Whooo! They have done it again ! Mahela and crew are one step away in bringing glory back to this small island in the Indian Ocean. Congrats guys ! It's a marvelous display of sportsmanship from our beloved cricketers !
Cricket is more than just a sport in Sri Lanka. It's a passion. Whole nation has gone crazy with our superb performances in this world cup. Simply now Sri Lankans have begun to eat cricket, drink cricket and live cricket !!! All will be praying to see a repeat performance of 1996 (or even better) on 28th of April.
I was in 5th grade when Arjuna lifted the cup at Gadaffi Stadium, Lahore. 11 years have gone since that glory day and it seems the enthusiasm for the game of mine have never changed. Actually it had got better like Sanath's batting :) Eventhough I'm just a TV spectator, I would dance in ecstacy and weep in disappointment (like yesterday when Sanath threw his wicket away) like I'm there in the middle with them. I think it's not only me but all Sri Lankan fans do act in the same way. Now it's 6.30 a.m. in normal working day here in Sri Lanka and still I don't hear signle noise of a vehicle on the road (not even the noise of trains). Seems like whole nation is still relaxing and enjoying last night's great victory (match ended around 3.30 a.m in the morning) and today will kick-off rather late to Sri Lanka :)
Also talking about our team, I think the current side is much stronger and balanced outfit than what we had on 1996 world cup. Sanath, Murali and Vaas have grown out of experience and die-hard efforts of young blood such as Tharanga, Malinga are quite impressive. Also I haven't seen such aggressive and tactical captain as Mahela in the game. Truly we play our brand of cricket right now and I guess that would be the difference at the end of the day.
A little trivia to end this post. Marven Atapattu was a member of the both Sri Lankan squads in 1996 and this time, yet he haven't had a opportunity to play in a single match in either World Cups (not likely to play in the finals too). I know it's always happy to be a part of a winning outfit, but wonder how Atapattu may feeling this..