Muttiah Muralitharan’s father says he now supports Australia

SINNASAMY Muthiah is a household name in Kandy as managing partner of Luckyland Biscuit Manufacturers, Sri Lanka’s third-largest biscuit factory which employs about 200 people.

The benevolent biscuit baron and Kandy king says he’ll be too busy to attend the first Test between Australia and Sri Lanka which starts on Tuesday.

But the 73-year-old will be watching on TV and cheering for Australia.His face, diminutive build and leisurely gait look familiar.

That’s because one of his four sons is Test cricket’s leading wicket-taker Muttiah Muralitharan, the Sri Lankan spin wizard who has been working with Australia’s slow bowlers Steve O’Keefe and Nathan Lyon for the upcoming three-Test series.

Muttiah Muralitharan’s father Sinnasamy at his biscuit factory in Kandy, Sri Lanka.

That means Murali’s dad has a clash of loyalties.

“I’ll be watching on TV,” Sinnasamy told the Herald Sun through an interpreter.

“My support was with Sri Lanka. Now I am supporting Australia,” he said as he burst into laughter. “I will be encouraging my son.”

Sinnasamy proudly pulls out a newspaper and points to a back-page story about the success of O’Keefe, who claimed 10 wickets in Australia’s tour match against a Sri Lankan XI in Colombo.

Then he leaps from his desk, grabs a drinking glass and balances a coin on top. With arms waving in excitement, he tells the tale of how Murali demonstrated to the Aussies in the nets that at 44 he still has unsurpassed accuracy.

“When Murali bowls, they keep this coin on top of a glass and only the coin will drop down,” Sinnasamy said.

A spokesperson for the Australian team said attempts to confirm the coin story were met with blank looks, although few would doubt Murali’s ability to perform the feat.

Sinnasamy didn’t come across as a lover of cricket stats, although he was happy to point out Murali took 800 Test wickets.

The success of Luckyland was a lucky break for Murali. It allowed Murali’s family to fund his education at St Anthony’s College, where the medium-pacer evolved into a spinner and became the most-successful bowler in Test history.

Sinnasamy frowns briefly when asked about Sri Lanka’s slide to seventh on the current Test rankings. He says “politics” has been a factor.

The retirements of Murali and batting superstars Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene haven’t helped either.

“Sri Lanka has gone down because of its politics. And Mahela and Sangakkara, the best players are out,” Sinnasamy said.

“After Murali has left the team, a lot of people have gone down and the team has also gone down.”

Murali says his decision to work as a consultant for Australia is part of his desire to avoid fulltime touring after an international career that spanned two decades.

He says Sri Lanka already has a spin coach anyway.

It’s family time for Murali, which means short-term gigs are on his agenda.

Would seeing Murali help the Aussies retain the Warne-Muralitharan Trophy really “take the biscuit” for Sri Lanka’s fans?

It’s hard to say.

Leading Sri Lanka cricket scribe Rex Clementine, writing in The Island newspaper in Colombo, says Murali’s decision to work with Australia against his home country has caused “much murmur within the Sri Lankan cricket team and in cricket circles”.

Clementine said in Sunday’s edition that it’s up to Sri Lanka’s cricket officials to find a better way to make use of its former champions.

“The bigger issue here is that Sri Lanka and Australia are playing for a trophy named after two of the greatest spinners to play the game — Muralitharan and Warne,” Clementine wrote.

“So when a trophy is being dedicated to your name, joining the rival camp obviously upset people.”

Clementine says Murali has been available to Sri Lanka Cricket to share his knowledge “without charging a penny”.

“On that aspect, he has been quite magnanimous,” Clementine said.

“SLC in the meanwhile should look at ways and means to hire experts like Murali or if possible stalwarts like Shane Warne on similar short term stints to help our cricketers improve and develop. Our administrators obviously have other priorities.”

Clementine said the manner in which Australia had prepared for the Test series was admirable.

“We have a lot to learn from Australia,” he said.

Syrian refugee hacks pregnant woman to death in Germany

Less than a week after a Muslim teen from Afghanistan used an ax to slash passengers aboard a train in Germany, a Syrian refugee in Germany used to a machete to hack to death a pregnant woman Sunday before he was run over by a man driving a BMW.

The attack took place in the southwestern city of Reutlingen at a kebab shop in a bus station at Listplatz Square.

News media in Germany have been reporting the motive for the attack remains unclear, adding, the incident “did not bear the hallmarks of a terrorist attack.”

Images on social media show the assailant with a bloody forehead but alive on the ground after police arrived on the scene.

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Local media report that the man argued with the woman before attacking her.

Published reports indicate a man driving a BMW was passing the incident and struck him with his car, knocking him to the ground, before police arrived to detain him.

An eyewitness told the German newspaper Bild: “The perpetrator was completely out of his mind. He ran with his machete even behind a patrol car.”

Bjoern Reusch, a spokesman for Reutlingen police, issued a statement indicating the 21-year-old alleged attacker is known to local authorities and was having an argument with the woman who is thought to have been working at the food stand.

“According to the information available, the perpetrator acted alone, the people of Reutlingen and its surroundings are very probably not in danger,” the statement added.

Police say the asylum-seeking Syrian had been involved in previous incidents causing injuries to other people, though they had no immediate information on when those previous incidents occurred.

Germans are suffering from a spree of recent violence. On Friday night, a rampage at a Munich mall left nine people dead.

Last Monday, five people were seriously wounded aboard a train when a Muslim teenager shouting “Allahu Akbar” used an ax and knife to hack passengers aboard a train near Wuerzburg, Germany.

The teen was shot dead by police, and the Islamic terrorist group ISIS has since claimed responsibility for the train attack.

