Trevor Bayliss warns Australia not to write off 'dangerous' Sri Lanka

Former Sri Lanka coach Trevor Bayliss warns that Australia's opponents on Sunday should not be underestimated, saying his four years at the helm in Colombo had taught him they were at their most dangerous when written off.

NSW mentor Bayliss is in the peculiar position of having coached both teams in Sunday's pivotal Pool A match at the SCG, following a stint in charge of the Australian Twenty20 side earlier this summer.

He spent much longer pulling the strings with Sri Lanka during a head-coaching reign that began in 2007 and culminated in a second consecutive appearance in a World Cup final in 2011.

If his time there taught him anything it was that they have a special affinity with the shorter forms of the game - he later watched them claim last year's World T20 title - and they have a habit of galvanising when the chips are down.

There haven't been any of the political or pay disputes bobbing up in the background to Sri Lanka's campaign here as has happened in the past, but they have been largely overlooked as major contenders. They're still on the fifth line of betting - at $17 - to lift the World Cup for a second time, and $4 outsiders against group rivals Australia on Sunday.

"One of the things I sort of recognised over there was if there was something going on behind the scenes, or someone wrote them off or whatever, that's when you had to be careful," Bayliss said.

"If they get written off, or there is some sort of drama going on behind the scenes, that's when you've got to watch out. Most other teams will sort of capitulate and go the other way. That actually somehow just spurs them on. They all pull together and play well. It happened more than once.

"I'm interested in some of the comments you hear and see in the papers and on TV almost writing them off in this World Cup. That's a dangerous thing to do.

You write them off and say they can't do something, that's exactly when they will do it. They're playing some pretty good cricket. Australia will have to be at their very best to beat them. They are the reigning T20 world champions for a reason."

Fresh in Bayliss' mind, as it will be for Australia, is Sri Lanka's almost effortless run chase of 310 to take down England in Wellington this week, led by centuries to opener Lahiru Thirimanne and the one and only Kumar Sangakkara.

This World Cup is the end of the era in some respects for Sangakkara, 37, and the other members of their old guard, Mahela Jayawardene, also 37, and Tillakaratne Dilshan, who is 38. It is an international farewell for Jayawardene and a goodbye from one-day cricket for Sangakkara - Dilshan, it should be noted, has said he can play on for two more years - and they are eager to go out in style. Not that their age has been an issue, certainly not for Sangakkara. He has compiled at least 1000 ODI runs for each of the past four years, averaging nearly 90 in the past two. And if there was any doubt about his elevated position, in January he overtook Sachin Tendulkar and Ricky Ponting to become the fastest batsman to 12,000 Test runs. There are plenty who say he deserves to be mentioned in the same breath as Tendulkar. There might not be the same reverence for him in Australia, where he has played only five of his 130 Tests, but Bayliss is in little doubt.

"Even from their reckoning they would have liked to have played in Australia a lot more over the years," he said.

"They've both scored Test match hundreds here in Australia, but they've only played a handful of matches. From that point of view, the public don't get to see them play as much as they do in other parts of the world obviously and I'm sure if they did get to play here more the Australian public would have a better understanding of how good they are.

"You've only got to have a look at their record to see where they sit in the overall scheme of things and it's right up the top. And the way they're playing, especially Sanga, he just keeps getting better with age." (Sydney Morning Herald)