Cricket: England leave in more shame

England . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .180

Sri Lanka . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .183-2

Sri Lanka win by 8 wickets

WHEN England's cricketers board their flight home from their winter tour today it would be no surprise if, in their haste to return, they were to sprint to the aeroplane and flap their arms frantically in the hope that it would lead to an early take-off.

That state of mind may be comforting to wives, fiancees and girlfriends in England but it is hardly conducive to good cricket and yesterday England paid for their lack of commitment. They were annihilated by Sri Lanka, who won by eight wickets with so much time to spare that a beer match could have been fitted in.

When England began yesterday's match, only two players seemed to want to be there and not en route to Heathrow. But once Paul Taylor and Ian Salisbury had bowled three overs each they too must have been thinking wistfully of Cobbler ale or a pint of Harveys.

At the risk of reading like the Radio Times during the repeats season, this was the worst performance of the tour - quite an achievement, considering the other matches. The only remaining positive feature, as Naas Botha would say, is that the tour is over and England cannot lose again. Any lingering doubts as to whether this really was the worst tour in recent memory have now been as comprehensively dismissed as England's batsmen and bowlers have been for most of the past three months.

The game was a microcosm of the Test against Sri Lanka, only worse. England, with Robin Smith and Graeme Hick to the fore, began brightly but, after they were dismissed, collapsed. Chris Lewis then bowled fast and tight, but the rest simply turned the arm over and the fielding became a series of ineffectual gestures. Like the Test, it all ended with Sri Lanka scoring a six.

It was not the best way for the likes of John Emburey, Dermot Reeve and, possibly, Mike Gatting and the unfortunate Paul Taylor to end their England careers.

Afterwards the England coach, Keith Fletcher, resisting the temptation to beg a return to the security and success of Chelmsford, said changes would be made. 'We have got a lot of thinking to do when we get back. The nucleus of the side will remain but there will have to be changes. There have not been many successes on this tour.'

Fletcher also admitted, for the first time, that the tour had gone wrong from the moment the squad was named. 'We went for a balance between Tests and one- day games and that has misfired. In future I would like to pick the best possible side for Test cricket.'

Several batsmen were out heaving across the line to a series of bowlers who would only be seen in the County Championship when a declaration was being set up. Sanath Jayasuriya, who turns the ball but rarely pitches it correctly, took a mind-boggling 5 for 14 in his last 21 balls as he ended with 6 for 29. That is as many wickets as Phillip DeFreitas took all tour.

On a ground which, like Gwalior in India, only stages cricket because the local bigwig is a big cheese in both the government and cricket, England needed to make at least 300. They scored 180, which was about as useful as a woollen overcoat is here.

England used almost as many bowlers as Sri Lanka, seven as opposed to eight, but more as a product of desperation. Only Lewis bowled at less than five an over and Taylor and Salisbury were harshly punished for their lack of match-practice. Taylor had not bowled for seven weeks, Salisbury for four - far too long for a leg-spinner.

After his first over, however, he must have been awfully tempted to run to the 'bench' and give one of those 'I told you so' signs transfer-listed footballers specialise in when they score the winner after coming on as substitute. Starting his spell at 66 for 0, his third ball brought him the wicket of Chandika Hathurusinghe and the fifth accounted for Roshan Mahanama, the other opener.

Aravinda de Silva rashly drove Salisbury's seventh ball high into the air, Smith went for a catch that perhaps should have been Taylor's and spilled it as he dived. It was his last act of the tour as he landed awkwardly and was helped off with a bruised, but not seriously injured, knee.

Salisbury's next two deliveries, both full-tosses, soared over the packed heads of the compact leg- side grandstand and into the palm trees outside. De Silva went on to score 28 from 10 Salisbury deliveries and led Sri Lanka home with 14 overs and two balls to spare.

The 12,000 fans packed into a ground designed for half as many celebrated wildly, though most had seen little more than the back of someone else's head, a view the English fans in the crowd would have found infinitely preferable to one of the pitch.

MORATUWA SCOREBOARD

(Sri Lanka won toss)

ENGLAND

C C Lewis c Ramanayake b W'masinghe. . . . . . . . . 8

(25 min, 17 balls, 2 fours)

R A Smith st A M De Silva b J'suriya. . . . . . . . 31

(75 min, 48 balls, 3 fours, 1 six)

G A Hick lbw b Kalpage. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

(60 min, 44 ball, 6 fours)

N H Fairbrother c A M De Silva b J'suriya. . . . . .21

(37 min, 47 balls, 1 four, 1 six)

* A J Stewart lbw b Tillakaratne. . . . . . . . . . 14

(43 min, 32 balls, 1 four)

M W Gatting lbw b P A De Silva. . . . . . . . . . . .2

(5 min, 8 balls)

D A Reeve b Jayasuriya. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

(59 min, 44 balls)

J E Emburey c Ramanayake b J'suriya. . . . . . . . .21

(42 min, 41 balls)

I D K Salisbury not out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

(16 min, 6 balls)

P W Jarvis c A M De Silva b J'suriya. . . . . . . . .4

(4 min, 4 balls)

J P Taylor b Jayasuriya. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

(4 min, 8 balls)

Extras (b2 lb9 w3 nb6). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

Total (193 min, 48.5 overs). . . . . . . . . . . . 180

Fall: 1-23 (Lewis), 2-77 (Smith), 3-85 (Hick), 4-111 (Fairbrother), 5-114 (Gatting), 6-125 (Stewart), 7-168 (Emburey), 8-172 (Reeve), 9-177 (Jarvis).

Bowling: Ramanayake 4-0-20-0 (nb1 w1); Wickremasinghe 8-0-23-1 (nb2) (5-0-19-1, 3-0-4-0); Gurusinha 4-0-21-0 (w1); Hathurusinghe 2-0-13- 0; Kalpage 10-0-27-1 (7-0-19-1, 3-0-8-0); Jayasuriya 9.5-0-29-6 (nb1 w1) (7-0-16-2, 2.5-0-13-4); P A De Silva 7-1-22-1 (nb2); Tillakaratne 4-0-14- 1.

Progress: 50: 48 min, 64 balls. 100: 110 min, 166 balls. 150: 157 min, 247 balls.

SRI LANKA

R S Mahanama c Stewart b Salisbury. . . . . . . . . 29

(73 min, 48 balls, 5 fours)

U C Hathurusinghe c and b Salisbury. . . . . . . . .33

(71 min, 48 balls, 5 fours)

A P Gurusinha not out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .35

(78 min, 54 balls, 2 fours)

P A De Silva not out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75

(74 min, 68 balls, 7 fours, 4 sixes)

Extras (b1 lb2 w2 nb6). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Total (for 2, 150 min, 35.2 overs). . . . . . . . .183

Fall: 1-66 (Hathurusinghe), 2-68 (Mahanama).

Did not bat: * A Ranatunga, H P Tillakaratne, S T Jayasuriya, A M De Silva, C P H Ramanayake, R S Kalpage, G P Wickremasinghe.

Bowling: Lewis 7-1-13-0 (nb2); Jarvis 4-0-22-0; Taylor 3-0-20-0 (nb2); Emburey 6-0-29-0; Salisbury 4-0-36-2 (nb1 w1); Hick 6.2-1-36-0, Reeve 5-0-24-0 (nb2 w1).

Progress: 50: 56 min, 76 balls. 100: 96 min, 125 balls. 150: 139 min, 201 balls.

P A De Silva's 50: 65 min, 59 balls, 4 fours, 2 sixes.

Umpires: B C Cooray and T M Samarasinghe.

(Photograph omitted)