Sri Lanka counting on home advantage

Sri Lanka are about to find out whether home ground advantage is a blessing or a handicap when they set out on their quest to win the Under-19 World Cup next month.

The venues and conditions may be familiar to Angelo Mathews and his side but set against that will be the enormous expectations on the players to do well in their own backyard.

And it will be their ability to deal with those expectations that could go a long way to deciding whether or not Sri Lanka achieves the goal of becoming U19 World Champions.

History is against the hosts as only one team has ever won the tournament on home soil - and that was Australia way back in 1988 when only eight teams took part.

Since then the closest any home side has come to being champions is Sri Lanka, as they finished runners-up in 2000 when they were beaten by six wickets by a powerful Indian line-up.

Sri Lanka's players do, however, have several factors on their side this time around as they bid for glory including, crucially, the draw.

The hosts have been included in Group C and although that group also includes tournament favourites India, that is not necessarily a disaster for Sri Lanka.

It means that providing they finish as one of the top two sides - and New Zealand and Uganda are also standing in the way - they will not have to face India again until a possible meeting in the final as the two sub-continent sides have different potential paths to that ultimate match.

Also in the side's favour is the fact the core of the squad has been playing together for the past seven months now and during that time they have improved steadily and produced some encouraging results.

That seven-month period did not start all that auspiciously with a disappointing tour of England in which they lost the ODI series 2-0 (with one match washed out) before they lost all three Test matches.

But since then results have improved as Sri Lanka reached the final of the six-team Afro-Asian U19 Cup in Vishakapatnam in November and then did likewise in a tri-series also involving hosts Bangladesh and England the following month.

During that intense period of matches several players produced impressive form and that bodes well for the main event of the World Cup.

Chief among those leading performers was the captain Mathews, who is the only remaining member of the squad that took part in the previous tournament in Bangladesh two years ago.

Mathews was comfortably Sri Lanka's leading batsman on the tour of England, scoring an unbeaten 123 in the final Test of the series at Headingley, and he followed that by being the leading run-scorer in the tri-series in Bangladesh with 302 runs in seven matches.

He really is the heartbeat of the side as he has also opened the bowling with his medium-pacers and if he hits form then Sri Lanka will be a real threat to any opponent.

Mathews' abilities as a batsman are likely to be complimented by several others, all of them vying for top-order places. Wicketkeeper Sameera de Zoysa and Dimuth Karunaratne have opened together on a regular basis and they are likely to be followed by Sachithra Serasinghe and Hans Fernando.

Karunaratne is also a capable medium-pacer while Fernando impressed in the tri-series with scores of 119 not out (from only 106 balls) and 70 against England.

With the ball, Sri Lanka are expected to rely heavily on the skills of off-spinner Rajeewa Weerasinghe, an exciting talent who performed superbly during both the Afro-Asian Cup and that tri-series in Bangladesh.

He took 15 wickets in the latter tournament and he could well be another key figure if Sri Lanka are going to progress in the World Cup.

Sachith Pathirana, a 16-year-old left-arm spinner, is another slow bowler that Sri Lanka will look to for both control and penetration while another left-armer, Malinga Pushpakumara, made an impact in the tri-series by taking 4 for 39 in Sri Lanka's solitary win over Bangladesh.

The seam attack includes not only allrounders Mathews and Karunaratne but also Shalika Karunanayake (also a capable lower-order hitter) and Chathupama Gunasinghe, both of them veterans of the England tour last year where they showed promise in unfamiliar conditions.

Recent results suggest Sri Lanka will be extremely competitive and they have an impressive record to maintain as they are one of only four sides that have always reached the Super League stage.

The fact their Group C opponents India and New Zealand are also in that list (along with Pakistan) means that at least one side will lose that proud boast in the next two weeks.

Sri Lanka will be hoping it is not them and they will know if they can win some matches early on, build some momentum and generate increasing interest and support then they really can go all the way and lift the trophy on February 19.

Sri Lanka squad Angelo Mathews (capt), Sameera de Zoysa, Dilhan Cooray, Hans Fernando, Chathupama Gunasinghe, Shalika Karunanayake, Dimuth Karunaratne, Sachith Pathirana, Prabudha Perera, Thisara Perera, Ashan Priyanjara, Malinga Pushpakumara, Sachithra Serasinghe, Rajeewa Weerasinghe.