Mahela hopes team will clinch series in Pakistan

By Jatila Karawita

CRICKET: Outgoing Sri Lanka captain Mahela Jayawardene, who announced his decision to retire on Feb. 11 (Wednesday), after a three-year stint at the helm, insisted that his move will not in any way distract the team from the job at hand during the upcoming two-Test tour of Pakistan.

The short series which is to start with the first-Test scheduled for Feb. 18 (Wednesday) at Karachi will end with the second and final Test slated to start March 1 (Sunday) at Lahore.

“No, I had a chat with my teammates and the guys totally respect my decision”, he told reporters at a media briefing held at Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) headquarters last Thursday (Feb. 12).

“Hopefully, my swansong series as skipper, will be a motivation for them to make sure that they clinch the series for me”, Mahela said.

He said that his squad stands a ‘very good chance’ of winning the two-Test series in Pakistan, considering their recent impressive form in Test-match cricket.

“We just have to wait and see what the conditions are going to be in Pakistan. I am not sure how the guys would want to go about it with the kind of wickets given.

We will just have to go there and see what the challenges confront us and adjust ourselves”, Jayawardene said.

The Sri Lanka captain observed that he has been provided with a strong Test squad with experience players who had excelled in domestic cricket being given `break’ in the tour party. He was specifically referring to prolific left-handed opener Tharanga Paranavithana and rookie pacer Suranga Lakmal and opined that the former had been knocking on the door consistently and deserves his place, while the latter hailing from Debarawewa MMV Tissamaharama, would be a bright investment for the future if nursed well.

Jayawardene, also emphasised that Sri Lanka should not find `scapegoats’ for their recent 4-1 series loss to India, and call for the head of coach Trevor Bayliss.

He noted that time was not opportune to press the panic button yet, despite his `charges’ losing their last three consecutive ODI series at home to England and twice to India.

The outgoing captain called for patience in sticking with the current coaching set-up, saying that changing coaches would not be any different to changing pillows for a headache. “How many coaches have come and gone since Dave (Whatmore)”, he asked. “We’ve had John Dyson and Tom Moody and now Trevor Bayliss. Are we to change coaches after every series defeat?” he questioned.

He dismissed suggestions that his current lack of runs in the shorter version of the game will have any effect on his Test form which had startling scores. Jayawardene in the meantime said that middle-order batsman turned one-day opener Tilakaratne Dilshan had the qualities of being a captain for the future, despite Sri Lanka losing the first-ever T20 match played at home against India by 3 wickets last Tuesday (Feb. 10).

“Bad luck we couldn’t pull it through. That’s what T20 cricket is all about. One or two mistakes here and there and it will cost you the game. Unfortunately we ended up on the losing side, but the younger guys should take much of the kudos for the way they fought in the game”, Jayawadene concluded.