ACS Overseas First-Class Annual 2011

Sri Lanka in 2010/11 Sri Lanka’s Test programme in 2010 and 2010/11 was made memorable by the retirement of M.Muralitharan, who had declared in advance of the first Test against India in 2010 that it would be his last, even if he failed to take the eight wickets he needed to reach the unprecedented total of 800. In the event, of course, he exactly achieved this target and so closed an extraordinary career of 133 Tests stretching back to 1992/93 with most wickets (800), most five-wicket innings (67) and most ten-wicket matches (22). In each respect S.K.Warne is his nearest rival, reasonably close in terms of wickets (708) but far behind in the other categories (37 five-fors and 10 ten-fors in 145 Tests). Among Sri Lankan bowlers, Muralitharan’s dominance is unchallengeable: disregarding the five he took for the World XI in the so-called Super Test of 2005/06, his total of 795 wickets for his country is more than double the next best, 355 by W.P.U.J.C.Vaas. Apart from his record-breaking career statistics, Muralitharan, almost literally, rewrote the laws of the game or, at least, radically changed their interpretation. For it was minute analysis of his action, compared with footage of other major bowlers, that demonstrated the impossibility of fairly applying the letter of Law 24 with its prohibition of straightening the elbow joint. It was conclusively shown not only that Muralitharan flexed his elbow but that virtually all bowlers did likewise to a greater or lesser extent, including acknowledged greats of present and past – men whose actions had never been queried. To put it bluntly, if Muralitharan threw, then almost everyone threw. In these circumstances, a reinterpretation of the law was essential: yet still, years later, aspersions are routinely cast on Muralitharan’s outstanding achievements. Muralitharan’s retirement aside, there was little of distinction in Sri Lanka’s Test record. Two drawn series allowed the team to retain fourth place in the Test rankings but the impression remained of a slight falling-away from previous years. There was credit in a 1-1 draw in the home series against India (see ‘Matches in 2010’) but the three drawn Tests against West Indies at the beginning of the 2010/11 season demonstrated (apart from the folly of arranging matches during the wettest part of the year) what the matches against India had already implied: that the batting remained very solid but, without Muralitharan, the bowling lacked penetration at top level. C.H.Gayle hammered home this point with a brutal 333 in the first match. Apart from the three Tests against West Indies at the start of the season, all the first-class matches were for the Premier Championship. This is played in two divisions (or ‘Tiers’) on a round-robin league basis, with no final. In 2010/11 it was won by Bloomfield, who finished narrowly ahread of Colts. These two teams both won five matches, whereas no one else won more than two. In terms of points, however, their lead over the rest was rather less impressive and this highlights a problem with this competition: the award of 8 points for a lead in a drawn match is relatively large in comparison with 12 points for a win and, with bonus points available in the second innings as well as the first, there were several instances where an ascendant team chose to garner second-innings batting points rather than press for an outright win by declaring or enforcing the follow-on. The problem was exacerbated by the fact that the Premier Championship is now the only first-class competition (with the exception of South Africa’s second-string Provincial tournament) in which matches are played over three days rather than four. In Tier B, as in Tier A, there were two dominant teams with far more wins than the rest: Moors narrowly beat Sri Lanka Army to top place. At the other end of the table, Antonians and Singha each lost seven of their nine matches, although Singha did manage a win. In terms of individial performances, the Nondescripts’ talented young wicketkeeper L.D.Chandimal enjoyed an outstanding season with the bat, hitting 1,013 runs in the Premier Championship at 84.41; this was easily the highest aggregate in the competition. The most prolific wicket-taker was B.M.D.K.Mendis, Sri Lanka Navy’s 20-year-old leg-spinner, with 68 at 16.47; the best in Tier A was S.Weerakoon (slow left-arm) of Colts, who took 62 at only 16.03. 483