'Hard decision to omit Jayasuriya, Vaas' - De Silva

 Aravinda de Silva, Sri Lanka's chairman of selectors, has said the exclusion of veterans Sanath Jayasuriya and Chaminda Vaas from the final squad was taken after looking at all options to select the best possible 15 for the World Cup.

"We were not going to waver from that and looking at individuals as such because we wanted the best team to ultimately go out there and represent the 20 million people in Sri Lanka," De Silva said yesterday. "That was the only reason why they were left out. Unfortunately not only them but it was a very hard decision and emotional thing for the four selectors also to leave out two great cricketers like that as they would have been looking forward to saying goodbye after a World Cup. But that's how life is. To be fair by everyone, those two cricketers have done so much for Sri Lanka cricket and we can never forget that."

De Silva said that it was entirely up to the two players to decide whether they wanted to continue playing. "I guess they have got a great future ahead to contribute towards Sri Lanka cricket and I hope they will do so. Through their experiences I am sure they will come back and help Sri Lanka cricket in the future. But if they want to continue playing they are most welcome to do so. I am not the one to decide when they are going to finish their careers."

"At the same time, Suraj Randiv has not done anything wrong to be out of the squad but it was unfortunate because he didn't fit into the combinations which we needed in the 15. Those are the three guys whom I really feel for at this moment."

Vaas however has a thin chance of playing in the World Cup if there happens to be an injury to Nuwan Kulasekera. "We consider Vaas as a new ball bowler but with Lasith Malinga and Kulasekera there he can only come as first change. When he does that he doesn't have the same effect as when he bowls with the new ball. Vaas had direct competition with Kulasekera. If Kulasekera gets injured we will have to consider someone like Vaas because he is the next best new-ball bowler in Sri Lanka. If we are playing Vaas we must have the maximum advantage of using him as a new ball bowler. The way Kulasekera has performed in the past one to one-and-a-half years, it is difficult to keep him out."

Dilhara Fernando was selected as a back-up bowler for Lasith Malinga, De Silva said. "What we have to understand is why we pick certain players and what we expect of them. Dilhara is a guy whom everyone might feel goes for runs on most occasions and sometimes bowls no-balls when he loses rhythm. But ultimately what we expect of him is to be a strike bowler and to replace someone like Lasith. In case of an emergency we need someone in the squad if Lasith doesn't play. Dilhara has got that extra bit of pace to hurry a batsman and with a bit of life and bounce on a wicket we would opt for him in the final XI."

On left-arm spinner Rangana Herath's inclusion, De Silva said, "We got two offspinners (Muralitharan and Ajantha Mendis) and with Randiv we would have had three. The combination we were looking at was three spinners and we wanted some variation in the spin attack. We thought the best left-arm spinner in the country is Rangana so we had to opt for him. He's played only nine ODIs but we felt he is the best left-armer we got so we had to go with a bowler whom we can depend on."

Mahela Jayawardene, who has fared well as an opener whenever he has been given the opportunity, would be the third opener in the side after the regular pair of Tillakaratne Dilshan and Upul Tharanga.

"We decided to go with Mahela in case we required a third opener because we are playing only eight games and we don't want to bring in an extra player and upset the combination of the squad," said De Silva. "If it comes to a real push we will have to look at someone like Mahela at that stage or maybe someone else who is batting way down the order as an experiment."

De Silva said that they picked the squad very early (the ICC deadline is January 19) in order to give the selected players the opportunity of playing in the inter-provincial limited-overs tournament which starts on January 11. "That's a tournament which I want the players to be relaxed and enjoy playing some cricket with free minds."

De Silva also stated that he hopes to give maximum exposure to the selected World Cup squad of 15 during the upcoming three-match one-day series against West Indies. The matches are due to be played on January 31, February 4 and 6 at venues yet to be finalized. 

Source - Cricinfo

All eyes on the big one

They didn't have many opportunities in Test cricket but in 2010 Sri Lanka shaped up nicely for the World Cup 

For a year that included three tri-series titles, a first-ever one-day series victory in Australia, and a respectable showing in the World Twenty20, there was a strangely flat feeling about Sri Lanka's performances in 2010. The main reason is the lopsided FTP, which hasn't provided enough Test cricket - there were no away Tests this year for Kumar Sangakkara's men. Of their two home series, one was a result of the BCCI's new-found love of the long form, and the other was the rain-ravaged contest against West Indies, during which more time was spent watching the weather forecast than the cricket. 

