Wayamba confident

Ready for Champions League Twenty20:

Chris Dhambarage

The reigning Inter-Provincial champions Wayamba will represent Sri Lanka in the Champions League Twenty20 cricket tournament for the second successive year in South Africa from next week. The captain of the Wayamba team Jehan Mubarak believes that this time the side is more determined and is well equipped to meet any challenges with a couple of new players making into the lineup.

Mubarak a former Sri Lanka all rounder stated that his bowling attack will hold the key for their success with mystery spinner Ajantha Mendis leading the way along with a couple of top all rounders Thisara Perera and Farveez Maharoof.

Mubarak also said that former Sri Lanka captain Mahela Jayawardena is also an important player in the batting line up and his experience having played in South Africa in the recent past could be a great asset to the rest of the players.

Excerpts from the interview with Jehan Mubarak.

Q: What kind of preparations have you made ahead of the Champions League tournament?

A: We have been practicing for about three months. But unfortunately because of the other national commitments we have not been able to practice together as a team. We have been anyway doing a lot of preparation work.

Q: How difficult is it captaining a Provincial team compared to your experience at domestic level?

A: Captaining the Wayamba team is much easier than captaining a club side because everybody is a professional cricketer.

So when it comes to their fitness, gym work we expect everybody to keep their side of professional game going. So it is mainly for me, carrying out the game in the middle the tactical decisions and like that.

The Wayamba team has a lot of experience. I don’t have to go upto them and tell them do this and do that. They know how to carry themselves out in the middle.

Q: How did you build up team spirit during the training period?

A: We have conducted a lot of team events in the past. Sometimes we go to the beach and play a bit of volleyball. We play a bit of tap rugger and we do a lot of things together as a team.

I don’t put a lot of pressure on the boys to go there and perform. I don’t say you have to go there and score runs or you have to take wickets. Just go out there and give your one hundred percent. That’s all I ask from them.

Q: How do you compare this team with last year’s performances?

A: The first tournament I thought, we were little bit slow. We had gone into a Twenty20 tournament for the first time. We lost the first game to Delhi. Second game we won against Victoria but first game we were little bit slow getting into the tournament.

This year we are going to South Africa few days earlier. We are playing some practice matches there so from the first game itself we are ready and we won’t be slow in starting off.

Q: Any idea of the conditions and the wickets that you will be playing in South Africa?

A: That’s another reason that we are going there early and playing some practice matches.

But the reports we get is that the wickets might be a little bit of slow and seaming also because it is still early summer there. Just getting into their summer the wickets are fresh.

Little bit of tennis ball bounce also. Again it is all about how we adapt to the conditions.

So the players have the experience also and we have people like Mahela Jayawardena who has played in South Africa. His experience and how to play in those conditions will have to communicate a lot with him.

Q: What are the teams that you will be playing in the tournament?

A: One of the teams is Victoria that we beat in last year’s Champions League. They will be there.

Also we are playing Chennai Super kings the IPL champions. Another team from New Zealand is the Central Stags and the South African team the Warriors.

They are the home team. So it is a fairly tough group. But one thing that we have in our favour is that a lot of them will not have seen or played against players like Isuru Udana, Ajantha Mendis, Thisara Perera guys who have played at top international level.

That experience and bowling in Twenty20 cricket will help them and some of the opposition batsmen may not have played them.

Especially someone like Ajantha Mendis they might be playing him for the first time. It is their domestic teams that are playing here so they will not have played against Mendis. So when it comes into a match they will be playing against him straight up and that will be an advantage.

Q: What are the changes that you have made this year from last year’s tournament?

A: One change from last year’s squad is that Michael van Dort is not in the team because he did not play any domestic Twenty20 tournaments.

Kusal Janith Perera the wicket keeper is coming in. Damitha Hunukumbura is also coming in this year. Kusal has done very well in our domestic Twenty20. So I think he should hold our middle order batting together. Apart from them it is the same team that went last year.

Mahela Jayawardena and Jeewantha Kulatunga will probably open the batting. Also Mahela Udawatte is there. Then of course we have our all rounders Maharoof, Thisara Perera and then the bowlers Isuru Udana, Ajantha Mendis and Welagedera.

Q: What is the format of the tournament this year?

A: There are ten teams in two groups of five. So we have four matches in the first round. Last year we had only two matches. We won one match and lost one match but we were out of the tournament.

This year we have four matches so we have a better chance of going through to the next round. We are starting off with the South African team Warriors in their home grounds in Port Elizabeth. So from game one we want to put our foot forward.

Q: What is the team’s main goal in participating in this tournament?

A: Our target actually is to win because all of us feel that we can win this tournament particularly because nobody knows what we are about. They might know Mahela but the bowling attack is our strength.

A lot of variation in our bowling attack. I think we have a good side and our goal is to win the tournament. We are not going there just to participate and compete and comeback. We want to achieve something.