Sri Lanka win nine medals as para athletes shine in Japan

Sri Lanka’s para athletes delivered an impressive medal winning performance at the 2026 Asian Para Games in Aichi Nagoya, Japan, winning nine medals, including two golds, four silvers and three bronzes.

The Games, held from October 18 to 24, saw several notable performances, with Janani Dhananjana and Pradeep Somasiri leading the gold medal charge.

Dhananjana won gold in the women’s T47 long jump with a leap of 5.52 metres, a personal best, before adding silver in the women’s 200 metres with a time of 25.80 seconds, also a personal best. Somasiri claimed gold in the men’s T46 1,500 metres, clocking 4:03.25 to establish a Games record.

Thrower Palitha Bandara secured silver in the men’s shot put with a throw of 14.02 metres, while Nuwan Indika took silver in the men’s T44 100 metres with a season best time of 11.58 seconds.

Sri Lanka’s medal tally was further strengthened by swimmer Galina Basnayake, who won silver in the women’s S9 400 metres freestyle in 4:59.58.

Mohammadu Safran won bronze in the men’s T47 long jump with a distance of 6.55 metres, while Saman Subasinghe secured bronze in the men’s T47 400 metres in 50.03 seconds. Swimmer Naveed Raheem completed the tally with bronze in the men’s S9 100 metres butterfly, clocking 1:03.29.

The Sri Lankan contingent competed in para athletics, para badminton, para swimming, para table tennis, wheelchair tennis and para shooting. It included experienced campaigners with previous Asian Para Games medals, among them Samitha Dulan, the silver medallist in the men’s F44 javelin at the Paris 2024 Paralympics, as well as other athletes who have previously represented Sri Lanka with distinction at the continental level.

Mumbai Indians part ways with Malinga, Mhambrey

Mumbai Indians have parted ways with bowling coaches Lasith Malinga, Paras Mhambrey and fielding coach Carl Hopkinson as their internal overhaul continues. Days after parting with head coach Mahela Jaywardene, they have let go a few others. Kieron Pollard was recently appointed as head coach. Former India fielding coach T Dilip is expected to join MI in the same capacity.

“Lasith Malinga has been an integral part of the Mumbai Indians family and one of the most iconic figures in the franchise’s history,” the franchise said in a statement. “From spearheading MI’s bowling attack and playing a defining role in four IPL title triumphs and the 2011 Champions League T20 victory, to returning as a mentor and coach, Lasith’s journey with MI has been truly special. His passion, competitive spirit and commitment to the team have inspired generations of players. His legacy will forever remain an important part of Mumbai Indians.”

Mhambrey arrived at MI as a bowling coach right after being part of India’s T20 World Cup win in 2024. He served his role at MI for two seasons of IPL and was even appointed bowling coach of MI Emirates. This wasn’t Mhambrey’s first stint with the team. He was in their support staff in the inaugural season in 2008. He also had a long stint from 2010 to 2017, when MI won their maiden title and the CLT20 in 2011 and 2013.

“Paras Mhambrey has shared a long and valued association with Mumbai Indians, first from 2010 to 2017 and subsequently returning in 2024. Across both spells, Paras has brought immense experience, dedication and a deep understanding of the MI culture. His contribution to developing and nurturing the team’s bowling talent, along with the relationships he has built over the years, has been greatly appreciated,” the MI statement said.

Hopkinson arrived before the 2025 season, replacing James Pamment. Previously, Hopkinson served as ECB’s Lead Fielding Coach for the England men’s team (2018–2024). He also contributed to England’s World Cup wins in 2019 and 2022.

Legendary former Ceylon captain Mahadevan Sathasivam must be spinning in his grave at the news that Sri Lanka Cricket plans to introduce random alcohol tests following concerns about a drinking culture within the team. Satha’s batting feats are the stuff of legend. So, too, are the stories of his exploits at the bar. Appropriately, Tamil Union named its bar after one of the game’s most colourful characters.

Cricket has always enjoyed a drink. Sometimes several. The tales have been passed down through generations.

David Boon, recently elected chairman of Cricket Australia, famously put away 52 cans of beer on a flight from Sydney to London for an Ashes tour. When the press sought Ian Chappell’s opinion, the former Australian captain was hardly bowled over.

“In my day, 52 beers between London and Sydney would have virtually classified you as a teetotaller.”

Chappell’s team mates Rod Marsh, Doug Walters and Dennis Lillee were no strangers to the bar either. Once stumps were drawn, another session often began.

Shane Warne later carried that tradition forward with much the same enthusiasm he brought to tormenting batsmen. His own summary was typically uncomplicated: “I liked loud music, I smoked, I drank, and I bowled a bit of leg spin. I don’t have any regrets.”

Ian Botham’s drinking stories could fill a volume almost as thick as the one devoted to his exploits with bat and ball. England’s famous 12th man, Gladstone Small recently recalled that Botham’s instructions for a drinks break were clear enough: plenty of beer in the bottle, topped up with lemonade.

