Daily News new round-up (15 Aug 1997)

Friday 15, August 1997

SRI LANKA SPORTS NEWS AT-A-GLANCE

Compiled by Dinesh Weerawansa.

* There are three Sri Lanka national cricketers in the Board X1 side which takes on India in a one day limited over match to be played at De Zoysa Stadium, Moratuwa today.

Hashan Tillakaratne who missed the latter part of the Caribbean tour last May, last month's Pepsi Asia Cup and the two-Test home series against India due to an injury, has now fully recovered and will lead the Sri Lanka Board XI. Opener Russel Arnold and middle order batsman Mahela Jayawardena are the other Test players in the local side.

India will try out two of their freshers - paceman Debasis Mohanty and spinner Nilesh Kulkarni who made their Test debut on the current tour. Top order bat Radul Dravid too is likely to get another chance to prove his worth before India finalise their team for Sunday's first one day international against Sri Lanka, to be played under lights at the Premadasa Stadium.

* Sri Lanka captain Arjuna Ranatunga said his team would have pressed for a win in the second Test against India, if his pacemen and the fielders had done their part. Ranatunga said he thought Sri lanka had a good chance of winning if they had got a couple of early wickets.

"But in this particular game, we didn't field well at all missing a couple of vital chances," said Arjuna Ranatunga in a post match interview. Ranatunga added that his fast bowlers did not bowl well at all. "Having a second spinner would have been good but since the hopes were banked on the medium pacers I thought they bowled very badly even with the second new ball." said Ranatunga. Ranatunga further said that he knew that his team wouldn't lose the game at any stage as the target set by his side was a big one in comparison to the Indian score while chasing.

* India will forget what happened in the two drawn Tests and will work hard to win the three-match one day international series against the World champions Sri Lanka. Indian skipper Sachin Tendulkar said that he had not given up the chase for runs and if the wickets were intact his side had a chance of winning the first Test.

" Despite of losing a couple of early wickets had we scored some runs between lunch and tea we would have exerted some pressure on the Sri Lankans and stood a chance" said Tendulkar. But he said their immediate goal is to work hard and win the one day international series.

* The International Cricket Council has appointed former New Zealand cricket captain John Reid as the match referee for the three-match one day international series between India and Sri Lanka which starts on Sunday.

* Sri Lanka's Australian-born coach Bruce Yardley thinks that more exposure to Tests will be beneficial in making Sri Lanka a force in the longer game. His thinking may be based on the success our cricketers had in the one-day game. Sri Lanka will play three more Tests against India in India in November/ December this year after the four-nation Jinnah trophy tournament in Pakistan in November.

Sri Lanka have played more than double the amount of one-day matches than they have played Tests in the last 15 years. That theory will hold good in some way, but the bottom line to the problem is the type of base that should be provided to the younger generation of cricketers who are to see Sri Lanka through to the next decade.

(Abroad):

* London bookmakers have rated the World champions Sri Lanka 11-8 favourites to win the four-nation Jinnah trophy tournament to be played in Lahore, Pakistan from November 1 to 8. They also placed bets on Pakistan 9-5, South Africa 5-3 and the West Indies 7-3.

Sri Lanka will launch their campaign for the quadrangular title, which would be their fourth successive one day `crown' for the year 1997 with a match against the West Indies on November 1. The four teams will play each other on a league basis and the best two teams will advance to the final to be played on November 8. All matches will be played at Lahore's Jinnah Stadium where Sri Lanka beat Australia to win the Wills World Cup.

Source :: Daily News (https://www.lanka.net)