ARRIVED HERE SAFELY! Dashing Sri Lankan opener Sanath Jayasuriya is on his cell phone as he comes out of the Zia International Airport yesterday. He is in Dhaka to play for Mohammedan Sporting Club in the on-going Premier League
A day after the mayhem in Lahore, dashing Sri Lanka opener Sanath Jayasuriya arrived in the capital yesterday to play in the ongoing Premier Cricket League.
Struggling Mohammedan Sporting Club pulled off the surprise by bringing in the first big name for this year in the most coveted domestic competition in a bid to salvage the complete blushes. They have only five points from six matches to seven points adrift of table-toppers Biman.
Jayasuriya is expected to play his first match today against BKSP at the Fatullah Cricket Stadium.
It was highly unlikely to meet the former Sri Lankan skipper in Dhaka a day after a cowardly attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team's bus in Lahore, on Tuesday morning, which left eight men dead and several Lankan cricketers injured.
The obvious question for the veteran cricketer was how he felt about the terrorist attack on any sportsman for the first time.
"The incident was a shocking one. I'm very disappointed and for the first time this kind of attack has happened in cricket," responded the 39-year old Jayasuriya, who has so far played 110 Tests and 432 ODIs.
"But it is a relief for us that all the cricketers are alive and the injuries are not life threatening," said the Matara Hurricane, who got the news first from one of his friends and contacted his colleagues over phone.
There has been a lot of talking about the future of Pakistan cricket and hosting the 2011 World Cup that will jointly hosted by India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. But Jayasuriya was not ready to comment on management issues.
Back to cricket, the experienced campaigner said that he would try his best for Mohammedan who are all but out of the championship race.
"I will try my best and I want to share my experience to help my team but it's a team game," he said.
But the charismatic Lankan's previous experience in domestic competitions here was not happy one as he continued his Dhaka jinx after his single failure back in 1997 when he failed to lift Mohammedan against an ordinary Agrani Bank side. He returned in November 2007 but scored only 14 runs, dropped a vital catch as well as giving away 37 runs in seven overs without any success for Acme in the Corporate Cricket League final.
Mohammedan roped in the Sri Lankan opener for second time as the 39-year old cricketer along with Arjuna Ranatunga had earlier played for the Motijheel outfit after Sri Lanka emerged champions in the 1996 ICC Cricket World Cup.
The left-handed batsman, who is out of the Sri Lankan Test squad since December 2007, was supposed to come here earlier, but he was engaged in South African Club cricket.
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