Under 19 team's English performance gives hope for future

The future of Sri Lanka's test cricket seemed to be in safe hands with the country's Under 19 Youth team's performance against their strong English counterparts.

The under 19 cricketers followed the national team's supremacy over the Englishmen in the one-off test at the Oval two years ago by coming from being 1-0 down to win the three-test series 2-1.

"It's a nice feeling to beat the Englishmen in England. We have beaten our masters on their homesoil," said a delightful Under-19 captain Kaushalya Weeraratne, soon after the team arrived at the Bandaranaike International Airport on Sunday.

Weeraratne said that it had been altogether a good experience for all of them. They had now got an idea of playing on fast wickets with climatic conditions conducive to pace bowling. The motivating factor behind their win in the test series, according to Weeraratne was the determination and the unity of the players who wanted to do better than the Englishmen after losing the one-day series.

After getting acclamatized to the English conditions, the Lankan never lost their grip - which they were struggling to find at the beginning of the tour. This resulted in them losing the one-day series 3-0 and trailing 1-0 after the first test at Trent Bridge, before staging a strong comeback to win the last two test matches.

"It was a fast track at Trent Bridge and we failed to adopt quickly to the conditions, but it became a good lesson for all of us which was productive in the end," said Weeraratne, Sri Lanka's new found all rounder.

It was reported that after Sri Lanka's victory over NatWest English counterparts, the English media had carried many reports saying the "Englishmen were taught cricket by the Lankans".

Weeraratne said the bowlers excelled throughout the tour while the top order batsmen struggled to be among the runs.

He said the English counterparts were tough opponents and seemed to have prepared for the tour three months ahead