Men bowl leg-breaks to women | Page 2 | Sunday Observer

Men bowl leg-breaks to women

4 November, 2018
Harsha De Silva   Pic by Wasitha Patabendige
Harsha De Silva Pic by Wasitha Patabendige

In the absence of their own kind to bowl what is called leg-spin or leg-breaks, Sri Lanka’s women cricketers had to face up to the men to prepare for the T20 World Cup in the West Indies starting on November 10.

The women’s team with coach Harsha de Silva left for the Caribbean on Wednesday night and will take on England in the opening match on November 10.

It is not known to what extend the formula could work but De Silva contends it was the best they did under the circumstances.

“We don’t have leg spinners in the squad and we had to use some male leg spinners at the training seasons”, said De Silva when asked how prepared his team was before the event.

De Silva also revealed that on his return to coach the women’s team after a lapse of four years he found the players to be mentally down which he realized had to be corrected before anything else was done.

“When I took over I found out that most of the payers were down with a low morale because of continuous defeats. What I did was emphasize on some leadership and mental strength programs to bring back the players into the right frame of mind”, said De Silva.

He said that Sri Lanka’s women cricketers were at a disadvantage as compared to other teams as they have less international matches to play while there was no proper competitive local club tournament.

“I don’t think it’s enough to find more players in the future”, declared De Silva.

“I know that there are plans to conduct a Provincial tournament and I believe with this we could find players for the future”.

Sri Lanka: Chamari Atapattu (captain), Yashoda Mendis, Shashikala Siriwardene, Eshani Lokusuriyage, Hasini Perera, Ama Kanchana, Rebecca Vandort, Dilani Manodara, Nilakshi de Silva, Sripali Weerakody, Udeshika Prabodhini, Sugandhika Kumari, Kaveesha Dilhari, Oshadi Ranasinghe and Inoshi Fernando.

Standby: Imalka Mendis, Anushka Sanjeewani, Nipuni Hansika, Harshitha Madhavi, Inoka Ranaweera.

Match schedule:

November10: Sri Lanka vs England

Nov12 Sri Lanka vs South Africa

Nov14 Sri Lanka vs Bangladesh

Nov16 Sri Lanka vs West Indies 

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