The Media conference for the launch of the South Africa Tour of Sri Lanka was held at the Cinnamon Lakeside Hotel yesterday.
Speaking to the media, both captains reiterated the importance of this series in their long term goals including the 2015 World Cup.
Angelo Mathews was candid about his team’s performance in the previous two series, admitting that they were not able to live up to the expectations of the fans.
“It’s been two tough series that we’ve had in England and the West Indies… We played some good cricket to reach the semi-final of the Champions trophy and the final [in the tri series] but we know we let the whole country down… It wasn’t good enough to win the series” he said, in his opening statement.
When asked about Chandimal’s lack of form and whether he was suitable to lead Sri Lanka in the first 2 games during Mathews’ absence, Mathews was quick to sidestep the issue and pass the ball to the selectors, although he strongly endorsed Chandimal’s talent and abilities.
“I think that’s something for the selection panel to decide. They will have a discussion tomorrow and decide as to who will be captain for those two games.”
“We have to find the balance between youngsters and the experienced guys. It’s important to give the young guys time to settle. If we dropped someone every time they had a couple of bad games we wouldn’t be able to find eleven players to take the field.”
Mathews also stated that the fitness of Dilshan, Kulasekera and Thirimanne were under doubt, and that a final decision would be taken tomorrow with regards to their availability.
South African skipper AB de Villiers also stated that this was an important tournament for his young side as they prepare towards the 2015 World Cup.
“We didn’t have them in the Champions Trophy either” he said, when asked about the impact of not having Graeme Smith, Jacques Kallis and Dale Steyn in the squad. Especially looking at the 2015 world cup, we’d like to get the more inexperienced guys ready for big tournaments like that. We can’t bank on having guys like Graeme and Jacque there so we have to find our combinations and play as much cricket as possible.”
SLC secretary Nishantha Ranatunga also confirmed that the Decision Review System will be implemented for the tour.
(Picture Credits: Sri Lanka Cricket)
