Indian cricket team leaves for Sri Lanka

CHENNAI: The Indian cricket team on Wednesday left for Sri Lanka to play five one-dayers and a Twenty20 against the island nation from Saturday.

The first ODI of the series, which marks the start of the season following a seven-week break, will be played in Hambantota.

"Most of the players have come back after a long break and the body looks very different and their fielding and other activities look very different," Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni told reporters before heading to Sri Lanka.

"We will make the most of the rest that we have got. It's the start of the season and we want to start it on a good note."

After this, India will host New Zealand, play the World Twenty20 Championships and then host England and Pakistan at the end of the year.

The Sri Lanka Premier League (SLPL) - Media Launch

The Sri Lanka Premier League (SLPL) is the premier Twenty20 cricket competition in Sri Lanka held by Sri Lanka Cricket. Its first season is to be held in 2012 and has replaced the Inter-Provincial Twenty20.

 In February 2012, SLC signed a renewed deal with Somerset Entertainment Ventures to hold the tournament in August 2012. The matches will be held at Colombo and Kandy, with the seven teams as originally planned.The BCCI has said that Indian players in the SLPL was a possibility.

 The Sri Lanka Premier League is in partnership with the MCC Spirit of Cricket initiative, similar to that of the one established by MCC and the DLF Indian Premier League in 2008. In June 2012, the tournament went through a major structural change. Instead of the provincial teams, there will be franchises owned by private owners like the IPL and BPL. Seven franchises will take part in the inaugural tournament.

The SLPL was officially launched on 16 July 2012 at Cinnamon Grand hotel in Colombo at an event attended by a host of media personnel and cricketers. Sri Lanka Cricket Chairman Upali Dharmadasa announced plans to add two more franchises in the following years to the league and cricket into all areas of the nation. It was announced that like the Indian Premier League there will be cheerleaders and other entertainment during the tournament. The night also saw the launch of the official website, mascot, theme song and logo of the SLPL

The Slinga, The Pocket Rocket, The Sidewinder

Name
Lasith Malinga

Aka
The Slinga, The Pocket Rocket, The Sidewinder

The hair
Malinga's coiffure has been produced by a Bollywood set designer who was given unfettered access to the finest blowtorches, acids and polymers known to man. Or rather more prosaically, by Colombo hairdresser Nishantha Jayasekera, who took a mere two days over his confection. "Malinga likes to stand out, so he goes for unusual styles unlike the other well-known cricketers," said Jayasekera. Now you tell us.

The action
Malinga learned his cricket on the beaches of Hikkaduwa, Sri Lanka's west-coast tourist paradise, with a tennis ball that was shaved and then burned to make it harder. Hence the round-arm action, so the ball didn't bounce miles high, see? "The first time I ever picked up a leather ball, it felt so heavy, so strange, like something from out of the world," he revealed.

The quirk
He kisses the ball before he runs up, because when you're the sexiest cricketer alive - more of which later - you're allowed to do just about anything. Sort of like Sreesanth, then, though much less irritating.

Notable claim to fame
He took four in four against South Africa in a World Cup game, shaving a few years off the lifespans of the South African team and making a cigarette smoker out of Graeme Smith in the process.

Dubious claim to fame
Malinga almost brought about a change in the colour of the umpires' trousers after the opposition claimed his release was not visible against the black of said trousers.

What you may not have known about him
He used to be good at math in school.

Motto
If you don't sling, don't ring.

Secret weapon
Malinga recently consulted a doctor who "works with supernatural powers and herbs", Eliyantha White, who helped him overcome injury and speed to fitness again. "I don't know what he does and how he does it but it works," Malinga beamed.

Favourite musical
Hair!

Favourite umpire
Er, maybe not.

Favourite movie
Edward Scissorhands

Favourite song
"Freak Like Me"

Anything else? 
Yes, our Lasith has a subversively pierced eyebrow - all the better to distract the batsman with cunning glints of sunlight off the stud embedded therein.

Statutory tagline
No skunks were harmed in the making of this player.

What they say
"He is a good cricketer, but not a decent-looking gentleman."
Ranjith Chandrasekera, a Sri Lankan who was singularly unimpressed with Malinga being voted the sexiest cricketer at the last World Cup

What he's promised to do if he becomes Prime Minister of Sri Lanka
Declare styling gel a basic necessity.

Malinga Toe Crushers :)

ICC T20 World Cup Event Ambassador Malinga

he International Cricket Council has chosen Sri Lanka's star pacer Lasith Malinga as the official event ambassador for the World T20

Malinga too sexy for Sri Lanka

FAST bowler Lasith Malinga, dubbed the World Cup's sexiest player, has sparked fierce debate in Sri Lanka where his body piercing, tattoos and bleached hair are not deemed "respectable."

The 23-year-old bleached-blond was named the tournament's sexiest cricketer by the Barbados Sunday Sunnewspaper because of his "eye-catching, blonde-streaked curly hairdo, eyebrow ring and tattooed biceps."

But the accolade has not gone down well with everyone in his home country.

"Those in Barbados got their wires crossed," said a reader of the state-run Daily News, Ranjith Chandrasekera.

"He is a good cricketer, but not a decent-looking gentleman."

His presentation tarnished the "respectable outlook of the rest of the team," he said, adding that Malinga should uphold the traditions of a "country boy coming from a good cultural background."

Another reader of the Daily News did not like Malinga's appearance, but did not object too much.

"I myself was not impressed by Malinga's hairstyle etc," wrote Romaine L.

"However, he did bring a fresh and fun attitude to the field."

Malinga's stylist has told how he took two days to create the distinctive bleached-blond corkscrews which attracted headlines during the World Cup.

"Malinga likes to stand out, so he goes for unusual styles unlike the other well-known cricketers," said hairdresser Nishantha Jayasekera, who runs the Le Paris salon in Panadura, outside Colombo.

"Malinga has his own hair ideas and he is not afraid to try out anything new," he said. "It took me two days to get the look."

Many Sri Lankan men have already copied Malinga's unkempt style, with imitators springing up in the island's towns and cities.

The bowler made history during the World Cup when he became the first man to take four wickets in four balls in the Super Eights match against South Africa.