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| Sunday, 29 December 2002 |
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Aravinda keen to sort out batting problems in time for World Cup by RANJAN ANANDAPPA Former Sri Lanka captain Aravinda de Silva who left for Australia for the second 'leg' of the VB limited over triangular series with Hashan Tillekeratne and Avishka Gunawardena, said that what he wants to do is to sort out his batting form and prepare for the most important World Cup, where he wants to perform well and contribute towards the team prior to his retirement. The World Cup is to be held in February 2003 in South Africa. "At the moment we are not performing well, it is not a reason to bother too much as we have to find the right batting combination and get our batting organised. Then the right combination of bowlers must be got up. This should have been done sometime ago, but there is every chance it will come right at the World Cup. "The pitches in Australia always help the fast bowlers during the early stages and losing early wickets is natural with the white ball seaming and bouncing so much, but, once the team lose early wickets, there should be one or two good partnerships to bounce back and take the side towards a challenging total. "A total of something in excess of 250 runs on Aussie pitches is a very stiff target for the second side batting to get," Aravinda de Silva said and added that he will be looking forward to playing in his fifth World Cup competition, having played earlier in 1987, '92, '96, '99. He captained the 1992 Sri Lanka World Cup team that played in Australia and New Zealand where Pakistan won the 'Cup' beating England. Four years later in 1996, Sri Lanka created a sensation winning the World Cup under Arjuna Ranatunga defeating Australia in Lahore, Pakistan where Aravinda struck a devastating century and scored a sparkling half century in a semi-final match against India. De Silva who retired from Test cricket some months ago, decided to continue cricket at international level in limited over games, focussing his attention on the World Cup. |
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