With ICC suspending Zimbabwean cricket, India have altered their plans and invited Sri Lanka over for a three-match T20I series in early January next year. India’s obsession with Sri Lankan cricket is well known. The two have played in so many bilateral series’ in the last few years that fans have gotten tired of this series.
The replies to the BCCI announcement on Twitter was nothing short of hilarious.
Why no Eng AUS? We play SL 3 times a year. Bored of watching those matches
— Deval Shah (@DevalShah555) September 25, 2019
Best time pass ever.
— Jasdeep Singh (@SinghStar1212) September 25, 2019
so it is official now...playing #cricket for minting money only..BCCI @OfficialSLC both know the quality of competition that will be on display but neither really carea about the game anymore as long as both make money.
— Jaysurya Deb (@jaysuryadeb) September 25, 2019
— Stree 🌈 (@goal_digger__) September 25, 2019
Waste of time and best way to boost the rankings
— Jaswanth reddy (@jaswanthreddyal) September 25, 2019
So, why are fans detesting India vs Sri Lanka matches?
For starters, the two play each other far too often in recent times. Since 2008, there have been as many as 98 India – Sri Lanka games across formats. India have also played Australia a whopping 94 times, but we never categorise series’ with Australia as boring. The reason for this is primarily that Sri Lanka have been much less competitive than the Aussies.
India have won 63 of the 98 games since 2008 between these two teams. They have only lost 28 times. On the other hand, against Australia, India have lost nearly as much as they have won (39 is to 43).
Matches played by India across formats against opponents since 2008 | |||||||
Team | Matches | Won | Lost | Tied | Draw | NR | W/L |
v Sri Lanka | 98 | 63 | 28 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 2.25 |
v Australia | 94 | 43 | 39 | 0 | 7 | 5 | 1.102 |
v England | 73 | 34 | 32 | 2 | 4 | 1 | 1.062 |
v West Indies | 70 | 46 | 14 | 1 | 5 | 4 | 3.285 |
v South Africa | 57 | 29 | 23 | 0 | 4 | 1 | 1.26 |
v New Zealand | 55 | 29 | 19 | 1 | 5 | 1 | 1.526 |
v Bangladesh | 31 | 26 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 8.666 |
v Pakistan | 25 | 17 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2.125 |
v Zimbabwe | 21 | 17 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4.25 |
v Afghanistan | 6 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | - |
v Ireland | 5 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | - |
v Hong Kong | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | - |
v U.A.E. | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | - |
v Netherlands | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | - |
The lack of competitiveness has made matches against Sri Lanka a damp squib. Aside from the insane number of bilaterals, the two teams also face each other off in the Asia Cup which is now staged every other year at least.
What’s however very interesting is that India have faced Sri Lanka only 28 times at home in this same time frame, winning 20 of those games. But the count of games is lesser than against Australia and England at home.
Away from home also India have played Australia more times than Sri Lanka. In Australia, India have played 45 games, losing 23 and winning just 15 of them. In Sri Lanka, though, India have won 30 of the 44 matches, losing only 13. Once again the lack of competitiveness is evident.
Besides all this, India face off against Sri Lanka at neutral venues. Since 2008, this has happened a record 26 times, 10 times more than the next team India have faced most – Pakistan (16 times). Yet again, India win more than lose against their neighbours. The overdoes of non-competitive games has made the bilaterals between these teams the least interesting to fans.
Feature image courtesy: AFP / Dibyangshu Sarkar
