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Makhaya Ntini is is no mood to sit with his feet up when South Africa head back home
© Getty Images
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They departed under the cover of darkness, an embattled team that wanted nothing more than to return home. Tempers had been frayed by the “chicken” headlines in the morning newspapers, but by 11pm, when they boarded the coach to the airport, the smiles were back on most faces. Mark Boucher wasn’t one of those grinning, his face still a dark mask, and the Sri Lankan journalist who insinuated that Boucher was a bully can count himself lucky now that plenty of air miles separate him from South Africa’s stand-in captain.
Continue reading "'We need matches, brother'"
As sports fans, we've heard all the clichés a million times. "Winning
isn't everything, it's the only thing", "Cricket is life, the rest mere
details" and so forth. At times like this, you begin to realise just how
much garbage it is. As a South African player told me in the hotel
lobby a couple of hours after the bomb went off, "It's just a game, man.
Heck, I want to bowl to Sachin [Tendulkar], but not if I can't feel safe
about where I am."
Another senior South African player was even more candid. "If we hadn't
been playing today, we'd probably have been out shopping. And a lot of us
have been to Liberty Plaza before."
Continue reading "'It's just a game, man'"
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Robin Jackman: Oh won't you be My Teddy Bear
© Eastern Province Cricket Board
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Having left behind the rainy south of India, and the flooded north, it's a relief to see the sun beating down as we land at Katunayake airport. The warmth extends as far as immigration, where the official's face lights up when I mention what I'm there for. "We're in good form, you know," he says, just in case I hadn't watched Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene take South Africa to the cleaners and beyond a week ago.
It starts to cloud up as we begin the drive into the city, but despite all the streamers and posters promoting the South Asian Games - they start on the 18th - it's cricket that rules this beautiful island. Even before you leave the airport premises, you can see a billboard for Sri Lanka's Board of Investment, which quotes Sanath Jayasuriya as saying: Sri Lanka - a perfect pitch where your business scores. A few kilometres down the road, Sachin Tendulkar and Brian Lara grin at you from an MRF tyres hoarding. And in case you hadn't already got sick of it back home in India, there's the Reebok ad featuring Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Yuvraj Singh, goofy grins and all.
Continue reading "Rain, billboards and teddy bears"
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