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Until Dav Whatmore's appointment as coach in October, 1995, we had never had a professional in-charge faultime. Until then it was always done in bits and pieces: some endurance tests, dietary and occasionally some rehabilitation advice, but never the total package.

We knew for some time we were going to get a foreign coach and after the progress we had made working part-time with Frank Tyson, we were ready to take the next step. We always felt that we needed someone like a Bobby Simpson to guide us if we were to truly raise our image as a worthwhile cricketing nation. We knew we had the talent but we also needed someone to bring out a new professional approach into the team with the correct training drills. Strategies and the mental side of the game also had to be re-addressed.

Dav was well known to us. He had spent his childhood in Sri Lanka and attended a school just south of Colombo before moving with his parents to Melbourne where he first played in the third XI at Prahran. Not only was he later to become the club's most prolific first XI runmaker, his feats with Victoria were exceptional. He had also played seven Tests for Australia. As a coach he had lots of experience and good ideas. One of his first coaches at Prahran had been Sam Loxton, one of Don Bradman's "Invinsibles". Aravinda de Silva spoke very highly of him from his personal knowledge acquired from his stint in Melbourne in 1988-89.

I felt it important to have a coach from outside the Sri Lankan system, someone who would not be affected by politics or favouritism. Arjuna Ranatunga was captain again and he wielded a lot of power. Consequently many wanted to get on the good side of him - not only players but certain Board members as well. Things were not always as good as they should have been. Dav knew our culture and our background, but had been unaffected by the politics of the Board. From his very first day it was great to have him around. He was a breath of fresh air as far as I was concerned.

His brief was to make us one of the best teams in the world, capable of beating anybody. He radically changed the training schedule from skills sessions five days a week to a maximum of three. He also incorporated gymnasium, speed and endurance training as well as innovative fielding drills we had never seen before. Our fast bowlers were not allowed to bowl for more than 20 minutes close to match days, or for 40 minutes earlier in a week. Dav enlisted support bowlers to come in and bowl at our batsmen at practice.

Later leading into the Australian tour, physiotherapist Alex Koutouri joined us. He was also from Melbourne. Together he and Dav made quite a team, Dav working on the skills and drills, bringing new variety and expertise into our training routines and Alex ushering a higher degree of professionalism into our fitness and diet. Each six weeks we were subjected to a fitness test, with a direct emphasis on cricket skills. We would do beep tests and sit-ups against the clock. My best time was 10.5 which put me somewhere in the middle of the pack. I was never a speedster, especially after my knee operations. Instead of running three times a week, I ran once a week and did other exercises like swimming and bike riding. Dietitians and personal trainers were also co-opted. For the first time we trained in a national uniform. There was a real air of excitement and expectation.

Tours of Pakistan and Australia were scheduled, as well as another one-day tournament in Sharjah. The challenge was in front of us to maintain our progress, work in a more focused way and reap the rewards on a planned basis.

There were two warm-ups leading into the first Test in Pakistan. I captained the first one, at the Defence Stadium Ground in Karachi and was rested from the next.

For the first Test at Peshawar, Pakistan had a new skipper in Ramiz Raja replacing Saleem Malik who was under investigation from his own Board after allegations of matchfixing had first been aired by the Australians earlier in the year.

It was a powerful Pakistani team, even without Saleem especially in the bowling with Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis and Aaqib Javed backed by Saqlain Mushtaq, making his Test debut.

We lost the toss, they batted for the best part of two days and we were twice bowled out cheaply. Only two players, Chandika Hathurusinghe and Arjuna, made more than 50, although Hashan Tillekeratne twice got into the 40s. Waqar got me in the first innings for 29 and Aaqib in the second for 2.

We were still confident in our ability and striking more of a wicket to our liking in Faisalabad, we squared the series, winning the match by 42 runs, but not before Saqlain, the rookie off-spinner, had taken five wickets, including Ari and Arjuna for ducks in successive balls on the opening morning. To win, after being 4-33, was a commendable effort and to our joy, we repeated our success in the third Test in Sialkot, this time winning by 144 runs. Talk about a boilover. Sides had rarely come from behind like we had. It had been 15 years since Pakistan had been beaten in a home series. And we had only ever won a series away from Sri Lanka once before, the pervious March in New Zealand.

