The Sri Lankan army is “very happy” by the display of its own man in the Sri Lankan cricket team.
2nd Lieutenant Ajantha Mendis produced two of the best ever spells of Twenty20 cricket during Sri Lanka’s match against Zimbabwe.
"Mendis is our man and he has made us proud,” said an army officer to a gulfnews.com reporter.
He is also said to have remarked that he had worked with Mendis in the army.
“It was the Sri Lankan Army that noticed Mendis’s talent and groomed him to be a top cricketer. In a match against the army’s under-23 team, Mendis produced a great spell and that was his turning point. The Sri Lankan Army gave him a job,” he said.
Mendis was on active duty during the armed conflict with the LTTE, as part of the same Sri Lankan Army that stands accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Having moved on from the battlefield, he now plays cricket around the world, including against England last week at the T20 World Cup in Sri Lanka, which ended today with a loss of the hosts to the West Indies.
