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        Australia is by far the most dominant team at the World Cup. But unarguably Sri Lanka has been the more attractive to watch. The Lankans have brought a unique flair and fervour to their game that the world is now talking them to be the new West Indians (in spirit and style) of international cricket.

        Sri Lanka, in this World Cup, has brought to the fore a bewildering variety in both in batting and bowling that to watch it is to espy a complete cricketing set to the accompaniment of unbridled joy. West Indies cricket, in its heydays, was metronomically brilliant. But it was an excellence tempered by monotony. All relentless fast-bowling and then blistering batting. Lanka has not yet reached the phase of consistent brilliance. But it seems to have traded that for style and variation. Honest military medium fast, whippy pace, unorthodox off-spin, traditional left-arm spin, up-and-down seam stuff...the bowling is a smorgasbord spread of motley talent. The batting is equally an assortment of riches. Big blazing stroke players and cultured artistes of batsmanship alongside honest and enterprising willow wielders. No wonder, the world loves to watch them. It is illuminating that the fanatical Indian fans took the defeat of their team against Bangladesh very badly while the loss to Lanka was accepted with a matter-of-fact equipoise. It is very difficult to feel hard against the Lankans.

        And, come to think of it, it is not the cricketers alone who bring that special Caribbean feel alive. The fans in Sri Lanka too have that same sense of jollity and a sun-kissed fun. It is no simple coincidence that the Lankan cricket followers along with the Caribbean ones make the most musical noise at the stadiums. Perhaps the gay cavallier attitude is unique to island nations. The air is perhaps so laidback that nothing in the world would seem serious.

        'We love to have fun in the backdrop of cricket,' says Dhimana, a manager in a chain of hotels in Lanka. Fun is the underlined operative emotion here. There is fun in what the players attempt to do. It is fun that spectators have while watching. This simplicity completes the circle and maintains an equilibrium. The average Lankan fan takes his cricket seriously enough to stay awake all night to cheer his team. Yet, he is not the type to lose his sleep over in the event of a loss. 'The defeat against South Africa was agonising. But that is part of the game,' points out Vipulasena, a banker who works in the heart of Colombo's business district.

        This easy-going conviviality manifests all over Lanka. Now that the team is in the semi-finals, the entire nation is talking and breathing cricket. Even the President is planning to go to the West Indies should the team make it to the finals. Special telecasts and big screens are put up in many locations across the country. Yet, quite unlike in India, the advertisements, those windows to the soul of a nation, have little place for cricketers. Only three companies have thought it fit to use cricketers as brand ambassadors (Murali, Sangakkara, Jayasuriya feature in them). Further there are no frenzied World Cup-related brand promotion.

        Cricket, in this land of fiesta, remains still a game and not a commercial enterprise to make money. It is also no easy vehicle for misplaced nationalism. 'I am surprised by the frenzy associated with cricket in India,' points out Dhammika, a professor in a local university. 'A cricket team cannot be expected to carry all the complex baggage of a nation,' he adds. Sri Lanka too got a marked identity in the comity of nations when its cricket team won the World cup in 1996. Yet, the nation has been mature and realistic enough to not to expect their cricketers to fill the blank spaces of others' making.

        This spirit of simplicity will triumph if Sri Lanka wins tonight and perhaps the finals too. But even if it doesn't, the happy smile will hardly degenerate into a furrowed brow. Afterall a loss on the cricket field will hardly diffuse the sun shining on this emerald island.