From his hotel room in Colombo, Ajantha Mendis can see the cannons placed single-file by the sea in preparation for Sri Lanka’s 61st independence day celebrations. The artillery regiment to which the spinner belongs will participate in the parade in the capital on Wednesday.

As his brothers-in-arms rehearse their left-right-left steps to beating drums in the street below, the army gunner quietly goes through a meal of pol roti, porridge and baked beans. The parade, to be held the day after his team’s do-or-die third game against the Indians, will be a show of strength for the army and Mendis’s regiment — some of whose units are currently pushing ahead in an intense final operation against the LTTE in the north.

If Mendis feels any emotion, it does not show. “My job is to play cricket right now, to bowl well,” he says simply.

It’s difficult to put cricket in perspective in Sri Lanka at the moment. As a brutal battle rages between the army and the Tamil rebels, the national cricket team celebrates its most lethal weapon: ethnic Tamil and national hero Muttiah Muralitharan tormenting batsmen in tandem with armyman Mendis. And colourful, boisterous crowds throng stadiums to watch their favourite sport.

“We’re used to these situations and we can’t let normal life get affected in other areas. In fact when Australia refused to travel to Sri Lanka and India and Pakistan toured us, the situation was much worse, and the security risk was greater. But we managed to put everything in place,” army spokesperson Brigadier Udaya Nanakara told The Indian Express.

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