The victory that never came: Photos from Colombo during Cricket World Cup Final

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Nationalism and over the top displays of patriotism were on a crescendo, leading up to and on Saturday. There was Sarath Fonseka who said that a victory at the world cup would be akin to the victory against the LTTE two years ago. All radio stations, and most social networking site status updates (esp. Facebook and Twitter) referred to the team as ‘Lions’ that were ‘Roaring’. Many on Facebook, again like the days after war’s end, changed their profile images to the Sri Lankan flag, tellingly cropping it to focus on the Lion – never the two stripes. Unsurprisingly, corporate marketing also took a nationalist twist. As we observed on Twitter,

“Dialog keeps referring to Sri Lanka as ‘Lion nation’. Revolting & racist. We support #cricket as Sri
 Lankans

.”The politics of a cricket final  Saturday, 02 April 2011 00:00 

 A news report said a 30-member government delegation had asked Indian World Cup organizers to set aside VIP seating accommodation for today’s final between Sri Lanka and IndiaSaturday, We do not know who these 30 government leaders or officials are. But one thing is certain. Even before the winner of today’s match is known, the politicians in true Sri Lankan style will be sharpening their spurs to ride on the Sri Lankan team.