Lankans fly to Guyana confident of winning World Cup

Elmo Rodrigopulle in West Indies

CRICKET: The jubilant Sri Lanka cricketers flew out of Trinidad exuding confidence that they were going to repeat the feat of 1995/96 when they won the World Cup in Lahore.

And the Sri Lankans have reason to believe that they can do it. Three victories in a row where they beat Bermuda, Bangladesh and India convincingly has given them the confidence to shoot at the teams in the Super 8 and bring them down.

At a press briefing after the success against India, skipper Mahela Jayawardena, who it must be said is doing a marvellous job as captain, said that there is no reason why they should not take the Cup back home.

"We have been putting in a lot of hard work during the past 12 months and the results are now beginning to show. We take our training sessions very seriously and after a team training we allow individuals to do their own training in the fields that they are outstanding.

"We pay special emphasis on fielding. In this kind of game, fielding is important. And we have the fielders who will fling themselves at catches, because it is said that 'catches win matches'.

The Lankans next fling is Guyana where they front up to the stronger teams in the Super 8 and on form there is no reason why the Lankans should not get the better of teams such as Ireland, West Indies, England and New Zealand and then aim at the World Cup.

Jayawardena went on to say that before a game they plan strategy and have a game plan. "So far it has worked beautifully and we hope to continue that way." Jayawardena said in a tournament, like this, one bad game could see a team out of the tournament, like what happened to India. To a question Jayawardena said: "Obviously they (India) is a strong team and carrying two points into the Super 8 is an advantage... but we would also have liked to have India come along with us because they could beat some teams in the next round and help us out." Indian skipper Rahul Dravid who was visibly upset that his team had been knocked out of the tournament said they always try to win, but it just did not work this time. To a question from me whether he regretted winning the toss and asking Sri Lanka in, Dravid said: "Not really. In the circumstances we did the right thing. Sri Lanka lost early wickets. But the middle order brought them back into the game," said Dravid. Greg Chappell the Indian coach said that at the end of the day we did not play well. He said that the performance of the star-studded squad was a collective responsibility and his side was unable to live up to the high expectations of themselves and a demanding public. As for me the India who were the losing finalists in the previous tournament in South Africa, the slide began with the appointing of Chappell as coach. Immediately after taking over the coaching of the team, he ran into turbulence when he wanted Sourav Ganguly moved out of the captaincy role which opened the doors for the ill-feeling that continued and finally blew out at the World Cup. Chappell chopping and changing of the team came in for scathing criticism by the Indian public and media, which also led to his assault by a irate cricket fan which also necessitated security for the coach.

In India and Pakistan cricket is religion. For them winning is the last line. Queen's Park Oval,

Trinidad, Sunday