven Tests at home was in the 1950s, and here are the reasons why. Lowest ebb for Indian Test cricket in years?

India’s dismal home run over the last 13 months – five defeats in seven Tests – has evoked strong reactions from fans and pundits, and justifiably so – it’s a shocking string of results for a team which has been near-unbeatable at home for over a decade. In fact, the last time they lost five out of seven Tests at home was around 65 years ago, between 1956 and 1959, against Australia and West Indies.
Some appropriate cartoons?

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A Political Tragedy in Peru: Hostage Rescue Operation,1997

A  Roaming  World  Citizen

A remarkable story starting with a large reception at the Japanese Embassy in Lima, the old trick of terrorists sneaking through the security cordon in the back of an ambulance, followed by 126 days of hell and 700 hostages.  The victory against the terrorists was led by Peru’s President and his Director of National Intelligence. Yet, both ended up in jail.……

https://youtu.be/1BNSvb0IueM?si=PntIMYjS9J2Iu6us

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A  NOTE  …. 

Consider  the  pictorial material and  varied written items in the two-volume Vijitha Yapa Publication by Michael Roberts,  Tamil Person & State. Essays  and  Tamil Person & State. Pictorial, (2012, ISBN).

Tamil Person and State: Essays

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T20 Cricket Tournament in 2026 …. in India & Sri Lanka: SCHEDULE

Courtesy  of  Sunil Thenabadu

ICC ANNOUNCES ICC MEN’S T20 WORLD CUP SCHEDULE IN FEBRUARY 2026

Sri Lanka to Face Australia, Ireland, Oman and Zimbabwe in Group Stage

The ICC has announced the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup schedule, with Sri Lanka placed in Group B alongside Ireland, Oman, Zimbabwe, and Australia. The tournament will be co-hosted by Sri Lanka and India, featuring 20 teams divided into four groups before progressing to the Super Eights stage.

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Safs overwhelm India Comprehensively in Test Match at Guwahati

Dannie Byrne, as final part of his illuminating coverage  of the SAF-India encounters from a neutral Englisman’s position

Harmer proves to be too good for the Indian batsmen who sink to a humiliating new low. Day 5 in Guwahati.

 Harmer completed the over from the previous evening before Jansen ran in from the Pavilion End. Sudharsan was caught behind off Jansen but was rescued by the no-ball hooter as he started making the journey back to the Dressing Room. I managed to smuggle a newspaper and a bottle of water into the ground this morning and discovered that the price of an egg had suddenly risen in Guwahati market from 8 Rupees to 10. Kuldeep was dropped by Markram at slip off Harmer after 15 minutes of play. India should have been 39 – 4 instead of 39 – 2.                                                

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A Heartening Shift in Sri Lanka’s Political Culture Today

Bedgar Perera

I had happened to listen on youtube some time in February,2025, to an address by a learned senior professor,(whose name I had failed to get at) delivered before a distinguished audience that had included a large gathering of Buddhist clergy,a former President, a former Speaker and other politicians most of whom held power in yesteryear and are since out of the saddle.

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Nissanka Mauls Zimbabwe …..

Madushka Balasuriya in  ESPNcricinfo, November  2025 where the  title reads   “Nissanka’s 98* keeps Sri Lanka’s hopes of making tri-series final alive” ….

Sri Lanka 148 for 1 (Nissanka 98*, Kusal 25*, Evans 1-36) beat Zimbabwe 146 for 5 (Burl 37*, Hasaranga 2-23, Theekshana 2-23) by nine wickets
Pathum Nissanka found a timely return to form as he struck a devastating 98 off 58 deliveries to help Sri Lanka chase down a target of 147 against Zimbabwe in just 16.2 overs, with nine wickets to spare, in what was a must-win game in Rawalpindi. The result gives Sri Lanka their first win on the tour, and snaps a five-match losing streak in T20Is. It now means Sri Lanka go into their final game against Pakistan on Thursday knowing that a win will mean they qualify for the final of the tri-series.
Before Nissanka’s blitz, Sri Lanka’s bowlers had done well to restrict Zimbabwe to a sub-par total of 146 for 5Maheesh Theekshana and Wanindu Hasaranga ended with identical innings-best figures of 2 for 23, as Zimbabwe struggled to push their innings into high gear.

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My Interaction with Bradman ….. Bradman Weerakoon

Michael Roberts

Though Don Bradman had settled down in Adelaide and his son was a Lecturer in the Faculty of Law at Adelaide University and thereby a colleague [1], I never met the Don personally (while recognising his greatness by attending the massed commemoration of his death at the Adelaide Oval in 2001).

The first encounter with Bradman Weerakon was via his wife. It was an unplanned ‘encounter’. She was floating in  complete peace in the relatively calm waters between reef and shore at the Boy’s Bathing Place off the Fort of Galle  — a spot about 500 yards from the Roberts house in Middle Street — without  allowance for the gentle current which took her into a rocky  section of the swimming  spot where corals and sea pencils were a danger.  Spotting this, I swam rapidly to her side, told her to stay calm and floating and then guided her safely (still floating on her back) to a spot on the shoreline. She was pleased and grateful to the teenage lad who had assisted her.

the photo alongside is not of the Boy’d Bsthing Place” but it suggests the  ckind of physical circumstances where I participated ona minor rescue act

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Bradman Weerakoon: An Enduring Epitaph

Chandrasena Maliyadde, in DailyFT 12 July 2025, where the title reads thus: “A Man lived in Many Hearts”….. https://www.ft.lk/columns/A-man-lived-in-many-hearts/4-778880

His legacy, lasting impact, and the void have no substitutes. His loss is not mourned only by his family, relatives, or friends. The entire country does it. The entire population was his family. There are 1.5 million public servants in the country. Bradman was always the pinnacle and was among the few most respected public servants. His demise marks the end of an era. It marks a profound loss and an absence that leaves a lasting impact and cannot be easily replaced.

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Heil “LILI MARLEEN” …. A Song That Straddled Enemy Lines

One song and two singers came to represent opposition and resistance to Hitler in the Second World War. The most beautiful and certainly most popular song of the Second World War was Lili Marlene.

A poem written in 1915, it was first recorded by German singer Lale Andersen in 1939 and was titled Das Mädchen unter der Laterne (The Girl under the Lantern). Another hugely popular version was recorded by Marlene Dietrich, a German exile living in the USA.00:00

03:13

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Remembering Upali Seneviratne: An Exemplary Police Officer

Merril  Gunaratne, in Sunday Island, 23 November 2025, …with  highlighting being impositions of The Editor, Thuppahi

Upali Seneviratne was one of the finest officers of the Police of a bygone era, when it’s repute was at a peak. They were times when, subject to exceptions, officers considered themselves bound only by the writ of the IGP and the rule of law. Unfortunately, Upali’s odyssey with the police was relatively brief. He enlisted as a sub inspector in 1957, and retired in 1980 as an ASP.

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