My contributions with the bat were modest, but I was ecstatic to take what I consider to be my best ever catch in a Test, Inzamam-ul-Haq from the bowling of Chaminda Vass. The wicket had lost almost all of its fire and I was standing unusually close at second slip so that any nick would reach me. Inzamam went for one off the back foot, but did not quite get it. It came head-high at me and somehow I was able to get both hands up and it stuck. One of those miracles. "Inzi" was out for a duck and we were on our way.

Then we beat West Indies and Pakistan in Sharjah and suddenly were a threat and a force to be reckoned with. Having played in the Cup win made up for some of my disappointment at missing out in the Test series. I am sure our successes sounded danger signals to the Australians.

Dav and I talked long about my technique, how I was getting out and where I might be going wrong. I had always prided myself on playing straight and being side-on in the classical way. Dav said that many of the great players like Sir Don Bradman and Garfield Sobers had not necessarily been side-on when they played off the back foot from middle and off stump to leg stump. He showed me how they squared themselves up in defence and how much more in control they were then someone like me, who was still trying to maintain a textbook side-on pose and was vulnerable to getting out lbw and also tending to follow the seaming or swinging balls and nick catches through to the 'keeper and slip fielders. This advice gave me immediate results. I was able to better assess the moment, especially when forced back onto my back foot. I seemed to have more control even on the bounciest of wickets.

It was an important time in my career. I had not had a good run on the previous two tours. I was getting out lbw too often and 20s and 30s were not good enough. I knew it and so did Dav. We went to Sharjah. I was convinced that I had to fire if I was to remain in the squad and be a part of the exciting upcoming 12 month period which included for the first time three Tests in Australia, plus the World Cup.

From the first game when we played the West Indies, I felt at ease with myself and my game. I scored a solid 101, we won the game and I was man-of- the-match. I had cramped late in my innings and used a runner to help get me to three figures.

I did not play the following game the very next day, but in our third match, scored 76 again against the Windies. It was an extraordinary game. We lost by four runs but not before we made 329 in the chase for 334. Brian Lara made an incredible 169. Wisden says he faced 129 balls. But at the time I would have thought it was closer to 100, so dominant was he. He just smashed them.

We went for the bowling from the start, being 46 after just five overs, but it looked grim again for us at 5-103. I helped Hashan to add 73 for the sixth wicket and then he really started to blaze. He made a brilliant 100 to bring us to within just four runs of an incredible win. When he hit the next ball hard we all spontaneously jumped from our seats thinking he had made the winning hit only for Stuart Williams to take a fine catch at deep mid wicket. We were all out, just four away and with just three balls of our 50 overs remaining. You can imagine how disappointed we all felt. Romesh Kaluwitharana batted in the No. 4 slot this day and made 31 in a heck of a hurry. It was food for thought for the future. No two international teams had ever scored 662 in a single day's play before.

We beat Pakistan to ensure our place in the final and defeated the Windies for a third time to win our first one-day trophy outside Sri Lanka. With 288 runs an average of 96, including a century against the Windies, I was named man-of-the-series and the Batsman of the Tournament. This was the first time such an honour had been bestowed on a Sri Lankan cricketer outside Sri Lanka.

I was very grateful to Dav for having helped me click. He had worked so hard with me in the nets and had helped me to believe in myself more than ever before. I was going to the wicket with greater confidence than I ever had before. And Dav not only helped me, but every member of the team in various ways. He had the knack and knowledge to get the best out of all of us. For the first time we started to consistently perform to the best of our ability.

Alex also did a lot of specialist work with us, improving our fitness levels and teaching us about cool downs and the importance of stretching. In those days there were none of the fast food stores in Sri Lanka that your regularly saw elsewhere. We loved the fast foods on tour but Alex who keeps a close watch on all fitness matters soon put a stop to that, allowing us to have such food only once a week. He, like Dav, was determined to help us have a new focus and be the best we could be in every department.

