Sri Lanka have begun their Asia Cup title defense with a comfortable five-wicket win over Bangladesh in the second match in Pallekele today (31).

This was Sri Lanka’s record 11th consecutive ODI win after being unbeaten in World Cup qualifiers.

In the first match of the Asia Cup 2023 held yesterday (30), hosts Pakistan easily secured a win against Nepal by 238 runs.

Pakistan Captain Babar Azam scored 151 runs in a superb inning, which included 14 fours and 4 sixes.

This was Azam’s 19th ODI hundred and Iftikhar Ahmed smashed 109 off 71 balls.

Babar’s 151 off 131 deliveries and his double-century fifth-wicket stand with Iftikhar provided Pakistan a strong total of 342-6 after the hosts won the toss and elected to bat in the Group A game.

Nepal, making its first appearance in the Asia Cup, was bowled out for 104 in 23.4 overs.

Imam Ul Haq and Fakhar Zaman opened the Pakistan innings. However, they could not get off to a successful start and the first 2 wickets fell at 25 runs.

Zaman scored 14 runs while Ul Haq scored 5 runs.

Mohammad Rizwan put on an 86-run stand for the third wicket with Captain Azam.

Rizwan scored 44 runs and Iftikhar Ahmed scored 109 runs not out.

Sompal Kami took 2 wickets for Nepal.

At the end of 50 overs, Pakistan scored 342 for 6 wickets.

The first 3 players of Nepal were out at 14.

Aarif Sheikh and Sompal Kami kept the game going until the fourth wicket fell at 59 runs.

Due to the skillful bowling of the Pakistan team, eight Nepalese batsmen left the field without scoring beyond 10 runs.

Shadab Khan took 4 wickets for 27 runs.

Shaheen Shah Afridi and Haris Rauf took 2 wickets each.

At the end of 23 overs and 4 balls, the Nepali team was able to score only 104 runs.

The election committee of the Football Federation of Sri Lanka (FFSL) has rejected the nomination of Dakshitha Sumathipala as well as 04 other nominations of his camp.

Sumathipala, the President of the Anuradhapura District Football Association, had submitted his nomination to contest for the Presidency of the FFSL.

Only 08 nominations from Sumathipala’s camp have been accepted and critics say that this would raise the odds in the favour of his contender – Jaswar Umar.

The FFSL election committee has given rejected candidates time to submit their appeals until Sep. 03.

The candidates whose nominations were rejected are : Dakshitha Sumathipala who intended to contest for the Presidency, T.L. Uduwara (Wattala League) who intended to contest for the Vice Presidency, and Nalaka Dissanayake (Sri Lanka Schools), Nihal Perera (Wattala League) and Heshini Ariyaratne (Deniyaya League) who intended to contest for positions of Ex-Co members.

If Mr. Sumathipala’s appeals are rejected, former chairman Mr. Umar will be become the FFSL President uncontested while the remaining 04 main positions will also be filled uncontested.

However, the fact that all 13 nominations of the Umar camp were accepted, is also being talked about in Football circles.

This is mainly because the Sports Ministry had declared him as ineligible to contest at the last FFSL election. Therefore, the acceptance of a nomination by an individual once declared as ‘ineligible’, by the sports ministry itself, has raised eyebrows.

In addition, a Special Investigation Unit of the Sports Ministry had also recommended Mr. Umar was not deemed fit to hold a post in any sports federation.  It was also recommended to take disciplinary action against him on a ministry level.

However, it is also singular that this year’s election committee consists of officials who were present last time as well.

The committed is chaired by retired judge U.L Abdul Majid and includes retired Judge Bandula K. Athapattu and Major General (Retd.) Upali Gunasekara as other members.

The recommendations made over the irregularities of Mr. Umar, by the Ministry’s Special Investigation Unit to prevent offences relating to sports, are as follows :

Below is the list of accepted and rejected nominations for this year’s FFSL election.