Watch the videos below. While the Sri Lankan cricket board (SLC) culls Test cricket from its schedule,  Australia makes a lot of money from the five-day format and also gives a lot back to the public to keep the fans, especially the youngsters, coming back to watch Test matches.

I recall watching a documentary on Ajantha Mendis where Subramanian Ramakrishnan from Sports Mechanics India, a company that has assisted the Indian cricket board with video analysis technology, explained how the Indians managed to work out Sri Lanka's mystery spinner Mendis.

Ashantha de Mel, who is back as Sri Lanka's chief selector, believes Upul Tharanga is "suspect" against the new ball and he plays "well away from his body".

A cricket board official told me this week that SLC media manager Brian Thomas’s contract had ended and it would not be renewed. However, it was also reported that Thomas's contract was due to end on June 30 but he was asked by sports minister Mahindananda Aluthgamage "not to report for work."

I was on New Zealand's LIVESPORT Radio this morning talking about the increase in ticket prices for England's 2011 tour of Sri Lanka, Rangana Herath coming into his own after Muttiah Muralitharan's retirement and the ongoing series. Listen to a few excerpts below.

When Mahela Jayawardena visited the north of Sri Lanka recently, he came across this promising fast bowler Nagarasa Dhanusha.

Goutham Chakravarthi from The CouchExpert wanted to chat about Sri Lanka cricket for his podcast. I'm always up for a good chat, so I agreed and it was good fun.

After the loss at Galle this week and after failing with the bat in both innings, Tillakaratne Dilshan was asked if he would change his game.

"I'm not going to change my batting, I've batted the last three or four years aggressive and I want to play my own shots," was the Sri Lankan captain's response.

Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) sent out a press release this morning announcing that they would retain Tillakaratne Dilshan as Sri Lankan captain until December 31, 2011.

Awhile back, I recall hearing Tony Greig on commentary talking about a conversation he had with a Sri Lankan batsman. To summarise what he said, Greig had asked the player what a Googly was and the batsman found it difficult to explain.

“How can you pick it, if you don’t know what it is,” Greig asked.

After arriving in Taunton as a replacement for Somerset’s Murali Karthik, a lot was expected of Sri Lanka’s 'mystery spinner' Ajantha Mendis but the 26 year-old was far from convincing.

Former captain Kumar Sangakkara’s horses for courses policy has, more often than not, left the spinner from Moratuwa out of the Sri Lankan side against opposition that the skipper and selectors felt had mastered the bowler.

Struggling to hold on to his place in the side and with his confidence dented as a result, Mendis has failed to reproduce the magic of his debut Test series, where he scalped 26 wickets in a three-match series at 18.38 apiece against India, breaking Sir Alec Bedser’s record for most wickets in a debut Test series.

The ICC is planning on changing its constitution, which will minimise government and political interference and eliminate interim committees in member boards.

Most teams had already experimented with the idea of opening the innings with a pinch-hitter before the 1996 World Cup, but no one had tried two. Going after as many runs as possible during the first 15 overs, Sri Lanka were able to replace both their conventional openers with batsmen capable of belting the ball cleanly.

In December 1995, Sri Lanka embarked on their 1995/96 tour to Australia, where dramatic changes to their batting order was about to take place. It was a decision sparked by a string of defeats and demoralising batting collapses. When it was time to leave Australia, Roshan Mahanama along with his partner, Chandika Hathurusingha, had lost their positions in the team as openers.

I found this article quietly hidden away (scroll down to the middle of the page) in this week's The Nation newspaper. Although it doesn't name names, it says a "senior cricketer turned politician is blaming the country’s top politicians for misleading him into believing that he would be selected for this month’s World Cup cricket tournament."

Sri Lankan all-rounder Angelo Mathews launches his official website.