Cricket and netball victories provide joy to Sri Lanka's crisis-stricken nation.
Since the island nation is experiencing power outages and shortages of food, fuel, and medicine, the spectacle provided a welcome diversion for many Sri Lankans.
In recent months, Sri Lanka's capital city, Colombo, has seen record numbers as anger over the country's economic collapse sparked protests that ultimately toppled a political dynasty.
On Tuesday, crowds gathered once again in Colombo, but this time they were celebrating two separate sporting victories rather than protesting corruption.
On Sunday, Sri Lanka's men's cricket team defeated Pakistan in the final of the Asia Cup, the shortest version of the game, to win the tournament for the first time in eight years. Almost no one foresaw such a result from a match moved from Sri Lanka to the UAE owing to political and economic upheaval.
On Sunday in Singapore, Sri Lanka's women's netball team won the Asia Cup. Netball, like cricket, was brought to South Asia by British colonials.
The victorious teams waved from open-top buses as they were surrounded by adoring fans during a procession at the Colombo international airport early on Tuesday morning. As the island nation struggles with power outages and shortages of food, fuel, and medication, the spectacle provided a welcome diversion for many Sri Lankans.
As cricket writer and author of "Upon a Sleepless Isle: Travels in Sri Lanka by Bus, Cycle, and Trishaw," Andrew Fidel Fernando put it: "There's a tremendous crisis ripping through homes all over the nation at the moment, and political divides have intensified as well."
He wrote, "In that light, it's hard to overestimate the importance of sporting accomplishment." Many people experience a sense of pride in their nation for a short period, bringing people together for a little while of happiness.
Months of protests against an entrenched political class that bankrupted Sri Lanka led to the country's president, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, resigning in July and fleeing the country on a military plane. We're closer to normalcy, but essentials are still scarce.
Sri Lanka and the IMF agreed last month on a $3 billion rescue package. The IMF's executive board must also approve. A few days later, the deposed president Rajapaksa returned home, demonstrating that his family still holds significant sway in the country's politics.
In a country where cricket has been respected for decades, the current success of the men's team without a marquee player is surprising.
In particular, the team beat the number one rated team in the world, Australia, at home in a five-day test match in July. Some protesters surrounded the stadium in the southern city of Galle on the second day of that five-day match, while others stormed Rajapaksa's home in Colombo. Days later, he would resign, run away to the Maldives, and send his resignation by email from Singapore.
After their victory over Australia, some fans started to believe that the men's squad, who many in the country feel to be politically affiliated with their cause, actually had a shot at winning this month's T20 Asian championship. Yet, that optimism was met with formidable headwinds in the shape of sports analytics that favoured more challenging opponents, especially India and Pakistan.
Martha De Silva, the 29-year-old head of sales and marketing of a Sri Lankan company that owns luxury homes and is an avid cricket fan, said, "We were the extreme underdogs going in." Everyone had given up on us.
Sri Lanka lost their tournament's opening match to Afghanistan, a lower-ranked cricket side.
A thought crossed my mind: "If Afghanistan is treating us this badly, what are India and Pakistan going to do to us?" On Monday, cricket analyst Mark Machado said this in a podcast on Sri Lankan cricket. If we lose to Bangladesh, it's possible that we won't even get to play them.
Fernando's "energetic, virtually without exception" fielding helped the side beat Bangladesh and upset India and Pakistan.
Sri Lanka's women's netball team has continuously been rated in the top three of their region. Thus their win at the Asia Cup was not a surprise, according to Estelle Vasudevan of ThePapare.com.
Even yet, Vasudevan emphasized the significance of that win given the team's limited financial resources to support its players in the face of power outages and fuel shortages. She also noted that many more people in Sri Lanka noticed it because it occurred around the same time as the men's cricket victory.
Hiruni Kasturiarachchi, a 28-year-old lawyer and former member of Sri Lanka's under-19 national netball team, expressed hope that the women's Asia Cup would draw attention to a sport that most Sri Lankans were generally "not so keen on," adding that significant victories of any kind, in any sport, were welcome at this juncture in the country's history.
She explained that the gloomy mood was widespread due to the current predicament. Sports victories are indeed often a bright spot in otherwise dreary situations.
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