In the Test cricket that was on offer, they were patchy. Their first five-day game came as late as July and was dominated by the retirement of their talisman, Muttiah Muralitharan. Fittingly Sri Lanka's greatest match-winner won them one last game before bowing out. It turned out to be their only Test victory of the year. That series against India ended in a draw as Sri Lanka lost the P Sara Test despite Thilan Samaraweera's best efforts. The matches against West Indies could have been a good indicator of how Sri Lanka will fare in the absence of Murali, but torrential rain through the series frustrated fans. 

The supporters won't be complaining about Sri Lanka's one-day form, though. Winning every series they played in 2010, barring the Asia Cup, where they dominated the league stage before faltering in the final, Sri Lanka enter the World Cup year as a formidable outfit. Their tri-series triumphs may be quickly forgotten but what will remain in the memory is the back-from-the-dead victory against Australia in Melbourne, where Angelo Mathews and Lasith Malinga produced a world-record 132-run ninth-wicket stand to deliver an improbable win. 

What has made Sri Lanka so dangerous is that they aren't over-reliant on one or two stars; match-winning performances have come from a number of players. Few people will be able to guess who their highest wicket-taker of the year is - 21-year-old allrounder Thisara Perera. Another young allrounder, Mathews, continued to show he has the talent and temperament for a long international career at the top, while offspinner Suraj Randiv has also made a bright start. 

The new talent supports the big names who were part of Sri Lanka's run to the 2007 World Cup final. Tillakaratne Dilshan didn't quite hit the heights of 2009 but made match-winning centuries in the finals of two tri-series, Mahela Jayawardene and Sangakkara remain prolific, Malinga continues to befuddle batsmen, and Murali is still around for a final tilt. 

In the only global tournament of the year, the World Twenty20 in the Caribbean, Sri Lanka again made it to the knockout stages before losing to the eventual champions. This time Sangakkara's side ran into England, who turned in a supremely composed performance to knock Sri Lanka out in the semi-finals.

Fading star

Perhaps the most pathetic sight of the World Twenty20 was that of 40-year-old Sanath Jayasuriya, once an unstoppable marauder, scratching around for 15 runs in six innings. He hasn't played international cricket since, but remains hopeful of making next year's World Cup after finding a place in the 30-man provisional squad. 

New kid on the block

With Murali's career nearly over, and Mendis' star still struggling to reclaim the lustre of 2008, Sri Lanka slow-bowling options were looking thin. Suraj Randiv stepped up. He lacks extravagant turn but his extra bounce and discipline soon made him the first-choice spinner across all formats. In an eventful year, he was at the forefront of Sri Lanka's push for a series win over India at the P Sara Oval, involved in a controversy over a deliberate no-ball, and was electric throughout in the field. 

High point

There was a maiden one-day series win in Australia, but the uplifting farewell to Murali in Galle was a heart-warmer in a year in which the game was awash with dispiriting headlines. It was sweetened by the win set up by Murali's eight wickets, the last of which carried him to the milestone of 800. 

Low point

Surrendering to a weakened India in a deciding Test will hurt, though losing to the world's top side isn't as disappointing as having virtually the entire series against West Indies washed out - in a year when Sri Lanka were starved of Test cricket. Sangakkara called it the "worst series of his life". 

What 2011 holds

Sri Lanka have two big-ticket events in the first half of the year: first, the World Cup at home, for which they among the favourites, and then the challenge of a full tour of England, which will test how far Sri Lanka have progressed as a Test side. 

Source - Cricinfo

Sangakkara was not happy with Sehwag speaking in two voices on the controversy and “sensationalising” the issue.

Dambulla: Sri Lankan captain Kumar Sangakkara in a press conference on Wednesday downplayed the recent no-ball controversy as “unfortunate” and also blamed Indian opener Virender Sehwag for blowing the controversy out of proportion.

Sangakkara was not happy with Sehwag speaking in two voices on the controversy and “sensationalising” the issue.

