We have prepared as well as possible - Sangakkara

Sri Lanka captain Kumar Sangakkara has expressed satisfaction with his side's lead-up to the World Cup despite not being able to practice at Hambantota and Pallekele - two of the three Sri Lankan venues hosting the tournament. Sangakkara said his side was well-prepared for the event, despite lacking in experience when compared to previous World Cups.

"Some of the big-time legends are not with us this time. There is a kind of a more youthful look around the team and hopefully that will help us this time," Sangakkara said. "We tried out a few combinations against the West Indies and we were able to win having kept out a major part of our bowling attack. That was a decision we made before. When you choose the 15, any combination of the 15 should be able to win a game for us.

"If we cans sneak a couple of overs from a part-time spinner, especially in the middle overs and especially when a wicket falls, then we don't have to worry about getting tight with the later overs to bowl your key bowlers all the time. If you have a couple of overs to play with, some of your bowlers might not need to bowl the quota of ten. Those are kinds of things we tried to work on and see if we can get some kind of flexibility going."

In the recent past, Sri Lanka Cricket has been fighting against time to get the three World Cup venues completed ahead of schedule, in order to get the national team to practice there. But bad weather has disrupted all those plans and Sri Lanka will open their World Cup campaign in Hambantota on February 20, as much in the dark as their opponents Canada.

"We have prepared as best as we can and made sure that we are prepared to face whatever challenges we come against - conditions-wise or opposition-wise," Sangakkara said. "We would have liked to have practised more under lights but, I think that there is a process that we'll be given more opportunities from next week onwards. We can get much practice as we can and we play a practice game against the West Indies as well. Hopefully, we'll be able to get good preparations.

"Playing at home and with the home crowd it helps but at the end of the day it's upto the 11 guys who go on the field. Sometimes you can play to the best of your ability and still walk away with a loss. Our target is to minimise the mistakes and hopefully enjoy ourselves in the World Cup. Not think too far ahead and not to worry about the wickets but just play on them and enjoy them and do the best we can."