| Tour of
South Africa 1997-98 Captain: Arjuna Ranatunga | |
| | | © Test Cricket Tours | |
| Sri Lanka’s 22nd Test tour (March - April 1998) First
Test-playing tour of South
Africa by Sri Lanka (no previous tour) | It was Sri Lanka's first Test tour of South Africa,
though they had visited before in 1994-95.
The South African tour was something
of a disaster. Sri Lanka
lost the two Test matches, batting recklessly in the second Test, and then
lost the first three one-dayers. Though two matches were then won, South Africa
took the Standard Bank series comfortably.
The ground fielding and catching was far below the standard the world
champions had established when winning the World Cup. At the
end of the tour Bruce Yardley was sacked after 16 months in the post of coach. | Other
Sri Lankan Tours Previous
tour To India
1997-98 Next
tour To England
1998 Next
tour of South Africa | |
| Members of the Test tour party (16 + 1) Opening batsmen: Roshan
Mahanama, Marvan Atapattu, Sanath Jayasuriya, Russel Arnold. Middle-order batsmen:Aravinda de Silva, Arjuna Ranatunga, Mahela
Jayawardene Wicket-keeper/batsmen: Romesh Kaluwitharana, Hashan Tillekeratne. Spin bowlers: Muttiah
Muralitharan, Kumar Dharmasena, Upul Chandana. Fast bowlers: Sanjeewa de
Silva, Chaminda Vaas, Ravi Pushpakumara,
Pramodya Wickremasinghe. | R P Arnold | NCC | 24 | LHB | | | M S Atapattu | SSC | 27 | RHB
opener | ODI | | U D U
Chandana | T U | 25 | RHB LB | ODI | | K S C
de Silva | NCC | 27 | RFM | ODI | | P A de
Silva | NCC | 32 | RHB vice-captain | ODI | | H D K
Dharmasena | Bf'd | 26 | OB | ODI | | S T Jayasuriya | Bf'd | 28 | LHB SLA | ODI | | M D Jayawardene | SSC | 20 | RHB | ODI | | R S Kaluwitharana | Ct | 28 | RHB WK | ODI | | R S Mahanama | Bf'd | 31 | RHB | ODI | | M Muralitharan | T U | 25 | OB | ODI | | K R Pushpakumara | NCC | 22 | RFM | ODI | | A Ranatunga | SSC | 34 | LHB captain | ODI | | H P Tillekeratne | NCC | 30 | RHB second WK | | | C U Vaas | Ct | 24 | LFM | ODI | | G P Wickremasinghe | SSC | 26 | RFM | ODI | |
| Average
age of team at time of first Test
match (19
March 1998) : 27 yrs 4 months
Key to clubs : B'fd: Bloomfield (3) Ct: Colts Cricket Club (2) NCC: Nondescripts (5) SSC: Sinhalese Sports Club (4) TU: Tamil Union (2) Key to type : LHB left-hand bat, LBG leg break and googly bowler, OB off break, SLA slow left-arm bowler, RFM right arm fast medium bowler ODI Member of squad
for the Standard Bank one-day international series | |
| Test Appearances made before the tour | Arjuna Ranatunga 76, Aravinda de Silva 68, Mahanama 50, Tillekeratne 48, Muralitharan 36, Jayasuriya 32, Vaas 25, Wickremasinghe 25, Kaluwitharana 20, Dharmasena 17, Pushpakumara 16, Atapattu
14, Sajeewa de Silva 6, Arnold 3, Zoysa 3, Jayawardene
2, Chandana 0. | | |
| Tour Officials | Duleep
Mendis | Manager | Bruce
Yardley | Coach | Alex Kountouri | Physiotherapist |
| | |
| Selectors | L R D Mendis (chairman), R L Dias, D S de Silva, F S Ahangama, A L F de Mel, T B Kehelguwuma, K M Nelson | | |
| Selection | Unavailable: Nuwan Zoysa had a thigh injury. Tour
Party Announced : 23 February 1998. There was a lack of promising
youngsters in the tour selection but a reliance on old hands like
Tillekeratne and Wickremasinghe. | Time
between selection and departure from Sri Lanka 8 days (23
February to 3 March) | |
| Travel Colombo Q Singapore Q Johannesburg | The Sri Lankans held a
practice camp before departure, including coaching about South African
conditions from Barry Richards. They
left Colombo on Tuesday 3 March and had a
ten-hour flight from Singapore
to Johannesburg.
They had a light workout on Wednesday evening 4 March, the day they arrived. | Time
spent in South Africa x days 4
March - 21? April) | |
| On-tour selection panel | Arjuna Ranatunga, Aravinda de Silva, Bruce Yardley, Duleep Mendis. | | |
| Reinforcements (1) | Nuwan Zoysa was flown in to
Johannesburg on Wed 25 March because Chaminda Vaas suffered a right ankle
injury in first Test. Vaas remained in South Africa for treatment after
consulting a specialist in Pretoria. Then Zoysa twisted a knee so
Vaas was reckoned to be fit enough to play in the one-day series. He endured the pain and finally had his
ankle operation at the end of the tour. Ranatunga wanted fast bowler
Mario Villavaryan to join the tour party. too, but the Board refused though
the players even said they were willing to pool for the resources to get him
there. | | |
| Fixtures/Results When the Bloemfontein
match ended early the South Africans arranged a double wicket tournament.