One dead after explosion in Germany

At least one person has been killed and nine others injured after an explosion struck a restaurant in the south German city of Ansbach, Bavaria, local media reported. The cause of the explosion is unknown, but a possible gas leak is suspected.

The incident took place in the central part of the city, close to an area in which a music festival took place at the weekend, Suddeutsche Zeitung reported. Police have cordoned off the area around the restaurant and are conducting a crime scene investigation.

As the investigation continues, Bild reports that the possible explosion could have been caused by a gas leak. According to media reports, the explosion occurred in front of a restaurant. A music festival nearby was forced to end as the guests were evacuated. Police and rescue workers are currently engaged in a large-scale operation.

Three people of same family murdered in Batticaloa

A man was arrested in Batticaloa over a triple murder yesterday.

Investigations revealed the man had hacked to death his wife, father-in-law and child at Kakachchiveddai village, Vellaveli, Batticaloa. The deceased were identified as Perinpam Vijitha, 24, Prasanthan Sasnika, 18, and Kandaiyah Perinpam, 56.

The woman and the infant had been murdered at 1.00 a.m. and their bodies dumped into a well.

Perinpam living in a neigbouring house who heard his daughter screaming had rushed to her house when he was attacked by the man. He died on admission to the Batticaloa Teaching Hospital, investigations revealed.

The suspect was arrested later. The couple had been summoned to the Police to settle a family dispute on Friday. The man had complained to the Police that the child was not his. Vellaveli Police conducting investigations revealed this would have led to the dispute.

Mysterious female GHOST following a man into a taxi

Chilling footage appears to show a 'spirit' gliding into a cab after a male passenger in a quiet Japanese town.The man can be seen striding up to a taxi rank as a white car rolls in.

But as he walks towards the cab a black shape can be seen moving behind him, following him to the vehicle. 

As it heads towards the open door it seems to acquire more substance, looking more like a woman in a long robe and a dark hood - yet unmistakably still not human.

It slides along the floor closer to the car as the man clambers in and almost appears to get in after him before the door closes - seemingly sweeping right through the mysterious figure as it shuts.

The taxi drives off as normal and the taxi rank is left deserted.

While many netizens are fascinated with the potentially supernatural apparition others see the funnier side, joking that perhaps the ghost was tired and wanted to sit down or was in love with the man.

But others simply see the spirit as a clever camera trick - the result of careful editing.

However, ghost passenger sightings are not an entirely rare phenomenon in Japan. 

Taxi drivers working in one of the areas worst affected by the 2011 earthquake disaster have reported picking up 'ghost customers,' it was revealed in January of this year.

Cab drivers in Ishinomaki, where 6,000 people died when a tsunami hit the town after an earthquake, said they have taken fares from people who have then vanished during the ride.

Emirates Airlines apologises to Speaker Karu Jayasuriya

Speaker Karu Jayasuriya has lodged a formal complaint with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Ambassador in Colombo, expressing his displeasure at being offloaded from an Emirates Airlines flight from Colombo to Singapore minutes before the flight took off.

A close family member said that soon after the complaint, the UAE Ambassador had called senior Emirates Airlines officials and asked them to apologise to Mr. Jayasuirya. Meanwhile the Airline in response to a query by the Sunday Times said: “Emirates is aware of the concerns expressed by Mr. Jayasuriya and his family.

“Our cabin crew are trained first responders whose role is to assess the situation, offer assistance, and where necessary consult a doctor via Emirates’ Medlink system to evaluate passengers’ fitness to fly. On this occasion, due to the information we were provided about the passenger’s medical condition, a doctor was consulted through Medlink and it was decided, as a precaution, not to allow him to take the flight to Singapore.”

The airline while apologising to the family for any inconvenience caused said its decision was made in the interest of the passenger’s health and wellbeing. “The safety of our passengers and crew is of paramount importance and will not be compromised,” it said. Mr. Jayasuirya had boarded an Emirates flight on July 12 to seek medical attention in Singapore for what was suspected to be a heart ailment. He was accompanied by his daughter Lanka Dissanayake, a doctor attached to the World Health Organisation (WHO).

A team of doctors who had treated him at a private hospital in Colombo had advised that he should go to Singapore for advanced treatment there. The Colombo hospital had contacted a Singapore hospital, briefed it on the requirements and urged a medical team to standby at the airport.

Speaker Jayasuriya is due back in the country over the weekend. Doctors in Singapore have diagnosed the ailment as a bug he had contracted during foreign travel and was not directly related to a heart condition.

One Million Participants At Jana Satana Protest Rally

UPFA MP Dallas Alahapperuma said that the 'Joint Opposition' wants to see one million people on the streets of Colombo on August 1, taking part in the 'Jana Satana Pada Yatra' rally.

Speaking at an awareness meeting in Polonnaruwa yesterday, he said that the government has a two thirds majority in Parliament, which makes it difficult for the opposition to oppose it inside the Parliament.

Therefore, the struggle against the government must come out of the confines of the Parliament on to the streets, he added.

The Pada Yatra or the protest march will begin on July 28 in Kandy and arrive in Colombo on August 1, culminating with a rally.

Minuwangoda District Court Judge interdicted

I. M. Dhammika Ilangasinghe, Gampaha District Judge who also served as the Chief Magistrate of Minuwangoda was interdicted on Saturday (23) by the Judicial Service Commission following an inquiry.

An inquiry was launched by the Commission following several complaints. Sources at the Magistrate’s Court said officials from the Commission had visited the Court on Friday (22) and met the staff for further inquiries.
Several case proceeding books were also taken by the officials, sources said. Ms. Ilangasinghe has left her official residence after the interdiction.