Asia Cup 2010

Mother nature not in a good mood for Sri Lanka

The Asia cup is right on the corner but there are chances of it being distracted by the weather. Just look at the cloud cover over whole Sri Lankan island (I wished some of it were diverted to Karachi instead ;)), jokes apart but literally, this was not a good time to stage an international tournament in Sri Lanka, although its mentioned Dambulla has been the driest of all places in Sri Lanka, still the amount of cloud cover would not allow matches to be completed, (read ICC Champions Trophy 2002 played in Sri Lanka and there were many rain disrupted matches including the final)

Similarly was the reason the 2009 ICC Champions Trophy, which was scheduled to be stage in Pakistan, but was shifted to South Africa giving preference over Sri Lanka amid the same reason. I know it would be a tricky situation for ACC as-well, to convince teams like India and Pakistan who've a tough schedule ahead and even Bangladesh would be arriving directly from England after completing their ODI series against the hosts, to shift this bi-annual tournament somewhere later this year. Leaving Pakistan because of security conditions, it would have been shifted to India and the next one, in 2012 to be Sri Lanka in compensation, else it wont be possible that in this season, even the central parts of Sri Lanka not receiving their shares of rains.

On the other hand being positive, bowlers would get ample support on this track as on normal circumstances, this track is known for its bowler friendly conditions as its windy, humid and sweaty, so I suppose we should not expect high scoring matches over here compared to Premadasa Stadium or SSC in Colombo.

Even Pakistan just after winning the ICC World T20 Title in 2009, found it difficult to handle the winds and the conditions here which suits Lankans. So I just hope inspite of the weather game, we would expect a good game of cricket.