Jayasuriya and de Silva refused to play.
Derek Crookes and Lance Klusener beat Upul Chandana and Kumar
Dharmasena. | a | Johannesburg | Gauteng (Transvaal) | Lost
118r | b | † Fochville | North West | Won
93 r | c | Paarl | Boland | Drawn | d | CAPE TOWN | SOUTH AFRICA First Test | LOST 70 r | e | CENTURION | SOUTH AFRICA Second Test | LOST 6 w | f | § Johannesburg | South Africa (1st ODI) | Lost
57 r | g | § Kimberley | Pakistan (2nd ODI) | Lost
4 w | h | §
Paarl | Pakistan (3rd ODI) | Lost
110 r | i | §
Paarl | South Africa (4th ODI) | Won 6
w | j | §
Benoni | Pakistan (5th ODI) | Won
115 r | k | § Bloemfontein | South Africa (6th ODI) | Lost
5 w |
| † not first-class § one-day international Time spent in South Africa before First
Test: 15 days (4 March - 19 March) | |
| Test appearances on tour | 2 - Atapattu, Aravinda de Silva, Jayasuriya, Kaluwitharana, Mahanama, Muralitharan, Pushpakumara, Ranatunga, Tillekeratne, Wickremasinghe. 1 - Vaas, Zoysa. 0 - Arnold, Chandana,
KSC de Silva, Dharmasena, Jayawardene. | | |
| Match appearances T Test match o one-day international x other match ⊕ T/20 international - teams not announced W won L lost D drawn T tie N no result A abandoned u unknown result C cancelled | | a | b | c | d | e | f | g | h | i | j | k | R P Arnold | | x | x | | | | | | | | | M S Atapattu | x | | x | T | T | o | | | o | o | o | UDU Chandana | x | | x | | | o | o | o | o | | o | K S C de Silva | x | | x | | | | | o | | | | P A de Silva | | x | x | T | T | o | o | o | o | o | o | H D K Dharmasena | | x | x | | | o | o | o | o | o | o | S T Jayasuriya | x | x | | T | T | o | o | o | o | o | o | DPM Jayawardene | x | x | | | | | o | o | | o | | R S Kaluwitharana | x | x | x | T | T | o | o | o | o | o | o | R S Mahanama | x | x | x | T | T | o | o | o | o | o | o | M Muralitharan | | x | x | T | T | o | o | o | o | o | o | K R Pushpakumara | | x | x | T | T | | o | o | | | | A Ranatunga | x | x | | T | T | o | o | o | o | o | o | H P Tillekeratne | x | | x | T | T | | | | | | | C U Vaas | x | x | | T | | o | o | | o | o | o | G Wickremasinghe | x | | | T | T | o | | | o | o | o | D N T Zoysa | | | | | T | | | | | | | R E S U L T S | L | W | D | L | L | L | L | L | W | W | L |
| | |
| Highlights | •
N | | |
| Tour Summary | | F | W | L | D | Aban | Test Matches | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | - | Other first-class
matches | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | - | ϯ Minor matches | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | - | § One-day internationals | 6 | 2 | 4 | 0 | - | All Matches | 11 | 3 | 7 | 1 | - |
| F Fixtures W Won
L Lost
D Drawn T Tied Canc Cancelled
Aban abandoned | |
| Return to Sri Lanka
Q Colombo | Monday 21 April 1998. . | Time
away from Sri Lanka x
days (3
March - April) | |
| Postscript | | | |
| Other
Test tours in 1997-98 | Australians to England to | © 2015 | |
| Acknowledgements
To
general reading of The Times newspaper
digital archive (Gale Group); Jamaica
Gleanor archive; National Library of
Australia Trove; Papers Past NZ. From
former British Newspaper Library, Colindale and online: The Age, Melbourne Argus, Bangladesh Daily
Star, Barbados Advocate, Canberra Times, Daily Telegraph, Dawn, Eastern Daily
Press, The Hindu, The Independent (Dhaka), Indian Express, The Island
(Lanka), Lahore Times, New Nation, New Zealand Auckland Herald, Sri Lanka
Daily News, Stabroek News, Straits Times, Sydney Morning Herald, The
Telegraph (Calcutta), Times of India , The Tribune Chandigarh, Trinidad
Guardian, The West Australian. cricketweb.net; ESPN cricinfo; cricket archive; www.cricketcountry;
www.coverpoint Magazines/periodicals
including Australian Cricket, B & H West Indies Annual, The Cricketer
International, Cricketer Quarterly, Indian Cricket, Indian Cricket Field
Annual, Playfair Cricket Monthly, Shell Cricket Almanack of New Zealand,
Wisden Cricket Monthly, Wisden Book of Test Cricket, Wisden’s Cricketers’
Almanack. Men In
White, A History of Australian Cricket (Harte), A History of Indian Cricket
(Bose), A History of West Indies Cricket
(Manley) Biography and tour books (own collection and at the M.C.C.
Library at Lord’s Ground) © ALL CONTENTS OF THE
TEST-CRICKET-TOURS.CO.UK WEBSITE ARE COPYRIGHT | |