Bipin Dani
Sri Lanka’s captain in IMC (International Masters Cricket) Over-40s World Cup tournament which concluded in South Africa last week is “happy” with the overall performance of the team, though it stood 7th among the 12 participating teams.
Speaking exclusively over the telephone from Colombo, the captain Marlon Fernando, said, “I thought our team did really well and we had a few hiccups in our batting where in about 4 odd games we lost 3-5 wickets quicker than expected. Anyway, cricket is a game of uncertainty and I felt we were a very competitive team and other teams too had their hands up to say Sri Lanka were a team to watch out, perhaps our batting let us down over all”.
“I thought our team was a team worthy of the semi finals spot, after which we also had an opportunity at getting the Plate Trophy by coming in at 5th. However the loss to USA at the playoffs made us come to fight for the 7th spot Vs India and we won that by 4 wickets to remain at 7th”.
“Hats off to all our players, I’m sure it was an experience of its own, I know we were a better team going into the tournament, but unfortunately cricket is a funny game”, he further added.
On leading the side, the 47-year-old captain says, “Well it’s an absolute honour to captain your own country, I am known as an International Double Coloursman who has represented two Nations in one cricketing career. (Marlon Fernando has also played for the UAE in the past). And to play for your own county and captain it is an absolute joy”.
Self funded Interestingly, this was a self-funded tournament. Each player above 40-year-of age had to pay USD 4000 apart from the airline ticket, this of course included the tournament fees, hotel accommodation, meals, transport, kits, uniforms + airline ticket, travel insurance and medical insurance came to USD 1500 – in total it was about USD 5500 per person.
Some players got individual sponsors from family and friends, other teams in the tournament also had to pay various amounts based from the destination they were coming from The Chairperson of the tournament was Sterling Hamman and Roger Molt the tournament director.
