Sports Diary

Writing in The Times on the day the cricket World Cup begins with Sri Lanka playing England at Lord's, Warne admitted there was bad blood...

Writing in The Times on the day the cricket World Cup begins with Sri Lanka playing England at Lord’s, Warne admitted there was bad blood between Ranatunga and himself.

“There is plenty of animosity between Arjuna and myself. I don’t like him and I’m not in a club of one,” Warne wrote.

He said the decline of Sri Lanka since they won the last World Cup in 1996 could be blamed on Ranatunga.

Rain as expected

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The timing was on cue. The opening of the seventh edition of the cricket World Cup and the rain in may coincided as expected today at Lord’s.

The opening match between England and defending champions Sri Lanka was delayed by five minutes as showers of rain fell over Marylebone throughout the morning.

In a brief ceremony, Prime Minster Tony Blair announced: “Let this tremendous carnival of cricket begin.”

Spectators accustomed to British summers came prepared — armed with umbrellas and wet-weather gear — and braced themselves for a stop-start day.

Best dressed

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Defending champion Sri Lanka might not be fancied to retain the title, but it has already won honour when a newspaper’s fashion staff called it the tournament’s best dressed team.

The Sri Lankans’ blue shirts emblazoned with a lion clutching a sword was described as “pretty darn cool” by British daily The Guardian. “We ought to be scared-their sword-brandishing lion makes our three look positively wimpy,” the paper wrote, referring to the England team’s crest of three lions under a crown.

Bottom of the satorial stakes was Pakistan whose dark green star on a light green background was given just three out of 10 marks. “Haven’t they heard? Lime green is so three years ago,” the paper scornfully stated.

Botham for England?

British men might have been waiting eagerly for the World Cup but most of the nation’s women don’t even know its happening.

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According to a survey conducted by fruit juice company Outspan, one of the tournament sponsors, 83 per cent of British women were unaware the tournament was being staged.

And those who did know weren’t too upto date on who might be turning out for England in Friday’s tournament opener against Sri Lanka.

Former Australian great Sir Don Bradman was suggested, as was ex-England rugby union captain Will Carling and retired England greats Ian Botham and Geoffrey Boycott.

It was not clear when Outspan carried out its survey or how many women were quizzed.