Sri Lanka's cricket board appointed two stand-in coaches Thursday to help the national team during their upcoming Twenty20 tour of Australia.
Former Test player Rumesh Ratnayake, 58, was named interim coach, but will not travel with the team to Australia because he is in self-isolation after contracting Covid-19, the board said in a statement.
However, it said he was expected to join the national team in time for the first T20 match at the Sydney Cricket Ground on February 11.
Another former pace bowler, 38-year-old Lasith Malinga, was named "bowling strategy coach" for the five-match series, the board said.
"Sri Lanka Cricket is confident that Malinga's vast experience and renowned death bowling expertise, especially in the T20 format, will help the team immensely going into this series," the board added.
The series sees the return of Danushka Gunathilaka to international cricket after a ban for breaching Covid rules during a tour of England last June.
The all-rounder and two others were sanctioned after they admitted breaching a bio-secure bubble in Durham during a tour of England last June.
Gunathilaka, 30, had his ban lifted following an appeal and the payment of a $50,000 fine, and is among the 20-man squad named for Australia under Dasun Shanaka.
The first two T20 matches will be at the Sydney Cricket Ground on February 11 and 13, followed by one match in Canberra and two in Melbourne.
NORFOLK’S newest councillor has found himself in hot water just days into the role, following the emergence of social media posts in which he said Islam should be banned and Muslims deported.
James ‘Jimmi’ Lee, who was elected to represent Acle for Reform at a Broadland Council byelection last Thursday (15), is at the centre of a row over the messages on his X account.
Officials at the authority said they were aware of concerns about the posts and that Lee would receive training to ensure that from now on he would abide by its code of conduct.
Lee and Reform UK declined to comment, but his posts have been deleted since the Eastern Daily Press (EDP) approached the councillor and the party.
Opponents on the council described the messages as “racist and Islamophobic” and said they raised questions over Reform’s vetting of its candidates. In April 2024, Lee responded to a comment on X describing Islam as a “divisive, fundamentalist hate cult”. He said this was a “lovely and accurate post”.
In another post later that month, he replied to a set of images featuring politicians of black and Asian heritage, including Rishi Sunak and Sadiq Khan.
Lee’s response said “we are being infiltrated to the very core of our heritage” and described them as “the enemy in waiting”.
Another post Lee shared in the same month showed an image of a Muslim man being kicked and proclaimed “the only way to save Europe” was “mass deportation”. Lee replied: “Said it for years.”
In June 2024, he replied to a post asking whether Islam should be “made illegal in the UK” and said: “Yes.”
The by-election was called following the resignation of Conservative Lana Hempsall.
Lee was elected with 322, a comfortable margin ahead of the Conservative’s Vincent Tapp, with 208, the Greens’ Peter Carter, with 200, Labour’s Emma Covington, with 186, and Lib Dem’s Philip Matthew with 54 votes.
A spokesman for the council said: “After his election on Thursday, Mr Lee will now go through the introduction and training process of becoming a Councillor.
“Part of that process will include training in his responsibilities as a councillor and as with all councillors he will be expected to abide by Broadland District Council code of conduct.”
FOREIGN SECRETARY David Lammy has described the India-Pakistan ceasefire as “fragile” as he travelled to Islamabad last Friday (16) for a quick visit following the recent conflict in the region.
Lammy met Pakistan’s senior cabinet ministers, including prime minister Shehbaz Sharif, foreign minister Ishaq Dar and interior minister, Syed Mohsin Raza Naqvi.
“It’s important the ceasefire holds, and I describe it as fragile, which is why I’m here,” Lammy told journalists on a call last Friday.
It was the first visit by a UK foreign secretary to Pakistan in the past four years.
Lammy also met consular staff who helped families as tensions escalated between India and Pakistan following a terrorist attack in Pahalgam last month.
India launched strikes against what it said were “terrorist camps” in Pakistan on May 7. Four days of intense tit-for-tat drone, missile and artillery exchanges with Islamabad followed. More than 70 people, including dozens of civilians, died on both sides.
New Delhi and Islamabad later agreed to a ceasefire after world leaders, including from the US and UK, said they spoke to the leadership of both south Asian countries.
