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| Sunday, 23 October 2005 |
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Return of Tendulkar - real challenge to Sri Lanka - Tom Moody by Ranjan Anandappa India's position in the world ranking in one-day cricket will have no reflection as they possess a very strong side with some talented players that includes match winners when they take on Sri Lanka in seven one-day internationals from October 25 to November 12. One of those match winners who was missing for some time due to a shoulder injury is back again and that's Sachin Tendulkar and it's going to be a challenge for us, said the Sri Lankan coach Tom Moody when he spoke prior to their departure to India in the first leg of their tour to play seven one day internationals. Sri Lanka is placed second, only behind world champions Australia, and India is at number seven in the one-day rankings. With plenty of talent and playing India in their own back yard, Sri Lanka will be facing the first of their stiff hurdles in the coming six months or so of hard and competitive cricket. The 32-year-old Indian batting star Tendulkar is the highest run-getter in one day cricket - 13,642 runs with 38 hundreds. He played in his last ODI against Pakistan on April 17, 2005. He will pad-up to add more vigour to a strong Indian batting line-up. India has lost two successive finals once to Sri Lanka in the Indian Oil Cup championship in August at the R. Premadasa Stadium and to New Zealand in Zimbabwe last month. With their new coach Greg Chappell and newly appointed captain Rahul Dravid, India will try to prove their superiority in no uncertain terms. "India has some very talented players in their side and some players who are match winners, and one of them Sachin Tendulkar is back, so that's going to be a challenge to us," said Moody. "We played some good cricket in Sri Lanka for the last three months and now we need to step up again and continue the good form away from home. We got a string of very tough cricket matches coming up for the next six months and the first assignment is obviously the seven one-dayers in India," said the former Australian opener. Moody said that the youngsters Maharoof, Upul Tharanga and Dilhara Lokuhettige have fared well in international cricket quite nicely. They are exciting prospects, but they have not been tested away from home very much and that's going to be a great challenge to them. He said that it is important to continue to embrace these young players and give them opportunities which we are doing now, where they could play a vital role in the future. With the World Cup coming in an year and a half it is important we have allrounders with confidence with the experience and continue to expand the depth of the batting. "India is always a difficult place to play cricket ,and one of the reasons is travelling. It is not going to be easy with lot of trips with seven one dayers, these are the things we have to deal with. It is not going to be different to India too ,they are going to have the same challenges with travelling." said Moody. "We had a look at the various venues that we are going to play at. We are not playing at any major cities in this one day tournaments, hopefully in the Test series we will get the opportunity to do that," he said. All these venues seemed to be good and it looks like plenty of runs are going to be scored in this tournament, and Moody said he was sure the batsmen will be looking forward to that. Talking about the pitches, Moody said that the spinners will have as a bigger impact as they do in this country. "Spinners play a big role in one-day cricket here and in India too there won't be an exception particularly when you have the quality of someone like Muralitheran and Harbhajan Singh playing on either side." "We won't see 50 percent of spin we see here, so it is important that we have the right balance in our side. we have some strike bowlers and some allround bowlers playing. It will be a bit different from the cricket we played recently. But it's going to be an exciting challenge," he said. Talking about the recent 'A' team tours and the players' performances Moody said that it is easy to make snap judgements on 'A' team cricket. "You got to look at what actually 'A" teams are serving Sri Lanka cricket. Is it to win finals? Is it to win Test matches ? Or is it to develop Test and one-day cricketers?. I like to think a bit of all, and more importantly for me it is a breeding ground for the next generation as Test and ODI players," said Moody. Moody admitted that the "A" team batsmen did not live upto expectation. But there have been plenty of positives that have come out. Three of those positives are: Dilhara Lokuhettige, Farveez Maharoof and Upul Tharanga - all have come through this 'A' team system. The bottom line is the 'A' team has had its success over the past 12 months although losing to tough teams. But the main objective should be to keep producing cricketers for the next generation. The match schedule: October 25 - 1st ODI at Nagpur, October 28 - 2nd ODI
at Mohali (D/N), October 31 - 3rd ODI at Jaipur, November 3 - 4th ODI at
Pune, November 6 - 5th ODI at Ahamadabad (D/N). November 9 - 6th ODI at
Rajkot. November 12 - 7th ODI at Baroda. |
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