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| Sunday, 9 February 2003 |
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Bowlers are the key to success says Aravinda Sa'adi Thawfeeq reporting from SA/Kenya CAPE TOWN, February 8 - Cricket's eighth World Cup which starts tomorrow (Sunday) is bound to see several of the game's top stars making their final appearance before calling it quits to their illustrious international careers. Sri Lanka's leading run scorer in both types of the game, Aravinda de Silva is one of them. For him, World Cup 2003 will be the last hurrah before he hangs up his boots for good. As it is the desire of every sportsman, De Silva is keen to go out of the game on a memorable note. De Silva already has fond memories of the World Cup 1996 which Sri Lanka won handsomely and where he played a major role in achieving that victory. "Any World Cup is very important. My target was to finish off my career at one of them and I am glad I have got the opportunity, thanks to some of the selectors a couple of years ago," said De Silva. "Like anything other World Cup, the priority is to try and win it. My emphasis will be to try and contribute in whatever way I can to achieve the ultimate goal of winning the World Cup. "I can't expect to do the things I did in the 1996 World Cup. But I am quite mobile at the moment and it's only another maximum of 11 games to go. That's how I have worked it out. It's only 11 days of cricket and I want to give it 200 percent everytime. I know what my limitations are. So I will have to try and push myself to the maximum and give off my best to the side," he said. De Silva picked up four man-of-the-match awards in the 1996 World Cup and he not only contributed with his bat, but also as a bowler and fielder, especially in the final against Australia where he joined a small select band of batsmen to score a century. His performances in that tournament remain the most memorable and outstanding achievement of his international career. "There is no doubt any cricketer's dream is to try and win a World Cup. To achieve it the way we did in the 1996 tournament was something special. We were unbeaten champions. That is something very special because as a team I thought we played very well during that particular World Cup," said De Silva. For 18 months, De Silva was left out by the selection committee due to various reasons and the cricketing world thought that they had seen the last of him. But fortunate favours the brave and it was not long before a new selection committee under the chairmanship of Michael Tissera, a former Sri Lanka captain, gave De Silva a new lease of life and opened the door for him to return to international cricket. He shed nearly 17 pounds and started to use his feet and as runs began to flow from his bat the selectors had no hesitation in sending him to England last year with the Sri Lanka team. "When I was out of the game for nearly two years it was very hard to come back and do probably the same things you did in the past. You are fighting for a place and your confidence level has dropped so much over the years," said the 37-year-old de Silva. "You have to establish yourself and it's a different way you approach the game. When you are confident, you will be more attacking, so you tend to play more shots and the risk element probably will be a bit high, but still, you come off difficult situations more often than not. Whereas when you are not confident, you become a bit more tentative and you have to curb your game a lot more. I have curbed my game a lot than what I used to in the past," he said. The World Cup being his final series De Silva said that he just wanted to go out and enjoy himself. "I have decided that I am not going to put any pressure on myself. I just want to go out there and enjoy myself," he said. De Silva said that he was quite confident with the ability of the present team, but what they lacked was a bit of experience in some of the batting department and especially in the bowling. "Our bowling is something we have to be aware of. I think unless we have an experienced bowling attack, especially in South African conditions, we will struggle a little bit," said De Silva. "The bowling is not as experienced as what it was in 1996. It is the fast bowlers who have to be more experienced to know how they have to bowl in these conditions. That is something our side lacks at the moment and it is an area we have to focus really hard," he said. De Silva said if Sri Lanka's junior cricket and the up and coming players were in good shape to replace any players in the national team, it would have made it much harder for him to make a comeback to international cricket. "That is one area we have to look at rectifying in the future. We should try and make it hard for players at the top level by having competition for their places. That is what is happening in Australia and that's why their standard has become so much greater than any other country. I feel that we'll have to try and develop some of the youngsters straightaway to get into the national side and be prepared to compete at top level," said De Silva. He said for him and Hashan Tillakaratne to be recalled to the one-day team was probably due to the lack of such players. Both of them were dumped from the one-day team after the 1999 World Cup, but fought their way in again due to the failure of the present crop of batsmen to deliver under pressure. "I can't see any difference between our cricketers and the Australians. Talent wise we are as good as they, but our methods of doing things are totally different. That is probably why we are at a disadvantage, especially some of the youngsters who come in to the national side. They take a while to establish themselves," said De Silva. "Whereas in Australia or in countries where there is strong back up, their development squads are very well equipped. For them, it is not a big leap from that level to international level. We should try and bridge that gap as much as possible to be more competitive," he said. Of the countries he has toured around the world during his illustrious career, De Silva picked England as his best with Australia and South Africa following closely. "England is a lovely country and it is one place I really enjoyed touring. Australia I enjoy mainly for their competitiveness and their tough attitudes, which you have to compete against. So are the South Africans," said De Silva. As World Cup 2003 draws to a close De Silva's glorious cricket career will also come to an end. For nearly two decades he has entertained cricket followers throughout the world with his graceful batting, and he will be trying his hardest to do his best to keep Sri Lanka afloat in the contest for as long as possible. |
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