Grand welcome awaits Sri Lankan team

Sri Lanka new skipper Kumar Sangakkara and his team will receive a grand welcome at Colombo’s Bandarnaike International Airport irrespective of ICC World Twenty20 final result. This was revealed by Charith Senanayake, the Head of Marketing and Media, Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC).

“It has been decided to accord them the red carpet welcome for their brilliant performance”, he said from Colombo. “Most of the SLC officials (chairman D. S. De Silva, Nishantha Ranatunga and Duleed Mendis) are in England now but there are quite a few dignitaries and ministers in the country who would be at the airport to receive the team”, he added. “We are awaiting the final flight details of the team and hope to receive the players with the winning trophy but however, the boys can certainly hope for a warm welcome even if the team stands as a runner-up”.

The SLC had arranged a grand welcome ceremony for the Sri Lankan team on their arrival from the Caribbean after their highly successful World Cup campaign. This arrangement had been made irrespective of the outcome of the final in Barbados on April 28 where Sri Lanka lost to Australia. Members of the entire team with their family gathered at SLC head quarter.

It will be a double joy for the captain Kumar Sangakkara as his wife Yehali is expected to give a birth to twins (boy and girl) later this month. “In Sri Lanka, the sex determination tests are not illegal as is the case in India”, confirms Mahendra Mapagunaratne, the Toronto-based Sri Lankan lawyer.

If the twins are delivered on that due date, it will coincide with the 40th birthday of Sri Lanka’s master blaster Sanath Jayasuriya, who is easily the oldest cricketer playing international cricket today.

However, Kumar Sangakkara is not the first Sri Lankan cricketer becoming father of twins. Hashan Tilkaratne and Charith Senanayake stand also in this list.

© Cricdb