Sri Lankan fans clean up the Pallekele Stadium after the 3rd ODI

SLC put up the post on social media to laud their efforts.

Published - 09 Aug 2018, 19:10 IST | Updated - 09 Aug 2018, 19:10 IST

2 Min Read

The Sri Lankan cricket team might have lost the 3rd ODI of the series to South Africa and with that, the series but the fans won hearts with their performance after the end of the match. The Proteas were 2-0 up in the series, heading into the third match which thus became a decider at Pallekele on August 5 (Sunday). At the end the evening after the conclusion of the game, a bunch of Sri Lankan fans put in a special effort and cleaned up the stands before exiting the ground.

Fans in the subcontinent are known for creating a lot of mess at the stadiums during matches. They are yet to understand the use of trash bins and just throw away plastic bottles and other rubbish beside their seats or wherever they are standing. Something pretty similar happened at Pallekele, however, a few fans decided to change the situation.

Sri Lanka Cricket posted a video on Twitter where you can see a few responsible individuals who stayed behind after the rest of the crowd moved out. Realizing the kind of mess that was there with a ton of plastic and other garbage they picked it up and disposed it off.

An effort inspired by the Japanese

SLC put up the post to laud their efforts and it certainly reminds one of the Japanese team and fans who put up a display of best conduct during the FIFA World Cup 2018 in Russia.

The videos of Japanese fans cleaning up the stadium went viral on social media. They would wait after the end of the match and help each other clean the mess. It was not just the fans but the players took it a notch up. After the Asian side was knocked out of the World Cup, they put in the effort to clean up the dressing room and left behind a thank you note written in Russian for the staff.

After dominating South Africa in the Test series, Angelo Mathews’ team lost the mojo in the ODIs, they lost the first three ODIs straight to hand over the series trophy. However, before everything was lost they made a comeback in the fourth match and won the rain-curtailed humdinger of a contest to make it 3-1.