Sri Lanka pacer Dhammika recalls run-in with Ishant
COLOMBO Compared to the last time, the absence of a contest in this series has been glaring. The hosts have been reduced to whipping boys. It is in sharp contrast to 2015 when the teams squared up at the Sinhalese Sports Club ground.
Not only was it a series decider, there was the face-off between Ishant Sharma and Dhammika Prasad. The confrontation between the two reached a boiling point in the second innings.
It had sent the TRPs soaring, but looking back, Dhammika, who plays for Sinhalese Sports Club, laments that it made for ugly viewing.
“It was an emotional outburst. When you are playing, you have to play with passion. I want to win matches for my country, and I am always trying to give 100 % and do something different. That’s what happened in that series,” says Prasad, who has taken 75 wickets in 25 Tests, and is recovering from a shoulder injury that has sidelined him for more than a year.
GETTING CARRIED AWAY
Talking about the trigger for the ugly clash, the 34-year-old said: “When our guys were batting, there was a little bit of argument and it was in my mind when Ishant came to bat, so I fired some bouncers at him. When I went to bat I got a nasty bouncer from him. There was something going on between the two of us…” Did it reach a stage where it could have got physical? “I am a really calm guy, I don’t generally tell anything to anybody when I am bowling, I respect the opposition, but when somebody comes and behaves like that (provoke), then you will naturally react. “Afterwards, I realised it is not a good example for the kids. It was not really a good incident,” added Dhammika, who had removed Virender Sehwag, Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar in the first innings on his Test debut in 2008. The shocking sight was Dhammika chasing Ishant all the way to the dressing room at the end of the India innings. According to reports, the Sri Lankan support staff intervened to diffuse the situation. Have they patched up? “I am not the kind to take things outside the ground. I am always okay after the game. We’re not enemies, everyone wants to win the game for their country.”