Never had a touring team from Sri Lanka been as confident as we were as we left for Australia in November. As usual, Geeva and my parents saw me off. Tour conditions precluded the wives from being on tour for the first month, following the example of teams like the Australians when they went to England for the Ashes. On this occasion Geeva came to Sydney and stayed with her aunt Leena and her husband Peter before joining me on Boxing Day when we were granted a 10 day break.

While the tour started in the normal up-country venues of Cairns and Mackay, we were soon into the big cities. Players like Ari and Arjuna were by now seasoned batsmen, both having made more than 3000 Test runs. Hashan and Gura were averaging around 40 and Chandika and I around 30. Our bowling depth was also improving. Muttiah Muralitharan was with us in Australia for the first time, as was our other new strike bowler Chaminda Vaas.

The first Test was in Perth and the Australian opener Michael Slater made a brilliant double century. He must have hit five or six sixes and most of them straight down the ground. He really went after "Murali" and rode his luck. Maybe the attack was pre-meditated, but knowing Slater he would probably have gone for it anyway. It is just the way he plays.

I made 15 and 48 and faced Glenn McGrath for the first time. Like the West Indians he was tall and could extract good bounce.

We were to be beaten by an innings, but not before Hashan had made 119 and Arjuna had his first run-in with the umpires. During this match we were told that the size of the Singer sponsorship logos on our shirts were too large and must be reduced or taken off completely. We had never experienced anything like that before. Then the match referee Mr. Graham Dowling from New Zealand came in, checked the logos and confirmed that there was, in fact, no problem.

If this was a storm in a teacup, charges of all tampering were not. Very early into the Australian innings, on the second morning of the game, the umpires claimed that we were doctoring the ball. That was a serious charge and even though the umpires failed to impound the ball, prejudicing any evidence of wrong doing, referee Dowling claimed us to be guilty without even a proper hearing. He said if it happened again, action would be taken. This was unbelievable! We felt that Mr. Dowling was impulsive and unilateral in taking this decision without probing into the matter in greater depth. We were all shocked and sad at this turn of events as we do not play the game that way. It was an unwarranted slight on our honesty. However, justice was done shortly afterwards and we were fully exonerated to our great relief when it was proved that the manufacturers, Kookaburra had a problem with the balls that particular season. They had been the official provider of balls for Australian Test cricket for 50 years, but on this occasion, due to some inconceivable reason, too many were splitting at the seam. We were able to prove that there was a problem with the particular balls used by us. Certainly none of our bowlers were responsible. Vaas and Murali were new boys on tour. Pramodya Wickremasinghe had been once before, with the '92 World Cup side, but had never been involved in anything like that.

After the game the Australian captain Mark Taylor and a few of the others came into the dressing room later for a chat and a drink which was appreciated. The relationship between the two sides at that time was not too bad, despite the sledging which was there again. Instead of Merv Hughes, this time it was McGrath. He had this habit of walking down and staring at you, going out of his way to invade our space. Craig McDermott was not that bad. He would say something and then quickly walk off. They were world champions of course, having defeated the West Indies in the Caribbean. Sometimes when you are the top side, you think you can make your own set of rules. Every now and then, the English and the South Africans would try a little verbal, but the Aussies were the only ones that would keep on incessantly. They are really looking to intimidate and make sure that you feel terrible. Since I had played here at club level I realise that the Aussies are big on the mental game. Ian Healy calls it the test within the Test. And it does not occur only at the top level.

I have strong views on this business of sledging. I cannot understand how any sportsman indulging in this noble game can stop so low as to insult a member of the opposing team in foul language. Why try to substitute such an unsavoury standard of behaviour for skill and ability? Some say it is gamesmanship . Gamesmanship my foot! Such behaviour should not have a place in the game. Something positive should be done for its total elimination to protect the younger generation and ensure that future players capture the spirit of the game. It is encouraging that others agree, too, and people of the standing of Neil Harvey, one of Don Bradman's 1948 Invincibles. Games can be won without resorting to such foul language. Harvey said the Australians were the greatest bunch of sledgers that there had ever been. And if anything they were getting worse. He said even Steve Waugh condoned it, saying it was part of Australia's "mental disintegration" tactics. As far as I am concerned that's a load of crap. (To be continued) 

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