Chance to blood youngsters - Jayawardene

Zimbabwe may not be the kind of opposition Sri Lanka would like to have to improve their rankings, but the tour, which comprises five ODIs in addition to two practice matches, gives them the opportunity to give some of their younger players a taste of international cricket.

Zimbabwe are ranked No. 11 in the ICC ODI rankings, below Associates Ireland, but Sri Lankan captain Mahela Jayawardene, who left with the team for Zimbabwe on Saturday, is not taking them lightly. "They may have their internal problems where they lost a good majority of top-class cricketers, but they have got some raw talent who have shown they are good enough to compete in one-day and Twenty20 cricket," he said. "Our focus will be to play the cricket we want to play and make use of the tour to give the younger guys the necessary exposure at international level.

"We don't have much international cricket in the next six months or so and we need to take whatever opportunities that come our way." After the Zimbabwe tour, Sri Lanka's next assignment is in Bangladesh, which starts in December. They will play two Tests and three ODIs, after which they have no confirmed engagements till the World Twenty20 in England next June.

"Unlike some countries we don't have a particular season for international cricket. These countries secure the summer period to play their sports and travel abroad during the winter," Jayawardene said. "This is where we need to be a bit smarter and try and reciprocate with other boards to ensure we have a regular flow of international cricket at home and abroad. Unfortunately it is not the case."

Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe are facing each other in a bilateral contest after four years. The last time they met was in Zimbabwe in 2004, when Sri Lanka whitewashed the hosts 2-0 in Tests and 5-0 in ODIs. Zimbabwe haven't improved much since then and Sri Lanka will be disappointed if they don't repeat that scoreline.

By resting the pair of experienced Sanath Jayasuriya and Chaminda Vaas, players like Upul Tharanga, Thilina Kandamby, Mahela Udawatte and Angelo Matthews have a chance to establish themselves. The focus will be on Tharanga, whose poor form resulted in him being dropped from the team. "Upul has shown a lot of character to fight his way back with performances with the A team and in domestic cricket. It's good that he has been thrown into reality at a relatively younger age. He has responded very well. He should mature into a good cricketer."

Allrounder Mathews is the new kid on the block. "He's got something special. It would help him immensely to be part of the squad and travel with it so that the transition to the senior team would be smooth."

Jayawardene welcomed the competition for places in the team and said it kept the players on their toes. Tillakaratne Dilshan, who was deputy to Jayawardene in last month's T20 Canada, finds himself as a standby for Zimbabwe after a poor run. He managed only one half-century in his last nine ODI innings.