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by Sa'adi Thawfeeq

KANDY, Tuesday Sri Lanka are determined to put behind the hoodoo of Asgiriya firmly behind them and concentrate on winning the second cricket Test against the West Indies starting here tomorrow.

"All what has happened before is history. We want to concentrate on what we are going to do tomorrow. The team is confident and we have to do something differently to change the result," said Sri Lanka captain Sanath Jayasuriya today.

The cold facts are that Sri Lanka have lost their last three Tests played here against South Africa, England and India and overall, their record at the Asgiriya International Stadium has not been one they can be proud of.

Out of 12 Tests played here since 1982-83, they have won only two, lost seven and drawn three.

"A lot of responsibility rests on the batsmen. Bad batting has contributed to our defeats here," reflected Jayasuriya. "We had lots of chats with the boys on this and hopefully we can put it right".

Jayasuriya said that having taken a 1-0 lead in the three-Test series by winning at Galle. Sri Lanka want to tighten their grip in the series by winning at Kandy.

"We know the West Indies will try to comeback. They have nothing to lose," he said.

Off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan who took 11 wickets to subject West Indies to a ten-wicket defeat at Galle will be Jayasuriya's trump card here as well. The last occasion the champion spinner played here, he displayed his talents as an effective tailender by striking an exciting half-century against India.

Sri Lanka are likely to make just one change by brining in left-armer Nuwan Zoysa to replace Charitha Buddhika. Sri Lanka coach Dav Whatmore said that it's nothing other than bad cricket, which had contributed to their defeats here.

"There's been some other outside influences as well which I can't go into.

The bottom line however is the amount of mistakes that are made from time to time can be crucial and we are looking to minimise the frequency of mistakes. It's as simple and as honest and as realistic as that," said Whatmore.

"We had a very good example of this in the last series against India. Total contrasting efforts that were bad for us here in Kandy, but good for us in SSC. I am very keen to see that lesson learnt and put into practice starting tomorrow.

"The matches played in Kandy has been close and tense because of certain mistakes that were made at the wrong time. While that comment is focussed on the outcome of the game, we are more interested in doing what happens during the game," he said.

Whatmore said Sri Lanka were very confident after taking a 1-0 lead in Galle. "It is a statement of fact that our record on this ground hasn't been very good. But we've beaten Australia here. It is a matter of trying to avoid some bad passages of play. "What we have to learn is to start again and that can be difficult for some. Consistency is the name of the game. No matter what happened in the previous innings or in the previous match, that's history. We are looking for a fresh start tomorrow," he said.

Whatmore said the pitch with only bare patches of grass would bounce and spin and be a bit more quicker that at Galle. "I wouldn't discount the value of a good spinner on this wicket," he said.

Despite the bad news on fast bowler Reon King, West Indies have decided to change their strategy and go into the Test with three quicks.

Reflecting on the Galle Test, West Indies captain Carl Hooper said: "I don't think the wicket was conducive to fast bowling. We haven't got a big spinner to make use of the wicket even on the third or fourth days. I think more or less we played straight into their hands, although we had two quicks and we had (Dinanath) Ramnarine and (Neil) McGarrell who didn't really turn the ball as much as Muralitharan did".

Hooper said that West Indies would stick with three fast bowlers for the rest of the series, which means that only leg-spinner Ramnarine will play leaving the major part of the bowling to Mervyn Dillon, Collin Stuart and either Pedro Collins or Marlon Black. Collins, the only left-arm quick in the team is favourite to line up for tomorrow. "Results of the past Test matches played here suggest that the quicks have come to their own here. So hopefully, we've want to pick three fast bowlers and hope we can do well. I think we will stick with this Test as well as the next Test with three quicks. and hope we can do well," said Hooper.

"If you see in the first Test match and the amount of work the fast bowlers did, we are not sure whether Reon would be able to compete with us much. If you are looking to beat Sri Lanka and draw 1-all, you want all three quicks right up there. I think playing Reon now would be a big risk," he said.

Hooper was also concerned about his team's batting for apart from a big innings from Brian Lara who top scored in both innings with 178 and 40, the rest of the West Indies batting fared rather moderately.

"I don't think fifties and sixties will do here. I think the batsmen will have to go and make a big score as possible. We want to have at least one batsman in every game scoring a big hundred. Otherwise, we are gonna find ourselves in problems," said Hooper.

"We made 448 and lost comfortably on the fifth day. We've got to bat better, certainly the lower half of the batting. I think we lost about 10 wickets for less than 50 runs.

"Chances are we had Brian Lara coming through in this game for us and responsibility should be put on other players. It is important to play as a team. When I say that, it is batting from one to eleven and bowling and fielding as well," as a team," he said.

The teams:

Sri Lanka (from): Sanath Jayasuriya (captain), Marvan Atapattu, Kumar Sangakkara, Mahela Jayawardene, Russel Arnold, Hashan Tillakaratne, Tilan Samaraweera, Chaminda Vaas, Muttiah Muralitharan, Niroshan Bandaratillake, Nuwan Zoysa, Upul Chandana.

West Indies (from): Carl Hooper (captain), Darren Ganga, Chris Gayle, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Brian Lara, Marlon Samuels, Ridley Jacobs, Mervyn Dillon, Dinananth Ramnarine, Colin Stuart, Pedro Collins, Marlon Black, Neil McGarrell.

Umpires: John Hampshire (England) and Gamini Silva (Sri Lanka), Match Referee: Raman Subba Row (England).

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