Sri Lanka’s beleaguered cricketers made a somewhat sombre exit without any fanfare to the World Cup in India while the media was kept in the dark and told of the 15-member tour party just hours before their departure on Wednesday.
It was the first time that under-fire cricket officials and team Selectors played hide and seek with the media ahead of a World Cup for reasons best known to them while it appeared that the slot for an injured Wanindu Hasaranga de Silva was kept open despite medical experts declaring that the allrounder’s aggravated hamstring injury would not heal event during the 10-nation event that starts on October 5.
But Sri Lanka captain Dasun Shanaka said his players are fully prepared to meet the challenges and that there was no hiccups in the build-up.
“In big tournaments like the World Cup a lot depends on how you play on that given day. We had a very good preparation and I think batsmen will have to play a crucial part. From a personal point of view I like playing in India where the pitches can favour the batters,” said Shanaka.
Sri Lanka’s first World Cup match is on October 7 against South Africa and all teams in the fray would have to set their thoughts on winning at least six of their nine matches to have a chance of qualifying for the semi finals.
Sri Lanka only added to the hopelessness of their supporters by losing the opening warm-up match to Bangladesh on Friday after making a total of 263 for 9 in the allotted 50 overs while deciding to bat first at Guwahati.
The Sri Lankans were expected to fully exploit the occasion in preparation for the big event but the bowlers performed miserably able to take just three wickets as Bangladesh chased down the target with eight overs to spare.
Fast bowler Matheesha Pathirana was the biggest disappointed as he conceded 42 runs in the four overs that he bowled as the Bangladesh opening pair of Tanzid Hasan (84) and Liton Das (61) put on 131 runs for the first wicket to set the course for victory.
