Cricket isn’t exactly a sport we cover in depth here at The Comeback. But when I saw just how much the Sri Lankan media buried the national cricket team following a loss to Bangladesh, I figured it was a story we had to cover.
On Monday, Sri Lanka’s The Island newspaper published a headline reading “RIP Sri Lanka” after the defeat, and posted an obituary for the nation’s cricket team.
Here’s a snippet, via the AP.
The paper carried a notice saying: “In affectionate remembrance of Sri Lankan cricket which died at the Oval on 19, March 2017.”
“The body will be cremated and the ashes taken to Bangladesh,” read the notice. The sports page also carried a cartoon depicting Sri Lanka Cricket president and the sports minister carrying a casket with “Sri Lankan cricket” written on it.
Bangladesh’s Sunday victory was its first over Sri Lanka in 18 attempts, following a pair of draws and 15 Sri Lankan wins.
The loss was also called the lowest point in Sri Lankan cricket history.
“Sri Lanka’s darkest hour in test cricket — lose to Bangladesh,” read the Daily News headline which was also full of praise for Bangladesh.
For Bangladesh this win was special because it showed how much they have improved as a test nation,” it said.
Unless some radical actions are taken and changes made to uplift their game, Sri Lanka will struggle to beat teams like Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Ireland, the newspaper said.
The Sri Lankan team is currently ranked seventh in the world in test cricket, while the Bangladeshi team is ranked ninth. While that may not seem like much of a disparity, that ranking is out of the ten teams in the world playing test cricket…so Sri Lanka lost to the second-worst team in the world, if you want to think about it that way.
While I do understand how irate the Sri Lankan media is, this had to have happened eventually, right? You can’t expect to beat one country in every match you play forever.