“Both countries are long-standing friends of the UK,” Lammy said, adding, “I’ve been in close contact with my counterparts to caution against further escalation and push for a ceasefire.
“I’ve been in regular contact with counterparts in the United States, in Saudi Arabia, in UAE, in the European Union, to discuss how best the UK can work with India and Pakistan to avoid further conflict.
“But reaching a ceasefire is the important thing. And at the heart of sustaining the ceasefire is Pakistan and India having good relations themselves.”
He added, “I want to put on record how impressive I found the statesmanship, both of Pakistan and India, in de-escalating tensions and agreeing to a ceasefire.”
With Syed Mohsin Raza Naqvi
The foreign secretary condemned the terrorist attack in Indian Kashmir when tourists were targeted and shot dead.
He said, “I’ve been absolutely clear that the terrorist attack in Indian-administered Kashmir was horrific, and our thoughts are with those affected, their loved ones, and of course, the people of India.
“The UK government has always been clear in condemning terrorism of all forms, in no uncertain terms.
“And I called (India’s foreign) minister S Jaishankar to offer my condolences.
“In Pakistan, I have been discussing the issue of terrorism and how we deal with terrorism here in Pakistan. Of course, Pakistan, too, has been subject to horrendous terrorism in the recent past.
“The immediacy has been to get to a ceasefire and to see the de-escalation, and to build a horizon where there is confidence, where there is dialogue.
“But, absolutely, we have to bear down on the terrorist threat that exists and the militancy that goes alongside it.”
According to the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), in his meetings with senior counterparts, including the prime minister, Lammy highlighted the “immeasurable contribution” people of Pakistani descent have made to British life.
“We are friends with both countries. We have deep relations with both sides,” Lammy said.
In response to a question about India providing evidence of Pakistan’s involvement in the Pahalgam attack, the foreign secretary said, “I wouldn’t expect India to share their matters of national security with me, necessarily.
“What we’re here to do is to ensure and support friends, to maintain an enduring ceasefire. That’s the thrust of my conversations here in Pakistan, while recognising that terrorism does have to be dealt with, and there are concerns that there are groups here engaged in causing harm.”
According to the foreign secretary, he discussed a visit with Pakistan’s foreign minister. However, “it’s unfortunate that I’ve come in the shadow of conflict, although I’m pleased that we now have this fragile ceasefire in place”.
Lammy also met Dar and Raza Naqvi during his visit , and discussed “important links in the friendship between our countries, issues of trade, cooperation, culture, exchange, the support we give Pakistan on the climate crisis and development”.
Previously, rising tensions in the subcontinent (including the most recent one) led to protests and demonstrations in the UK, with migrants of both Indian and Pakistani origin having settled in many cities and towns across the country.
Leicester witnessed scenes of violence a few years ago, but Lammy said this time communities acted responsibly.
He told Eastern Eye, “This has been an unsettling period for communities up and down the country – we’ve got well over three million people who have their origins from India and Pakistan.
Meeting consular staff at the British High Commission in Islamabad last Friday (16)
“We had oral questions in the House on Tuesday (13), and MPs took the opportunity to raise these issues. I know local authorities have also been engaged in communities broadly across the country.
“Of course, there has been anxiety and concern, but we do have communities that live side by side. Even though the images we’ve seen coming out of India and Pakistan have been deeply troubling, communities have acted responsibly and have actually been more focused on loved ones back in those countries than in disharmony within our own.”
He described how consular staff provided crucial support and advice to British citizens in Pakistan during the peak of recent tensions. “Between them, they’ve taken over 2,000 calls from people who were understandably very worried, particularly last weekend,” Lammy said.
He explained that they worked with airlines once Pakistan lifted its airspace restrictions, and helped people get emergency travel documents. “They also told me about how they helped people find access to pharmacies where they were running out of critical medicines because the airspace was closed,” Lammy said.
The FCDO said the foreign secretary has also been in “frequent contact with the government of India, having engaged with his counterpart last Thursday (15), and will look to travel to New Delhi soon to build on the strength of the UK-India relationship”.