England’s celebrations after their remarkable 2005 Ashes triumph also became cricketing folklore, with Andrew Flintoff very much in the thick of things. By the time the victory parade reached the reception at 10 Downing Street, some of England’s heroes were considerably less steady on their feet than they had been at the crease.

Sri Lanka had its own traditions. Bandula Warnapura, the country’s first Test captain, generously hosted gatherings in his hotel room. These were often exercises in team bonding and attendance extended to the teetotallers. When D.S. de Silva turned up, the captain made sure there were soft drinks of his choice.

Warnapura understood that a dressing room needed to pull in one direction. Players still recall how far they would go to back him. The gatherings helped forge those bonds, although he also knew where to draw the line. Once schoolboys began breaking into the national side, these occasions were placed firmly out of bounds for the youngsters.

Employed at Ceylon Tobacco alongside several leading cricketers, including Anura Tennekoon and Ranjan Madugalle, Warnapura apparently ensured that cigarettes were never in short supply either.

Those were different times. Tobacco and alcohol brands were woven into cricket’s fabric. The Benson & Hedges competitions, the VB Series and the Rothmans tournaments were familiar fixtures. The World Cup Sri Lanka won in 1996 carried the Wills name.

Over time, restrictions on advertising and sponsorship tightened as concerns grew over the influence of such marketing on younger generations. Cricket, too, had to move with the times.

So why is Sri Lanka Cricket now drawing a line in the sand?

There appears to be good reason. What once passed for a convivial evening has, according to accounts reaching the authorities, become a cause for concern.

There have been reports that seven bottles of single malt were consumed in a single day during the recent Galle Test against India. Concerns have also been raised about smoking among members of the fast bowling group. These are allegations that require proper scrutiny, but they help explain why the administration is tightening the screws.

Add concerns about diet and fitness and SLC has decided that a quiet word will no longer suffice. Players face closer monitoring of what they eat, how they train and how they conduct themselves. Once random alcohol testing begins, those who ignore the requirements could face the music.

The distinction is straightforward. Enjoying a drink and allowing drinking to compromise preparation are two different matters. When the country is paying you to perform, turning up in the best possible condition is part of the job.

Sports science has changed the equation. Preparation now extends well beyond a few laps of the ground and a net session. Diet, recovery, sleep and conditioning all demand attention. The margins are fine and opponents will happily exploit every inch conceded.

Virat Kohli has become an obvious reference point for the discipline required to sustain a long career at the highest level. Talent opens the door; good habits help keep it open.

Sri Lanka’s new measures should be viewed in that light. They are intended to help players remain fit, available and capable of performing consistently, while restoring discipline to a system that has too often allowed standards to drift.

The recurring absence of leading players through injury has already cost the team dearly, including at World Cups. Injuries have several causes, but conditioning and preparation are areas in which players and those responsible for them must be held accountable.

For too long, professional standards appear to have been treated as negotiable. The present administration is at least attempting to put that right.

There is no need to disown the characters of the 1980s and 1990s. They gave cricket wonderful memories, on the field and off it. Their stories will continue to raise a smile whenever cricketers gather.

But the game has moved on. A crowded calendar, three international formats and increasingly demanding fitness standards leave little room for burning the candle at both ends.

In Sidath Wettimuny, Gary Kirsten and Roshan Mahanama, Sri Lanka’s players have three men who will listen to their grievances and understand the pressures of international cricket. They will also expect them to behave like professionals.

A masterclass hundred from Fakhar Zaman in another final and a searing 61 off 31 balls from No. 7 Arafat Mihas saw Pakistan speed to a target of 326 with nine balls and three wickets remaining in the tri-series final against Sri Lanka to clinch the trophy. Along the way, there had also been Saad Baig’s 74 off 75 deliveries adding serious heft to Pakistan’s innings, as he and Fakhar raised Pakistan up from 14 for 2 with a 149-run third-wicket stand.

Fittingly, captain Shaheen Afridi thumped the winning runs, hitting Dilshan Madushanka over the deep-midwicket boundary for six. Earlier, it had been Afridi who took the vital wicket of Sri Lanka’s centurion Kamindu Mendis to set in motion a chain of wickets that saw Sri Lanka stutter in the last nine overs of their batting innings, stumbling to to 325 for 8, when, at the end of 41 overs, they had been 255 for 2, and headed for a total close to 350.

Where Sri Lanka and Pakistan’s top orders largely canceled each other out, Kamindu and Pavan Rathnayake’s third-wicket partnership of 146 runs from 119 balls was very similar to the stand between Fakhar and Baig. Instead, it was contributions from Pakistan’s lower-order batters that saw them overcome Sri Lanka. Where Sri Lanka’s batting withered after Kamindu’s dismissal, losing five wickets for 28 runs, Minhas and Hasan Nawaz clobbered 94 off 65 deliveries for the sixth wicket to essentially seal victory for Pakistan.

On another track suited to batting, Pakistan’s quicks also shone collectively in the final nine overs of Sri Lanka’s innings. Afridi, Haris Rauf and Naseem Shah took two wickets each, as Afridi collected excellent figures of 2 for 50 from his ten overs.

