16. Sri Lanka v England at the Sinhalese Sports Club, Colombo. March, 1993.
Sri Lanka won by five wickets.
For England's worst defeat to India look no further than the 3-0 whitewash of Graham Gooch's 1993 tourists. Tacked on to the end of that tour was a one off Test against Sri Lanka. Same battered squad, no warm up, and an already beaten side.
England had first played Sri Lanka in 1982 in the latter's inaugural Test, and beaten them handsomely. Anyone who felt that England didn't take Bangladesh seriously this year will find a precursor in relations between these two sides. In the ten years following their entry into Test cricket, England didn't play a single series against the new boys, just five one off Tests. As they would in their next, in 1998 at the Oval.
So England under Keith Fletcher sailed into Colombo harbour like broken royalty into exile. A defeated side, but surely still commanding respect in this far corner of the earth. Sri Lanka were led by Arjuna Ranatunga, who had played in the first Test between the two sides, somewhat fuller in stature in his thirtieth year. This was an opportunity for Sri Lanka to show one of the founding Test nations how their game was developing, and to display a younger generation of Sri Lankan talent.
Like 23 year old slow left arm all rounder Sanath Jayasuriya and 20 year old off break bowler Muttiah Muralithan who would be playing his fourth test, and already had 11 test wickets. And they would get another look at Aravinda de Silva who had scored runs against New Zealand two winters ago, but never passed fifty in three games against England. And Hashan Tillakaratne, who had failed at Lord's two years earlier.
The damage done by the Indian spinners is apparent at the top of the England order, with Robin Smith, whose career was ultimately wrecked by that India tour, opening the batting to ensure he didn't have to start against the slow bowlers. Having controversially left behind David Gower (after falling out with Gooch over the dashing left hander's flight in a biplane in Australia the previous winter), Graham Gooch was excused from the trip to Sri Lanka and Alec Stewart captained, batted at five and reclaimed the gloves from Richard Blakey.
England lost to Sri Lanka for the first time. Coach Keith Fletcher complained about the humidity claiming:"It's very nearly too hot here for Europeans to play cricket." There were comments about the home umpiring, and the action of one of the Sri Lankan spinners. The Middlesex slow bowlers, Tufnell and Emburey were outclassed, and there was little for Malcolm, Jarvis and Lewis to work with. Ranatunga brought Sri Lanka home on the last day with typical bullishness and Jayasuriya finished the game off with a six. England's humbling, fearful and chastening experience on alien Asian territory was complete.
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I always say that everybody's right.