Sorry I haven’t posted in a while — every year, I sell my soul to Wimbledon’s second week, and this year, it was worth the price. It came at an opportune moment too, since the cricket world had nothing significant on its calendar to offer (what exactly is the “Kitply Cup” anyway? What is a Kitply?).
Of course, that meant I missed Ajanta Mendis’s first great claim to fame. I talked about the Sri Lankan wonderkid before, when he hinted at his potential during the tour of the West Indies. But he hadn’t yet matched the enormous hype that preceded his arrival on the international stage. There are players like this — Kevin Pietersen, or Shane Bond, or Dale Steyn, for instance — who somehow establish their reputation before debut. Some manage to live up to it (like the three I mentioned) and some don’t (like James Anderson and Gautham Gambhir, who both sputtered for years before finally striking gold).
But have a look at this man. Continue reading