Sri Lankans in thousands to back world champs (2 January 1999)

2 January 1999

Sri Lankans in thousands to back world champs

By Elmo Rodrigopulle

PERTH, Western Australia, Friday.-Thousands of Sri Lankans have purchased tickets to follow the world champions' progress in Australia.

By doing so they have pledged their whole-hearted support to Arjuna Ranatunga and his team when they challenge Australia and England for the Carlton and United trophy.

The Sri Lankan cricketers arrived here Tuesday, and had a few practice sessions. They seemed to have quickly accustomed themselves to the conditions and will play an Australian 'A' side in the first of three games beginning under lights at the WACA on Sunday.

The Lankans will have two more friendly games against Greg Blewett's Australian 'A' in Adelaide on the 5th and Melbourne on the 8th before moving on to the Carlton and United Series which begins with a game against Alec Stewart's Englishmen in Adelaide on January 11.

All matches, the friendlies and the tournament proper will be played under lights with the players of all three teams in coloured clothing and looking like cowboys.

For their first three run-up games the Lankans will give all of their cricketers a go, but will rest one of their star batsman Aravinda de Silva who is being given the maximum time to recover from an injury he sustained in Sharajah.

'It is important to have him with us when the big games begin. He is one who is ideally suited for this type of game and when he is fully fit is one of the best allrounders in the game', said skipper Ranatunga.

All of the players were hard at practice at the nets at the WACA. They began their session lightly, but move on to more serious training later on.

The batsmen were all middling the ball, while the bowlers were not going flat out, but pitching on a line and length aware that this type of game requires that they bowl line and length and wicket to wicket.

Coach Roy Dias and manager Ranjit Fernando were stressing on the players the importance of fielding. The Sri Lankan fielding had fallen apart in recent times and the players were seen spending more time on this aspect.

Manager Fernando told me after the session that the players are keen and determined to show their capabilities on this tour. Everyone is doing his bit and when the trophy match time comes around, the players should have peaked.

The Lankans arrived knowing full well that number one off spinner Muthiah Muralitharan would come under close scrutiny by the Aussie umpires. But The Management is geared to face anything unseen that happens in this aspect.

The Aussie 'A' team will be led by Greg Blewett who has been in tremendous batting form this season. It is just one of those things that he can't make it to the Test side. That is because Justin Langer batting in the number one slot has also been scoring against England in the Tests.

The side that Blewett leads is a talented one with players of the calibre of Adam Dale, Ian Harvery, Shane Lee, Mathew Nicholson, Andrew Symonds and Brad Young all out to leave an impression.

The wicket in Perth is known to favour pace and it will be interesting to see how our pacies will perform.

The Aussie 'A' side coach is former Aussie skipper captain Allan Border who will be keen to see his charges perform.

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