IPL is the world's best tournament: Jayasuriya

Hailing the opportunity to open with Sachin Tendulkar at the recently concluded Indian Premier League as "a big achievement", Sri Lanka's dashing opening batsman Sanath Jayasuriya has said he had "learnt a lot" from the maestro.

"I found that even after being in the game for a long time I still had a lot to learn by talking to Sachin. His cricket knowledge was amazing," Jayasuriya said in an interview with local private radio Hiru FM.

The 38-year-old left-handed former Sri Lanka captain, who has scored over 10,000 runs in the one-day internationals, played for Mumbai Indians under Sachin's captaincy and hammered the second fastest century (unbeaten), in addition to five half centuries in the IPL 20-20 tournament.

"He (Sachin) is a great human being and an excellent captain. Myself and Dilhara (Fernando) were able to learn a lot from him," Jayasuriya said, describing the IPL series as "the best tournament" he had ever seen by all standards.

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Dilshan Half-Century Brings Sri Lanka CB Series Win

Tillakaratne Dilshan scored a superb half-century as Sri Lanka beat India by virtue of the Duckworth Lewis method, to record their first win, by eight wickets, of the Commonwealth Bank Series in Canberra.

Rain followed the conclusion of India’s innings and as a result Sri Lanka’s innings was reduced to 21 overs and their victory target was revised to 154.

There was a thought before the Indian innings that perhaps a 29 over innings would leave India with a slight dilemma, as to whether they should go for an all out attack as one might associate with Twenty20 cricket, or try and keep wickets in hand as we would expect to see in ODI cricket.

However, given that Sri Lanka’s innings had been altered to 21 overs it was always possible they would feel they had the freedom to approach their run chase like it was a Twenty20 innings. This proved to be the case as the Sri Lankan opening batsmen raced to 41 from just three overs before Sanath Jayasuriya was caught by MS Dhoni off Ishant Sharma for a swashbuckling 27 from just 13 balls.

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http://www.cricketworld.com/commonwealth_bank_series

Sanath Jayasuriya goes to Texas

Just what is Sanath Jayasuriya doing in Plano, Texas?

The 38-year-old cricketer from Sri Lanka is visiting USA to help a Texas based non-profit organization raise money for a new community center in Garland.

Helping Hands Inc., founded in 2003 by Kaushalya Siriwardana, is involved with constructing community centers around the world for homeless, orphaned and neglected children. The group has started centers for homeless children in Kurunegala (Sri Lanka), Madoor and Wardha (India).

Helping Hands is now trying to develop a multicultural center that will provide a wide range of programs for children in Garland and other North Texas communities. The programs include after-school recreation; tutoring for the SAT and the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills; a food pantry; and classes for exercise, first aid and foreign languages.

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http://www.dreamcricket.com/dreamcricket/news.hspl?nid=8245&ntid=4

Tharanga to open for Sri Lanka in second test

Sri Lanka have not called up an extra batsman following the retirement of Sanath Jayasuriya for the second test against England starting on Sunday.

"We have not added any additional players and Upul (Tharanga) will now open the batting with Michael Vandort," captain Mahela Jayawardene told Reuters on Friday.

There had been speculation that Jehan Mubarak's place in the middle order was under threat after he contributed only nine runs to Sri Lanka's victory in the first test.

"The middle order is a bit of concern but we have to be fair to the youngsters we have identified and give them a decent run," Jayawardene added.

Sri Lanka are unlikely to make changes to their bowling attack.

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http://uk.reuters.com/article/cricketNews/

Sanath Jayasuriya announces retirement from Tests

Sanath Jayasuriya, the ‘Master Blaster’ who almost single-handedly changed the character of the one-day format of cricket and who has been one of the most consistent performers with bat and ball for Sri Lanka over the past 15 years, announced that the Kandy Test against England will be his land.

"I will be retiring from Tests after this match," Jayasuriya confirmed to a television channel covering the series. "I wanted to end my Test career in Sri Lanka, particularly in Kandy. I will continue playing one-day internationals."

Jayasuriya said that it was the right time to retire: “There are some young guys coming up, and I wanted to go while on top. Life without cricket will be tough, but I will still be playing one-day cricket and contributing to the team."

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http://news.lk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=4133&Itemid=44