Champika Fernando
Sri Lanka captain Mahela Jayewardene lauded Sri Lanka’s new team management that assumed duties ahead of the next month’s inaugural Twenty20 Cricket World Cup in South Africa and said the trio blends well with the team.
“They seem to fit very well with us,” Jayawardene said.
The new team management headed by coach Trevor Bayliss, his assistant Paul Farbrace and trainer Jade Roberts assumed work on Monday and had several training sessions with the team during the week.
“It’s too premature to say anything more at this point since they are just a week old. But, I can tell you that we had a couple of very good training sessions during the week and are looking forward to more exciting moments ahead,” Jayawardene added.
Jayawardene however said that the coach Bayliss does possess similarities to his predecessor Tom Moody but said it’s a bit difficult to elaborate on the matter at the moment.
“He seems quite similar to Moody who keeps a very good rapport with the players but apart from that I can’t elaborate because he is just settling in,” he explained.
Sri Lankans will leave on September 5 for the two-week long inaugural Twenty20 World Cup in South Africa where they will confront New Zealand and Kenya in group C in the first round.
Earlier, coach Bayliss said at a press conference that he was very impressed with the team’s approach to the game.
“They are a bright bunch of guys and very friendly people. Before we came here everyone was telling us how good these guys were, lovely people, hard trainers and hard workers. Certainly that’s what we got this morning. I am looking forward to working with them,” he said on Monday.
Meanwhile, Jayawardene also said that Sri Lanka could pull off the first ever Twenty20 World cup title despite little Twenty20 match experience.
Sri Lanka has played only three Twenty20 matches but Jayawardene believed that it wasn’t a disadvantage.
“All the countries do have a realistic chance of winning the cup and it all depends on how you perform on that particular day. I think we have a very good chance of winning too.
“We are very much looking forward to the event; hope we can strike rich in South Africa,” Jayawardene said.
No comments:
Post a Comment