By Dhammika Ratnaweera
Sri Lanka women cricketers left to the Carribean Islands to compete in ICC T20 World Cup from 9th to 25th of November.
Sri Lankan women’s cricket team captain Chamari Atapattu was confident about the current form her team players to pose a good challenge at the T20 World Cup. “We have got a very good team, it is a balanced team with youth and experienced players. I think we are in very good position to win matches during this t-20 world cup” said a confident skipper. She further said that they had been give proper training under their new coach Harsha de Silva with Ruwin Peiris playing the assistant role.
“I think we have a good plan and will take the tournament match by match . Especially Sri Lankan team really performed well during the recently concluded Indian series in Sri Lanka.” added Atapattu.
She also said that they would not be bothered about the rankings and will look up to the experiences of the players in the team to do well in this important tournament.
Sri Lankan team will consist with 4 paceman while two of them are good allrounders. However five spinners are included for this tour . Atapptu and former skipper Shashikla Siriwardena , Dilani Manodara, Eshani Lokusooriya, Udeshika Prabodhani and Sripali Weerakkody are the seniors with lot of experience .
Meanwhile Sri Lankan women’s Head coach Harsha de Silva said that when he took over as coach his first task was to lift the morale of the players which was low because of the continued defeats.
“Initially I did some leadership and mental strength programs for the players to bounce back,” said de Silva.
“When compared with other countries there is a huge difference with Sri Lanka, because we don’t have lots of matches internationally or domestically. The women’s team has premier league matches with only eight teams. I don’t think it’s enough to find more players for the future,” he said.
“SLC is planning to conduct provincial matches for women cricketers as a development progress and I believe we can find more players provincials wise.”
De Silva who coached the premier men and women teams in Australia said Sri Lanka has to create more awareness at grassroot level to unearth young cricketers. “Because of some family issues most of the girls are scared to play cricket.”
Harsha De Silva said that the dearth of quality leg spinners had forced them to hire male spinners for practices in the build up towards the World T20. We are in good preparation but the day who perform well can win the match. We never underestimate any side . Especially we are reach to the St Lucia nine days before out first match . So we can adjust the ground conditions during this short period said coach Harsha de Silva
Meanwhile Sri Lanka in Group ‘A’ will play their all four matches in Darren Sammy Stadium in St Lucia. Sri Lankan will play these grounds for the first time and they have not early experience with playing this grounds .
Sri Lankan match schedule in group stage
November 10 Vs England
November 12 Vs South Africa
November 14 Vs Bangladesh
November 16 Vs West Indies
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