The spirit of Sri Lanka

During tensed political situation, players representing the Island nation stood tall

‘Adversity brings the best out of a man’ was a quote from William Shakespeare who wrote these lines in the 16th century.

It is a term often used to describe the steel within someone to stand tall when going gets tough.

During my 40-day-long stay in Sri Lanka, I had a chance of witnessing it firsthand and there is no doubt that it was totally worth it.

As I landed in the Island nation on June 4, there was a sense that things are about to get worse if they were not already. My relatives were worried and deep down inside, so was I, at least a little.

The first few days before any series were always about preparing the best for what’s to come and it was no different before the start of Australia’s tour of Sri Lanka.

There was a genuine sense, albeit no one said it openly or at least the majority never discussed that, that at the very last moment, the series might be called off in a country which was declared officially a bankrupt one not too long.

But things went ahead as per the plan given to the broadcast crew before reaching the country. We reached the R Premadasa Stadium in Colombo on June 7 for the start of the first of the three series in as many different formats.

Protestors participate in an anti-government demonstration outside the Galle International Cricket Stadium during the second day of second cricket Test match between Sri Lanka and Australia at the Galle International Cricket Stadium in Galle on July 9, 2022. (Photo by ISHARA S. KODIKARA / AFP) (Photo by ISHARA S. KODIKARA/AFP via Getty Images)

There was tension in the air but there was a little hope as well. The hope of finally getting a chance to get away from all the chaos the country faced in the last six months.

To go with that hope was also a wind of caution as well as the home team were up against a formidable side, rearing to go all in with full force.

That hope, the enthusiasm, it seemed took a serious hit case as Australia thrashed the home team by 10 wickets with six overs remaining.

We witnessed while waiting to leave the stadium in the bus that people were going back home in some despair after all the hope they were hanging onto did not materialise as expected.

Then comes the second fixture and after the first innings, the dream took another serious blow as the home team were restricted to just 124 for the loss of nine wickets in their allotted 20 overs.

That’s when we started to witness the spirit of Sri Lanka. Even though the home team went on to lose the match, it took Australia nearly 18 overs and seven wickets to reach a rather meagre-looking target.

Change of venues brought more than just some life back as Sri Lanka never looked back. In the eight matches to follow (one T20I, five ODIs and two Tests), the home team went on to win on five occasions.

While achieving those remarkable results, the Islanders registered some important feats as well. The first was a team record where captain Dasun Shanaka played a huge part. Sri Lanka scored 59 runs to win the third T20I in the last three overs, which is the most runs by a team in the final three overs to successfully chase down a target in T20Is.

COLOMBO, SRI LANKA – JUNE 24: Sri Lankan cricket fans dressed in yellow while cheering and holding a banner thanks to the Australia cricket team visit amid the Island’s worst economic crisis during the 5th match in the ODI series between Sri Lanka and Australia at R. Premadasa Stadium on June 24, 2022 in Colombo, Sri Lanka. (Photo by Buddhika Weerasinghe/Getty Images)

Moving on to the 50-over format and Sri Lanka clinched the first home series win against the mighty Kangaroos in nearly three decades.

Then on to Tests, after losing the first fixture by 10 wickets where they registered an unwanted record of facing the least number of overs in an innings in the five-day format (22.5), the home team bounced back to secure their first-ever innings victory over Australia in the second Test.

Those were no small feats. Those were some achievements coming from a team where the players were unsure whether the fixtures will go ahead, to begin with.

That was coming from a group of players who could’ve easily thought about why playing at that very moment was so important when the country was going through a disastrous phase?

Those results came from a group of players whose own relatives were facing troubling times in search of basic necessities.

Instead of falling down at what was happening around them, they looked around, they noticed but remained focused on the job at hand.

During the second day of the second Test, hundreds and thousands of protestors stormed into the president’s residence in Colombo asking for his resignation.

In Galle, where there was the game being played in a rather empty-looking stadium, a group of more than 1,000 people were protesting in front of the stadium.

They went all the way to the top of the Galle Fort, adjacent to the venue and then came back and protested in front of the main gate, raising slogans against the sitting government.

They were noisy as they should’ve been and the noise could’ve been easily heard inside the Galle International Stadium.

But Sri Lanka players were resilient to the core. They went ahead with what they had to do, with only one goal in mind, to make their struggling country proud once again, to give those very people who were protesting outside the stadium, a reason to smile and so was the case, not that they were not smiling already in those tough circumstances as even in the midst of a protest, few youngsters hold the banner of thanking Australia cricket team for their visit to the country

Just 48 hours later, crowd stormed back into the stadium and danced all the way as Sri Lanka registered a historic comeback win.

That celebration, that victory and those smiles were the real face of the Sri Lankan spirit. It was the spirit telling the world ‘we are still here’. It was the spirit that ‘we might be down but not out’. It was the spirit of ‘belief in yourself and nothing is impossible’ and it was the spirit that ‘we will bounce back’ regardless of what happens around.

But doing all of that, locals in Sri Lanka remained humbled. They went about their business like anyone should, like their cricketers did, not worrying about what they can’t control but giving all to ensure they don’t leave anything back to look at.

Despite such turbulent times where people had to stay in line for hours to get fuel, the Sri Lanka crowd was excellent, to say the least. All the limited-over fixtures were sold out and the crowd in the Test matches was more than decent.

In the final ODI, the local crowd came in thousands wearing yellow jerseys to thank Australia, showcasing once again how sports is perhaps the best healer there is.

In all of those matches, to my surprise, the crowd stayed till the very last ball, despite knowing on a few occasions how their team was going to be on the losing side, once again, their love for the sport superseded pretty much anything there is.

Those were scenes to remember for any sports lover because it is often said that there are more important things to do in life than just playing sports.

When you look at scenes where kids are dancing with joy after seeing the side win despite having hours without electricity, when you look at scenes of people dancing in the streets with their side winning a match despite knowing there might not be enough fuel to go back home even, the question arises: is there anything that can put life into better context than playing hard-fought sports or just even watching it?

The answer is open to debate but I believe there is nothing that can come close to enhance the feeling of life than watching competition on the field of sports because there is drama, action, emotion, laughter and a chance to ask what if at the end of the game, all in the space of few hours.

To go up against this spirit will not going to be an easy task for any team and next up is Pakistan, who have shown somewhat similar things in the past.

But whether they will be able to contain players as spirited as the ones who made every step difficult for a team of the calibre of Australia, will be a mammoth task, to say the least.