Pakistan did have a significant advantage in bowling and fielding first, however. Significant dew settled on the Lahore outfield late in the evening, hampering Sri Lanka’s bowling and fielding. That Fakhar was dropped on 69 in the 25th over by Maheesh Theekshana – it was a tough chance – did not help, but there were also many ground fielding errors which seemed to compound as Pakistan got closer to the target, and the dew became more pronounced.

Fakhar lived dangerously but paced his innings of 127 off 99 balls beautifully, and forged the kinds of brisk, substantial partnerships that big chases thrive on. His first boundary was a six that touched the fingertips of Madushanka at deep third, as the latter couldn’t quite haul it in. The dropped catch to Theekshana in the 25th over was another difficult chance. Later, in the 32nd over, Theekshana got another hand to a potential catch from Fakhar but had to trod on the boundary and would have struggled to get a hand on it if he hadn’t.

But in any case, Fakhar had done just enough to avoid giving more straightforward catches to Sri Lanka’s fielders. And in between, he struck brutal boundaries. Fakhar was productive on the leg side as usual, with 72 of his 127 runs coming in that direction. The arc between fine leg and midwicket proved particularly fruitful for him. He swept beautifully, pulled with conviction, and though he was occasionally forced to attack the frontline quicks, he also dominated the spinners and less-accomplished seamers with special ferocity.

Sri Lanka had been in control when Fakhar and Baig came together in the fourth over. Madushanka had struck twice with the new ball, having both Maaz Sadaqat and Babar Azam caught at slip. Baig, Fakhar’s partner through the massive recovery stand, was also strong square of the wicket, the pitch providing true bounce that the Sri Lanka batters had also trusted earlier in the day.

Fakhar took 52 balls to get to his fifty, perhaps because early wickets had fallen. But he climbed into a high gear soon after. He got to his 12th ODI hundred off the 84th ball he faced, and had struck 75 off his last 40 deliveries. Fakhar was dismissed in the 34th over by Madushanka, who, having dismissed each of the Pakistan top three, eventually finished with figures of 3 for 63 from 9.3 overs – the best figures in the game.

Pakistan still needed 106 runs at the point of Fakhar’s dismissal, but the pace at which he had scored those runs meant Pakistan’s required rate was less than 6.5 runs an over for the last 16.5 overs. In fact, Pakistan endured a nine-over stretch between overs 33 and 42 in which they did not found the boundary. And yet with batting to come, they were still ahead in the match.

Minhas’ innings was laudably pragmatic. He bided his time and came to grips with conditions in the first 14 balls he faced, hitting no boundaries. Then, after the 42nd over, and after the heavy dew had set in, he exploded. Minhas reaped 48 runs off the last 17 balls he faced, hitting four sixes and three fours all up. The most spectacular of his sixes was a check-driven hit over long-on off Madushanka in the 47th over.

At the start of the next over, Pakistan needed 18 off 18 balls. Minhas then struck two sixes and a four off Asitha Fernando to get Pakistan to within two runs of victory before top-edging a slower ball which Asitha himself chased down. With so many balls remaining, however, there was little doubt who would win by that stage.

Earlier, Sri Lanka scorched their way to 255 in 41 overs, propelled by Kamindu’s maiden ODI hundred and another sparkling innings from Rathnayake, who hit 77 from 65 balls. Both were brutal on errors of length on a true pitch, with Rathnayake showcasing a powerful sweep again, in addition to his ravishing pull. Kamindu, meanwhile, unleashed virtually the full array of his strokes on his first trip to triple figures in white-ball cricket.

He had been largely unhurried in the early overs, though there was an excellent reverse sweep off Minhas in the seventh over. But having been 18 off 29 balls at the end of the ninth over, he accelerated through the middle overs. That happened first in the company of Avishka Fernando, with whom Kamindu put on 87 off 104 deliveries at the top of the innings, before Rathnayake joined Kamindu in the 22nd over for their big stand.

But Pakistan’s quicks rallied in the last nine overs, and Sri Lanka’s middle order collapsed, as the tailenders had to play out the last 11 balls. After Afridi had got Kamindu lbw when the batter missed a sweep, and Dasun Shanaka was caught at long-on off Afridi in the 44th over, Sri Lanka’s final push was already struggling for momentum.

Then, next over, Rathnayake was caught on the straight boundary off Rauf. That was the first time in four innings that Rathnayake was out for less than 100. He finished as the top run-scorer in the series by a distance, with 427 runs in the tournament at a strike rate of 122.70.

Naseem and Rauf made further strikes to shackle Sri Lanka at the death, producing perhaps the most consequential passage of play in the match – Sri Lanka’s stilted finish.

Pakistan 331 for 7 in 48.3 overs (Fakhar Zaman 127, Saad Baig 74, Arafat Minhas 61; Asita Fernando 2-72, Dilshan Madushanka 3-63) beat Sri Lanka 325 for 8 in 50 overs (Kamindu Mendis 131, Pavan Rathnayake 77; Salman Agha 2-44, Shaheen Shah Afridi 2-50, Naseem Shah 2-80, Haris Rauf 2-60 ) by three wickets

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