Leading by impulse

Lokendra Pratap Sahi interviews Mahela Jayawardene, the Sri Lankan captain, in the Telegraph, where he reveals that not giving Marvan Atapattu a game in the World Cup in 2007 was perhaps his "toughest decision". Couple of excerpts from the interview -

On his captaincy:

I’m very impulsive... One can plan a lot of things, but it all gets down to how the bowlers bowl and how well the batters have been able to adjust to the conditions... Strategy, I think, has to be flexible with a Plan B and a Plan C ready all the time... I do go with my instincts and if I feel that something could work, I give it a shot... When I get back to the hotel, I shouldn’t be thinking that I ought to have tried what I’d thought could work.

On handling pressure:

As a team, we do a lot of activities away from cricket... In the last World Cup, for example, we even had a quiz competition which continued throughout the tournament. Eventually, my team won, beating Kumar Sangakkara’s by a few points... The team, by the way, has a social committee... I try and involve myself in things away from cricket... Could be a round of golf or just going out... (After a pause) I’m not a big reader, but my wife (Christina) reads a lot and forces me to read too.