With World Cup in mind, Lankan cricketers will begin training from this week
After their successful series against Pakistan the Lankan cricketers will go back into training early from this week in preparation for the hectic programme head prior to the World Cup in Australia and New Zealand
Lankan Chief Selector speaking to the Sunday Times on Saturday said “We will be going in for training early next week. We have picked a 32 member squad for the training programme. However prior to the training, the selection committee hopes to meet the squad and discuss with the players matters pertaining to the World Cup preparations and what our strategy is going to be”
Jayasuriya says that the next 3-4 months is extremely important to Sri Lanka cricket. “I hope to give them the message. During the coming months their priority will be cricket and nothing but cricket. First will be the series against England and then the New Zealand tour. Then comes the World Cup – it is the climax.
“We were very careful in selecting the squad. This squad will be pruned down to about 16-17 players, but we have to be mindful of who the cricketers are and who will be in the periphery in case of injuries and breakdowns.”
When asked if our cricketers are prepared to take on the opposition on the faster Australian and New Tracks, Sanath said that if they could have tackled the English attack on typical English wickets, batting on Australian turfs would not be as difficult. “We always struggle on English wickets, but our batsmen fared well on those wickets during the last tour, so batting on Australian wickets where lateral movement of the ball is not so great would not be as difficult. It is only the bounce and speed that we have to get used to. However, some of the New Zealand wickets may be tricky especially the ones in the South Island where it is much colder than the Northern Parts of New Zealand. However, I hope to inculcate to the squad the idea of taking responsibility. In short, the next few months will be very critical and the cricket at hand will be more than competitive”.