Tour of South Africa 2000-01            Captain: Sanath Jayasuriya

©  Test Cricket Tours

Twenty-seventh Test tour

(December 2000 -

            January 2001)

Second Test-playing tour of South Africa by Sri Lanka

   (previous tour 1997-98)

Sri Lanka saved the first Test at Durban standing at 149 for 6 when bad light stopped play. South Africa then took revenge for the innings defeat they suffered at Galle six months previously. They bowled Sri Lanka out for 95 in the second Test at Cape Town and went on to their biggest margin of victory in Test cricket.

The Sri Lankans were feeling crushed but their coach remained upbeat and spoke of squaring the series. Unfortunate injuries deprived Sri Lanka of her two finest bowlers Muralitharan and Vaas for the final Test, but they could not be risked with the tour of New Zealand and series against England coming up. With them went Sri Lanka’s best chance of levelling the series and the last Test match was also lost by an innings.

Sri Lanka were hammered in the one-day series. South Africa had a chance of making a clean sweep after taking a 5-0 lead but Sri Lanka snatched a win from the last ball of the rain-affected, final match. Sri Lanka’s fortunes were at last turned round on the New Zealand leg of tour where there was a further one-day series, resulting in a 4-1 victory.

Other Sri Lankan Tours

Previous tour

To Pakistan 1999-2000

Next tour 

To Pakistan 2001-02

Next tour of South Africa

2002-03

Members of the Test tour party  (16  +  2)

Opening batsmen:  Russel Arnold, Sanath Jayasuriya, Marvan Atapattu.

Middle-order batsmen:Mahela Jayawardene, Kumar Sangakkara, Avishka Gunawardene, Tillekeratne Dilshan, Romesh Kaluwitharana

Wicketkeepers:  [Sangakkara and Kaluwitharana]

Spin bowlers:  Mutiah Muralitharan, Upul Chandana, Muthumudalige Pushpakumara

Fast bowlers:  Dilhara Fernando, Kaushalya Weeraratne, Pramodya Wickramasinghe, Nuwan Zoysa,  Chaminda Vaas.

‡    A student at Ananda College

Average age of  team at time of first Test match

(27 December 2000) :

   25 yrs 7 months.

Club representation

B'fd: Bloomfield (2)

CCC: Colombo (0)

Ct: Colts Cricket Club (4)

G  Galle (0)

Ku: Kurunegala (0)

NCC: Nondescripts  (2)

SSC: Sinhalese Sports Club (6)

TU: Tamil Union  (2)

ODI : member of the ODI squad to New Zealand

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

Test Appearances made before the tour

Muralitharan 57,  Jayasuriya 53,  Vaas 43,  Wickremasinghe 39,  Atapattu 38,  Kaluwitharana 38,  M Jayawardene 24,  Arnold 21,  Zoysa 13,  Chandana 5,  Dilshan 5,  Sangakkara 3,  Gunawardene 2,  Perera 2,  Fernando 1,  M Pushpakumara  0,  Weeraratne 0.

Tour Officials

Selectors

Tikiri Banda Kehelgamuwa (chairman of selectors),  Lalith Kaluperuma,  Brendon Kuruppu,  Shammi Silva,  Kapila Wijegunawardena.

Selection

Tour Party Announced:  11 November 2000.

Not included :  Aravinda de Silva.  His omission was recognised as a mistake later, and corrected when he was called up to reinforce the team.

Stand-bys:  Sajeeva Silva,  Ruchira Perera,  Indika de Saram,  Kumar Dharmasena and  Ravindra Pushpakumara.

On 17 January, while the ODI and Test series were still in progress in South Africa, a team to tour New Zealand was named. Chandana, Wickremasinghe, Pushpakumara and Dilshan were omitted while Eric Upashantha, Indika Gallage and Kumar Dharmasena were recalled.  Aravinda de Silva and Perera had already reinforced the team in South Africa.

Time between selection and departure from Sri Lanka

  21 days

(11 November to 2 December)

Travel

Colombo  Q   Johannesburg

The tour committee spoke to the media on Saturday before departure from Colombo on 2 December and arrived at Johannesburg International Airport on 3 December.

Captain Sanath Jayasuriya presented a package with two corneas for South African patients in need of eye transplants.

Time spent in South Africa

   53 days

(3 December - 25 January)

On-tour selection panel

Reinforcements (2)

Aravinda de Silva for Upul Chandana who sustained an injury and was sent back to Sri Lanka.

With the bowling of Weereratne and Wickramasinghe proving innocuous the Management requested that Ruchira Perera be sent out, but the selectors turned the request down.Later Ruchira Perera was sent from the Sri Lanka A tour in Kenya because Muralitharan suffered a groin muscle injury. Avishka Gunawardene …?

Sri Lanka was deprived of her two main bowlers Murali and Vaas for the final Test. Both had groin muscle strains.

Fixtures/Results

† not first-class

§  one-day international

Time spent in South Africa before First Test: 

      24 days

(3 December  - 27 December)

The Test series was sponsored by Castle Lager and MTN

Test appearances on tour

3  -   Arnold,  Atapattu,  Fernando,  Jayasuriya,  Jayawardene,  Sangakkara,  Zoysa

2  -   Dilshan,  Kaluwitharana,  Muralitharan,  Vaas,

1  -   de Silva,  Gunawardene,  R Perera,  Wickremasinghe.

0  -   Chandana,  M Pushpakumara,  Weeraratne.

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  tied

N no result   A abandoned  

u unknown result  C cancelled

Highlights

•  After both openers were dismissed for 0, a partnership of 168 runs between Kumara Sangakkara (74) and Mahela Jayawerdene (98) was Sri Lanka’s best to date against South Africa

•  Muralitharan captured his 300th wicket in Test cricket when he dismissed Shaun Pollock at Durban

•  Murali took 5-122  and 6-39 (11 wickets in the match) at Durban, while Fernando took 5-98 in first innings

•  Russel Arnold and Sangakkara shared a 3rd wicket partnership of 113 in Sri Lanka’s 2nd innings Centurion

•  Jayasuriya hit 10 fours and six sixes in his innings of 103 off 83 balls in the ODI against NZ at Eden Park

Tour Summary

F  Fixtures   W  Won   L  Lost   D Drawn   T  Tied  Canc  Cancelled  Aban  abandoned

Return from South Africa

Johannesburg  Q Colombo Q   Auckland

The Sri Lankan cricketers left Johannesburg on 25 January 2001. Wickramasinghe, Mudalige Pushpakumara and Tillekaratne Dilshan returned home.

The remainder of the team arrived in Auckland, via Sydney, on the afternoon of 27 January 2001 for their tour of New Zealand (one-day internationals only). 

The Sri Lankan squad returned to Colombo International Airport, Katunayake, on 14 February after nearly three months away in South Africa and New Zealand.

Time away from Sri Lanka

    74 days  

(2 December  to 14 February )

Postscript

Vaas and Muralitharan were injured and missed the final Test which resulted in an innings defeat, but would be able to play again soon. For the New Zealand ODI leg of the tour the selectors strengthened the bowling department by recalling Eric Upashantha, Kumar Dharmasena and retaining Ruchira Perera. 

It was announced during the tour that plans for New Zealand's Test tour of Sri Lanka, originally scheduled for May-June 2001 had been abandoned by New Zealand Cricket and they would only play aa tri-series of ODIs with India, owing to the demands on players.

Other Test tours in 2000-01

Australians 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