Eyeing win for Sir Garry

COLOMBO – It might be unkind to reminisce too much, but a glance around West Indies’ final practice session at the P. Sara Oval on the eve of the critical second cricket Test against Sri Lanka revealed a host of living legends of the Caribbean game – and underlined the lofty heights the current wearers of the maroon cap will always be compared to.

Sir Garfield Sobers, the greatest of Test all-rounders, was enjoying a lively chat with Clive Lloyd, the iconic captain of West Indies’ glory years in the 1970s and 1980s.

Sir Garry, whose name now adorns the series trophy, alongside Sri Lanka’s former skipper Michael Tissera, is here as a guest of Sri Lanka Cricket. And at the unveiling of the trophy yesterday, the still-sprightly 79-year-old gave a teary-eyed speech in which he admitted “the hurt” he feels at the current position of his former team.

Lloyd is the current chairman of selectors, tasked with picking the right combination to salvage the current two-match rubber after the team’s galling innings loss in the opener at, ironically, Galle.

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