Tour in United Arab Emirates to play Pakistan 2011-12

                                                 Captain: Tillakaratne Dilshan

©  Test Cricket Tours

Sri Lanka’s 46th Test tour

(October -  November 2011)

First Test-playing tour of United Arab Emirates by Sri Lanka

  (previous tour 2008-09)

Security was too uncertain for Pakistan to host Sri Lanka in Pakistan so the series was played in the United Arab Emirates.  Test cricket returned to the Sharjah Stadium after nine years, the last occasion being in 2002 between Pakistan and Australia.

Sri Lanka had played eleven Test matches since their last victory at Galle against India in July 2010. Spin bowlers Rangana Herath was not yet able to replicate the feats of Muralitharan and the selectors’ faith in five fast bowlers came to nothing as they could not capture twenty wickets to win a match. The batting also failed to live up to its potential. The Sri Lankans had a poor tour, losing the Test and ODI series as well as the T20 match. The new chairman of the Sri Lankan selectors Duleep Mendis was strongly criticial of the team's fitness as so many players were prevented from playing by their injuries. 

To succeed Trevor Bayliss after the temporary stints of Stuart Law and Rumesh Ratnayeke, there was a new coach Geoff Marsh. Sports Minister Mahindananda Aluthgamage made an investigation into his conduct during the series in UAE when Marsh was alleged to be following Australia's progress in a Test match while Sri Lankan wickets were falling. The Minister had earlier said the Sri Lankan team had failed to perform due to miscommunication between the team, the selectors and the coaches.

Other Sri Lankan Tours

Previous tour

England 2011

Next tour 

South Africa 2011-12

Next tour to UAE v Pakistan

2013-14

Members of the Test tour party  (16)

Opening batsmen : Lahiru Thirimanne, Tharanga Paranavitana.

Middle-order batsmen:  Kumar Sangakkara, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Mahela Jayawardene, Angelo Mathews, Dinesh Chandimal.

Wicket-keepers: Prasanna Jayawardene, Kaushal Silva

Spin bowlers: Rangana Herath,  Suraj Randiv.

Fast bowlers: Suranga Lakmal, Dammika Prasad, Nuwan Pradeep, Chanaka Welegedera, Kosala Kulasekara.

Average age of  team at time of first Test match

(18 October 2011) :

     28 yrs 4 months.

Representation of clubs : 

Ct: Colts Cricket Club

G : Galle

Ku: Kurunegala Youth

Ms : Moors

NCC: Nondescripts

Rag:  Ragama (1)

SSC: Sinhalese Sports Club

TU:  Tamil Union (3)

ODI  T20 member of limited-overs squads

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

M Jayawardene 122,  Sangakkara 100,  Dilshan 71,  P Jayawardene 42,  Herath 29,  Paranavitana 22,  Mathews 16,  Welegedera 11,  Lakmal 8,  Prasad 6,  Randiv 5,  Thirimanne 2,  Eranga 1,  K Kulasekara 0,  Pradeep 0,  Silva 0.

Tour Officials

Selectors

Duleep Mendis (chairman),  Brendon Kuruppu,  Ranjith Madurasinghe,  Chaminda Mendis and  Don Anurasiri.

Selection

Unavailable : Nuwan Kulasekara and Ajantha Mendis were on the injury list.

Tour Party Announced :  22 September 2011. 

Not selected:  Thilan Samaraweera.

Withdrawn:  Shaminda Eranga with an injury to his right shoulder. He was replaced on 13 October by Kosala Kulasekara.

One day squad announced :  1 November 2011. 

ODI Squad: Tillakaratne Dilshan (capt), Upul Tharanga, Mahela Jayawardene, Kumar Sangakkara (wk), Angelo Mathews (vice-captain), Dinesh Chandimal, Jeevan Mendis, Kosala Kulasekara, Lasith Malinga, Suranga Lakmal, Dhammika Prasad, Seekkuge Prasanna, Dimuth Karunaratne, Dilhara Fernando, Suraj Randiv.  For T20s :   Dilruwan Perera and Ajantha Mendis were added

Withdrawn:  Dhammika Prasad (after injuring his quad muscle in the 3rd Test in Sharjah) and Suranga Lakmal withdrew from the ODI squad.and were replaced by Thisara Perera and Chanaka Welegedera..

Time between selection and departure from Sri Lanka

  23 days

(22 September to 15 October)

Travel

ColomboQ  Dubai  

Before leaving for the UAE,  the team took part in a traditional religious ceremony where they were blessed by a Buddhist monk at the headquarters of Sri Lanka Cricket in Colombo.

The team flew out of Colombo on Saturday 15 October 2011 and arrived in Dubai later that afternoon, proceeding by bus to their hotel in Abu Dhabi, before training at the Zayed Stadium.

Time spent in United Arab Emirates

   x days

(15 October - depart Host)

On-tour selection panel

Reinforcements

On 26 October Prasanna Jayawardene was ruled out of the remainder of the Test series due to a groin injury to his lower right abdomen.

On 16 November Suranga Lakmal was deemed unfit to continue and Chanaka Welegedera rejoined the tour party for the ODIs. Dhammika Prasad withdrew from the one-day series after injuring his quad muscle in the 3rd Test in Sharjah, and was replaced by Thisara Perera

Chamara Silva joined the ODI squad when both Dilshan (left thumb) and Jayawardene were injured.

Fixtures/Results

† not first-class

§  one-day international

Time spent in UAE  before First Test:   3 days

(15 October - 18 October)

Test appearances on tour

3  -   Dilshan,  Herath,  M Jayawardene,  Mathews,  Paranavitana,  Sangakkara,  Welegedera.

2  -   Lakmal,  Prasad,  K Silva,  Thirimanne

1  -   P Jayawardene,  Kulasekara,  N Pradeep,  Randiv.

0  -   Chandimal.

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

Highlights

•  N

Tour Summary

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

Return to Sri Lanka

DubaiQ  Colombo

P Jayawardene

Herath, Paranavitana, Nuwan Pradeep, JK Silva and Thirimanne all returned to Sri Lanka after the Test series.

Mahela Jayawardene returned to Sri Lanka early because of a knee injury, missing the fifth ODI and T20 international in Abu Dhabi.

Randiv, Welegedera, Prasanna and Jeevan Mendis were not part of the T20 squad and returned after the fifth ODI.

The T20 team returned after the sole T20 international in Abu Dhabi on probably 26 November 2011.

Time away from Sri Lanka

    41 days  

(15 October to 26 November)

Postscript

Other Test tours in 2011-12

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