We miss our Kevum …but, eager to give our best

After more than a week of rest and recuperation it is back to bat and ball this week and our opponents first up will be none other than New Zealand-currently unbeaten in the tournament and leading the points table.

I believe the one week break from cricket did us all a lot of good. We needed a rest after playing out some nerve wracking matches and life as a touring cricketer is not easy anyway-living out of a suitcase and enduring the ups and downs of hotel life can be especially taxing after a while. That is why it was a welcome interlude, even if it meant that we played enough beach volleyball to become quite good at it!

The match against the Kiwis will be played in Grenada, where we have been staying the past week. The tiny country, like Sri Lanka is famous for its spices and calls itself the ‘Spice of the Caribbean’. It is also home to the St. George’s University where many Sri Lankan students study medicine.

This week, amidst all the respite and relaxation from our rigorous schedule, we had our share of anxious moments. Mali (Lasith Malinga) suffered an ankle tear at a practice session. Initially it was feared that he would be out of action for anything up to two weeks. Although we awaited the worst, it now appears the injury is not as serious as we first suspected.

Mali has already resumed training but his ankle is still stiff and we thought it would be too risky to include him for the game against New Zealand, crucial though the match is.-- Maha (Farveez Maharoof) will take his place and that would add depth to our batting too, given Maha’s ability to go for the big hits towards the end of the innings.

If Mali’s injury was bad news, we had good news as well: Murali (Muttiah Muralitharan) who suffered a groin injury in the game against England is now fighting fit, running around as usual at our practice sessions and raring to go against the Kiwis. Given Murali’s enthusiasm for the game, it would take much more than a groin injury to stop him from being in the playing eleven!

I myself have been doing quite a bit of training during the past week. I know that at 37, I have to work a little bit harder to maintain my physical fitness in order to be able to compete at the highest level and that is exactly what I have been doing. I have spent a lot of time working on my fitness and my batting and I hope the extra effort will pay off in the middle.

Overall, the boys have been kept busy with a schedule of physical training, running and working out at the gym. We used a three kilometre stretch that encompasses the hotel, the lovely beach and the town of St. George’s for the running exercises and it was a refreshingly different and enjoyable experience.

The wicket at the National Cricket Stadium in Grenada where the games against New Zealand and Australia will be played is again, relatively new. However, we saw how it played in this week’s West Indies vs. South Africa game when nearly 650 runs were scored in a hundred overs. So, the track looks an excellent batting wicket and we are expecting a high-scoring encounter on Thursday.

Our opponents-first New Zealand and then Australia four days later- are well balanced sides. New Zealand has an all-round side and they have been performing extremely well in recent encounters. However, they have played only against relatively weaker opponents-they have yet to play against us, South Africa and Australia-so, whether they have been really tested in their games so far is a question worth asking.

We know the game will be closely contested. We are aware that we will have to get our basics right: bat sensibly, bowl a good line and length, cut out the wides and no-balls and hold on to our catches and get those half-chances and direct-hit run outs. That has been the key to our success so far, and if we can keep up the good work, we can go even further.

We are not making any major changes in our team composition although obviously, Mali will be replaced by Maha (Farveez Maharoof). In our batting we have decided to stick with the plan of playing Sanga at No.3 and Mahela at No. 4 instead of vice-versa. After that nail-biting defeat to South Africa, we introduced that change in the game against the West Indies and the strategy paid off handsomely in the game against England, while at the same time allowing Mahela to regain his form.

One advantage we have in the game against the Kiwis is the fact that our most recent tour prior to coming to the West Indies was to New Zealand. If anything, the evenly contested test series which ended 1-1 and the one-day series which we also drew at 2-2 proved that the teams were closely matched despite the fact that New Zealand were playing at home.

It also means that we are very aware of how they play their game. Playing against each other often gives you the opportunity to study your opponents and analyse their styles of play. That experience will be invaluable on Thursday and provide us with the necessary confidence to take them on here in Grenada, knowing that they could be more vulnerable in neutral territory.

Though it is indeed neutral territory, we do expect some good crowd support for our games in Grenada because of the Sri Lankan student population here. We also know that quite a few Sri Lankans are here from the United States to watch us play, including Dr. Lariff Idroos, the leg break bowler who played for Sri Lanka (then Ceylon) in the late sixties.

We have also found it pleasantly surprising to discover that we were well supported by the crowds in the West Indies. They have taken a liking to us probably because our brand of cricket-simple yet attacking- appeals to them.

We haven’t thought yet about playing the favourites of the media: Australia. That is part of our game-by-game plan. We know that much has been said about the apparently awesome form of Ponting and Hayden, but it is also our plan not to worry about individual players though we would of course study their strengths and weaknesses.

And talking of Australians, the gentleman who has been guiding us in all this-Tom Moody-has been in the news recently with former Australian test batsman Justin Langer claiming Moody would return to Australia as coach of Western Australia.

I did read this news on a website and I had a chat with Tom about it. Tom was very clear on where he stood. He said he had an offer from Western Australia three months ago but that he had not decided on anything yet. He said he was concentrating on coaching Sri Lanka for the World Cup and on his commitment to Sri Lanka cricket which were his only concerns right now and that there was nothing more on his mind.

Questions have also been asked as to whether we are looking over our shoulders at the points table and the net run rate and I can honestly say that at the moment, we are not. We believe that would complicate matters at this stage of the tournament and that it would be much easier to work on a strategy of winning the most number of matches. As for who we would want to play in the semi-finals, we haven’t even thought about that, although there has been a lot of discussion about that in the media.

Despite these occasional distractions, we remain very focussed on our cricket. However it is difficult to forget that this is the season of the New Year. When I am in Sri Lanka, I always celebrate the New Year in the traditional style, observing most of the rituals at auspicious times and I enjoy my kavum, kokis and kiribath very much. This year, that will not be possible.

There aren’t any Sri Lankan families domiciled in Grenada that we have encountered and the Sri Lankan population appears to be confined to the students at St. George’s University. Among the boys, only Sanga’s wife Yehali is touring. So, we are likely to miss out on our kavum and kokis this year although the boys are planning to get together and try to cook some kiribath on the fourteenth of April!

For my part, I am in touch with my family regularly and I know that my eldest daughter Keshini misses me a lot. But that is part and parcel of an international cricketer’s lot and I know my family would be very understanding about my not being at home for the Avurudda this year.

Nevertheless, we know that back home there are great expectations about our performance over the next two weeks. All of us are playing for our country and we are deeply honoured to be able to do so. What we would strive to achieve therefore is to make it a truly memorable and happy New Year for all Sri Lankans.