‘People are eating on alternate days so that they can feed their kids’: Pat Cummins speaks about the mass protest in Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka defeated Australia by an innings and 39 runs to secure a memorable series-leveling victory in the second Test at Colombo.
The second Test was more talked about mass protest rather than cricket.
Australian captain Pat Cummins spoke about the mass protest that swarmed the Galle ground during the second Test and how the impact of the tour has not been lost on the touring side.
“The protest yesterday, you couldn’t escape it. We’ve got a list of messages from back home saying, ‘how is it? Hope you’re okay.’ We’ve felt totally fine,” Cummins said in a video posted by Cricket Australia.
“You could just hear kind of when it changed from a protest to a party.
“And chatting to some of the staff around the hotel and a couple of drivers. They are doing it really tough. They are having one-day eating, and one day off eating to try and feed their kids. It’s really tough,” he added.
Having prevailed by 10 wickets inside three days in the series opener, Australia looked primed for a second successive series victory in Asia following their triumph in Pakistan earlier this year.
Sri Lanka amassed 554 in reply to Australia’s 364 in the first innings to claim a lead of 190.
Australia was all out for 151 in their second innings, with Marnus Labuschagne top-scoring with 32.
Sri Lanka’s debutant spinner Prabath Jayasuriya claimed 6-59 to go with his 6-118 in the first innings.
“It really hits home how lucky we are to be traveling the world first of all, but also in some ways, it’s more than just being here to play cricket,” he said.
“You see the impact it can have. so it hasn’t been lost on our group. It’s something we speak about quite a bit,” he added.
