Women’s T20 World Cup: Five Questions with Chamari Athapaththu

Sri Lanka's women's skipper Chamari Athapaththu faced the media virtually and in-person ahead of Friday's (10) World T20 opener against hosts South Africa. Here, the excerpts of the selected questions and answers are published. 

[Reporter – Asked by TimesOnline]

Considering the warm-ups, we lost one match and the other was a dog fight of a win. Does that give a setback going into Friday’s world cup opener?

[Athapaththu]

Yes, we played very well in the first match. I know the Ireland team played very well. They beat Australia. In the West Indies match, we tried to win until the last over. Harshika and Vishmi are playing well. We played very well in the first match and we played very well in the second match and we played very well in the third match. There were a lot of good players and I have a lot of confidence in them. I know they will play.

[Reporter – Asked by Timesonline]

Can you explain the composition of the team playing tomorrow?

[Athapaththu]

Have not decided exactly about it. We are going to look at the wicket and decide on it tomorrow morning. There are 13 players that we have decided and 11 of them will play tomorrow.

[Reporter]

Could you just talk to us a little bit about what it means for Sri Lanka to play at this tournament and what your expectations are?

[Athapaththu]

Actually I'm really happy to be playing here. We really enjoy these conditions because I feel the same weather - like Sri Lankan weather. So our preparation is good for this T20 World Cup. We played in a couple of domestic seasons, T20 and 50 over and as well as we played against boys teams, under 17 and under 19 boys. So our preparation is really good. I feel this wicket is a bit slow. Last couple of games we have been playing in different, different conditions but this is an international venue so I think this wicket is really good for the batters as well. So yeah, our preparation is good.

[Reporter]

Do you feel like there's still a big gap between perhaps the better funded women's cricket nations and those that are not? And do you think this tournament can play a role in making that gap smaller?    

[Athapaththu]

Yeah definitely, I know a lot of good cricketers playing for Australia, England and New Zealand and South Africa as well. So the top four nations in this tournament as a Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Bangladesh has good opportunity to play with these girls and share that knowledge and good competition and good experience for the youngsters in my team as well. So this is good exposure.

[Reporter]

Thinking about Sri Lanka at global tournaments but also you personally, I think you said this might be the sixth time you've been to South Africa. You've got a crop of a lot of good young players so as someone who's played in a lot of global tournaments and a lot in South Africa, what have you told your younger group?

[Athapaththu]

Actually I have a lot of youngsters in my team so really good opportunity for them because I know some of South African senior players retired but they have some good players especially Marizanne Kapp, Shabnim and Wolvaardt So I have a few youngsters as well. This is really good opportunity for my youngsters and I just told my youngsters play freely. Don't take big pressure on their shoulders. This is one game, one ball, one time. So this format, anything can happen. Just a minute, just a second. We can't predict any decision in this format. This format is really open for all teams because this is not a 50-over format. This is a T20 so small format, small version.