Sri Lanka Cricket’s desperation to come up with a 15-man squad for the World or its desire to hoodwink followers could not have been displayed any better than when Lasith Malinga who could not deliver on the recent tour of South Africa, took seven wickets, six of them amateur batsmen, in the so-called Super Provincial Tournament that is now underway.
Captaining a team called Galle, Malinga took the wickets of lesser mortals by the names of Sadeera Samarawickrema, Pathum Nissanka, Priyamal Perera, Manoj Sarathchandra and bowlers Kasun Rajitha and Nuwan Pradeep who played for a team called Kandy.
The other wicket was of the in-and-out Sachithra Senanayake.
But Malinga failed to bag the wickets of the only two batsmen of repute Dimuth Karunaratne (35) and Thisara Perera (19). And for the first time in his career he bowled 9.5 overs on the trot in a now-or-never act. Sri Lanka Cricket said it is using the Super Provincial tournament as criteria to select players for the World Cup.