“We can’t expect just one side to keep making advances and holding out the hand while it has been sensationalised by other players. I think everyone has got the responsibility to move on from this incident,” he said when asked if Sri Lankan team has anything to say to Sehwag.

“He said one thing at match presentation and there was a mark contrast in the press conference with regard to that no ball. I have spoken to Mahi (M S Dhoni) and Gary Kirsten. Sehwag has tweeted that there have been other approaches made to him. I think if you all talk of the spirit of the game, once you set right things in motion, it’s the responsibility of all players, to be within that spirit,” he added.

He also seemed to suggest that there was no deliberate act by any of Sri Lankan players in denying a century to Sachin Tendulkar in Cuttack as has been said by Sehwag.
“There’s been this incident in Cuttack been brought up. I have seen the replay of it and that was actually a leg-bye. The umpire signalled a bye and the batsman implied that he might have even hit it.

“So there are various incidents that happen along the way, our job is to rise above that whether it’s been incidents in Pakistan, political interference, racism. The incident like this will happen, but we need to make sure to minimise it or eradicate it and to make sure to play with the spirit of the game and continue the relationships we have.

“There have been abuses of players and there have been incidents in the recent past. India-Australia has been acrimonious, all of those things have been left on the field and the players have got on with the game,” he said.

Asked about local media reports that Tillakaratne Dilshan had suggested Randiv to bowl the no-ball, Sangakkara said, “The Board will inquire into the matter, taking into account all the statements made by the players, the views I have communicated to them, the views of manager. It doesn’t matter; one person or five persons did it.
End of the day, the team, has to face the consequences.”
He said he at first thought Sehwag would get his century after the Randiv no-ball was hit for a six only to realise later that it was not so under MCC Laws of Cricket.

“We were under impression that in normal situations of the game even in a no ball, you get the runs. I was under the impression that Sehwag was on 105. There was no instance we thought he was denied a 100. Tony Greig asked me at the post-match presentation, Sehwag was denied a hundred. That was a surprise to me, I don’t think anyone understood intricacies of the law in first place,” he said.

“We had no inclination to deny Sehwag a hundred. If you need three runs to win and four runs to get a hundred, if you score a boundary, you do get a hundred. I would have thought that if he was stumped off a wide, we would have denied him. Maybe it’s something to remember that if someone balls a wide with one run to win you can charge down the wicket and miss it if it is wide,” said Sangakkara.

Sangakkara conceded that the no-ball controversy has damaged the reputation of Sri Lanka who won ICC Spirit of the Game Award twice in the past.

“There’s been some damage done to the reputation. But, that reputation can’t be taken away from us completely, because over the years we have done well. It’s not the first time an incident like this has happened in the world, there have been incidents similar to this.

“In my 10 years, I have been through that run out in New Zealand, ball changing incident in 2006, which affected our team. We made those things known, and in retrospect, when we do things over again, the responsibility is on us to make sure that we play cricket in the right spirit. If there’s anything that we do, if it’s against it, it disappoints us,” he said.

“It will not affect the relationships at all,” he added when asked if the controversy could impact on India-Sri Lanka relationship.

Sangakkara said his side will have to forget the no-ball incident and focus on the game ahead tomorrow.

“As professionals, whatever happens before games or after games, it’s immaterial when we go onto the field. There the focus is to win the game and try things out. Our job is to make sure even if there’s no consistency, we fight it out.

“If conditions are not suitable, we need to try and make use of whatever the advantages to get out a win, that could be batting for much longer, maybe fighting out defendable totals. If we are chasing, do things in a bit of different ways. All those factors need to be taken into account. Our job is to try and win conditions and the game,” Sangakkara said.

He indicated there could be some changes from the playing XI that lost to India in their last match on Monday.

“We choose the team according to the track and the opposition. There will be some changes with the spin department, on batting as well, we have a few things to think. We will decide later,” he said.

He also said that winning the toss was advantage at the Rangiri Dambulla International Stadium.

“Toss has some advantage in Dambulla, but you gain that advantage only by the way you play the game. Simply because you win the toss, you don’t win a game. We need to get away from that mentality. A good team is one that does well despite being facing tough situations. With the media scrutiny on the no ball, you have an important game ahead (against New Zealand),” said Sangakkara. 


SOURCE : ZEECRIC