Injured Sri Lankan cricketers recovering (12 December 1998)

12 December 1998

Injured Sri Lankan cricketers recovering

By Sa'adi Thawfeeq

Sri Lanka's Australia bound injured players are expected to make use of the final weekend of the Premier limited overs tournament to prove their match fitness.

Of the four who have to ascertain their fitness before the deadline set by the national selectors of December 23, only all-rounder Upul Chandana has played any matches so far.

Chandana is leading Tamil Union in the absence of appointed captain Muthiah Muralitharan, who is one of the injured players.

Sri Lanka's leading bowler, has begun to bowl at the nets and experiences only slight pain in his arm according to coach Roy Dias. "The pain is not a bother," said Dias.

Vice-captain Aravinda de Silva is also showing good progress from his leg injury. He has already began to bat at the nets without showing any discomfort. But according to Dias, de Silva does not want to risk aggravating the injury further unless he is 100 percent fit. Thus, he is expected to skip the weekend's matches.

Left-arm fast bowler Nuwan Zoysa, is also coming good from his side strain, working hard under the watchful eyes of phyiso Alex Kountouri.

All three players are expected to play for their respective clubs in next weekend's matches, which will bring the preliminary round to a close.

Dias admitted that star opening batsman Sanath Jayasuriya, who had moderate tournaments in Dhaka and Sharjah, was batting well at the nets.

"We have got the bowlers to come round the wicket and bowl to Sanath, who is either pulling them or playing straight. He has also changed his stance slightly, having watched past videos of his batting," said Dias.

"Realising the Australian wickets are going to be bouncy, the batsmen have begun to make the necessary adjustments and are playing straight," he said.

The World champs are training very hard to overcome their recent poor performances in Dhaka and Sharjah, and Dias said :"All you need is confidence from one game to put you on the right track".

Sri Lanka were expected to leave for Australia on December 31, but have now altered their plans and will leave three days earlier to acclimatise themselves to Australian conditions.

They play three warm-up matches against Australia 'A' starting on January 3, before commencing their first match of the World Series Cup against England at Brisbane on January 11.

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