Sport Today

---------------------cut here---------------------------------------

               Back to Cricket Season again. We have two interesting

                Sri Lanka Vs  India : Starting in July.

 Certainly taking the present form into picture Sri Lanka start the
favourites.  Which most cricketing pundits would find hard to accept.
Almost an year ago, Australian captain, Allan Border was inches from
losing the test series to Sri Lanka said "I can go to such an extent
to say that Sri Lankan team is better than present Indian team".

  While those words still reverberate in any sensible Indian Cricket
fan. It would be hard for Md.Azharuddin to come out from jaws of
defeat. The main factors of balance here would be psychological aspect
: Sri Lankans are no doubt tigers on their pitches and have a big
advantage of having won all the last 3 one day international series
convincingly against top countries like Australia, Newzealand and
England. On the other hand India have been losing all its abroad
series : Tests or one dayers and almost lost the one day home series
against England. Psychological and Confidence Sri Lankans at top.

 Coming to Talent and Charishma, Indians have slight edge with the
world class Sachin Tendulkar, wristy Azhar, the aging all-rounder
Kapil Dev and new found talents : Anil Kumble, Vinod Kambli, Pravin
Amre and Javgal Srinath. Both Kambli and Sidhu would be under test in
batting while Salil Ankola and Venkatpaty Raju in bowling and Kiran
More in wicket keeping will have to work harder to retain their
places. Ajay Sharma and W.V.Raman should come with good performances to
maintain their 12th man place.

 Srilanka with its winning streak and better fighting spirit will
certainly have the in intial advantage. Above all in the last 10 years
Sri Lankans have always been better fielding side than India. Their
batting revolves around Roshan Mahanama, Arjuna Ranatunga, Aravind
Desilva, the determined Asanka Gurishinge and the new found talent
Hasan Tilkeratne. By bet would be on Aravinda, Ranatunga and
Tilkeratne.

Coming to bowling Indians have an obvious edge over sri lankans.
Srinath, Kumble and Kapil to some extent Manoj and Raju can make the
difference. Indian bowling performance has been quite consistent in
the last few series. But batting and fielding were most uncertain
departments.

Overall Sri Lankans are better placed and may spring a nightmare for
Azhar and his team.

Srinivas Jasthi.

--

:)  Certainly taking the present form into picture Sri Lanka start the
:) favourites.  Which most cricketing pundits would find hard to accept.
:) Almost an year ago, Australian captain, Allan Border was inches from
:) losing the test series to Sri Lanka said "I can go to such an extent
:) to say that Sri Lankan team is better than present Indian team".

IMHO, Border's words need not be taken too seriously. It's silly to compare
India's performances in Aus and SL's performances at home. Though Aus
outplayed India, if Aus had played in India, I don't think they would've had
such an easy time.  Aussie pitches (and weather) are totally different from
the subcontinent pitches.

Secondly, Indian team has improved considerably since the Oz tour. SRT, who
did well enough in Aus, wasn't too consistent then. Now he's showing signs
of a good level of consistency. Kambli and Amre are both capable of long
innings too. On the bowling front, India has found a real matchwinner --
Kumble. Srinath also has matured a lot. On the Oz tour, he was way too raw.

Considering all these factors, I don't quite think Border's assessment is
accurate.

However, I agree with you that SL is a different proposition in SL. But I
don't think Indian batsmen will have much problem with the pitches (unlike
in SA).

[some good stuff deleted]

I agree that SL has a clear edge in fielding, India has a slight (or even
more) edge in batting and a clear edge in bowling.

While ODIs can be anyone's, as far as tests go, I don't really think SL is
the favorites on paper. Even if they are, it should be pretty close.

PVR