Keep ReadingShow less
Employees sew garments inside a garment factory in Katunayake free trade zone on April 9, 2025. (Photo by ISHARA S. KODIKARA/AFP via Getty Images)
FASHION retailer Next has abruptly shut one of its three factories in Sri Lanka, sacking around 1,400 workers and sparking protests on Wednesday (21).
The Next factory at the island’s Katunayake Free Trade Zone, just outside the capital Colombo, announced its immediate closure on Tuesday (20) and promised severance deals to 1,416 workers made redundant overnight.
David Reay, director of manufacturing at Next, said the plant had been unprofitable for several years and that he had no alternative but to close it.
"At the heart of this decision is the increasingly high operating cost of the Katunayake manufacturing plant," Reay said in a statement, adding the company will continue to operate two other factories on the island.
A powerful trade union said over 800 of its members were out of work as a result of the sudden closure, and it would seek legal redress to secure their jobs.
"The decision to close without any consultation with us is a violation of a collective agreement," said Anton Marcus, the general secretary of the Free Trade Zones and General Services Employees Union.
The union rejected the claim that the factory was unviable.
Last month, Sri Lanka’s apparel industry warned that threatened US tariffs would disrupt the island's largest export sector and place thousands of jobs at risk.
A tariff rate of 44 per cent on Sri Lankan exports to the US has been on hold for months by the US authorities, but a new 10 per cent baseline tariff is being applied in the meantime.
Sri Lanka exported $4.76 billion (£3.76bn) worth of garments last year, up from $4.53bn (£3.58bn) the previous year. The industry employs about 350,000 workers and is a key foreign exchange earner.
(AFP)
Keep ReadingShow less
Dhingra also attributed her vote to her broader view on where interest rates should be over the longer term.
Bank of England policymaker Swati Dhingra said on Monday (19) that her decision to vote for a half-point reduction in the central bank's recent interest rate decision was intended to make a statement on the direction of the British economy.
"I get to pick times when I want to be able to make a more categorical statement about where I think the economy is headed," Dhingra said in a podcast interview with the Financial Times.
"If I were to keep doing 100 basis point reductions, I don't think it would have as much impact on how financial markets perceive that reduction," she added. "I don't think it would be as strong as if I were to use it sparingly, and that's what I've chosen to do."
The BoE cut its benchmark Bank Rate by a quarter of a percentage point on May 8. Dhingra was one of two members, alongside Alan Taylor, on the Monetary Policy Committee to vote for a larger 50 basis point reduction.
On Monday, Dhingra also attributed her vote to her broader view on where interest rates should be over the longer term.
Keep ReadingShow less
Align Body & Mind: Transformative Yoga & Meditation Session
If you're seeking a meaningful way to restore balance in your life, improve your mental wellbeing, and strengthen your body through mindful movement, mark your calendar for Thursday, 29 May. The Wrights Meadow Centre in High Wycombe (HP11 1SQ) will host a transformative Yoga & Meditation Practice designed to bring you back into alignment – physically, mentally, and spiritually. Combining the grounding energy of Hatha yoga, the dynamic flow of vinyasa, and the calming clarity of guided meditation, this session promises a holistic experience for both beginners and seasoned practitioners.
The evening will begin with a well-rounded Hatha yoga session, focusing on steady, deliberate poses that help stretch and tone the body while calming the nervous system. With vinyasa flow elements seamlessly woven in, participants will experience a more fluid sequence of movements that connect breath with motion, promoting better circulation, improved flexibility, and heightened body awareness.
Once the physical practice is complete, the class will transition into a guided meditation session. This segment will be rooted in body awareness, helping you tune into subtle sensations and let go of tension. The practice encourages mindfulness, improves mental clarity, and cultivates a deep sense of inner peace. No prior meditation experience is necessary – just a willingness to be present and open.
The Wrights Meadow Centre, conveniently located on Wrights Meadow Road in High Wycombe, offers a calm, accessible, and inclusive space for wellness activities. The centre is easily reachable and equipped to provide a comfortable environment for yoga and meditation practices.
Spaces are limited, so early booking is recommended. You can reserve your spot and find more information through www.eventbrite.com. Please bring your own yoga mat, wear comfortable clothing, and arrive a few minutes early to settle in.