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By Sa'adi Thawfeeq

A cricket tour as important as the one to England without ace spinner Muttiah Muralitharan is something quite unimaginable. But Muralitharan's team mates have come to accept the cold fact that he is not going to be with them at least for the first part of the tour and, if Sri Lanka is to combat England on equal terms, each individual member will have to put in that extra bit of effort to compensate for his absence.

This message was clearly indicated by skipper Sanath Jayasuriya who will for the first time, since he took over the reins as captain three years ago, is going on a tour without his main strike bowler who has been largely responsible for contributing to the 16 victories the country has achieved under his leadership in 32 consecutive Tests since September 1999.

Pertinent to say that Jayasuriya is the most successful Test captain the country has produced, having gone past Arjuna Ranatunga's record of 12 wins in 56 Tests during the Zimbabwe series at home.

"I am very worried about missing Murali on the England tour. There is a lot of responsibility on the fast bowlers in the squad and the other bowlers to perform without Murali," said Jayasuriya on the eve of the team's departure to England in the early hours of yesterday.

"Murali's injury in Sharjah affected us psychology on that particular day. I was worried and I was upset because it was something we didn't expect. But unfortunately, it happened. The players have now realized that we will have to play without Murali and that they have to perform," he said.

"Everybody wants to do well to make up for Murali's absence. The bowlers will have to put an extra effort now that Murali is not there," Jayasuriya said.

The star off-spinner who tore ligaments in his left arm while fielding in the Sharjah final against Pakistan, is expected to be out of action until the third and final Test against England at Old Trafford on June 13.

Jayasuriya said that if Sri Lanka are to perform well in England, the batsmen will have to deliver the goods.

"The England tour is going to be tough. England in their conditions are probably the best side. They will perform well. We have a fight on our hands against them," said Jayasuriya.

"The team is changed somewhat from the one that went to Sharjah. We have a few experienced players like Aravinda (de Silva) and Hashan (Tillakaratne) and, Tilan (Samaraweera) has been performing well. We have got a very good side, but unfortunately we will miss Murali and Dilhara (Fernando). It's a big blow for us," he said.

"There is a lot of responsibility on the batsmen. The conditions are not going to be easy though, but still, the batsmen will have to perform well. The batsmen are the most experienced players we have in English conditions and it is our strength," said Jayasuriya.

De Silva has been on all of Sri Lanka's four previous Test tours to England in addition to playing one full season of county cricket with Kent while Tillakaratne has been to England on the last three tours.

Jayasuriya was hopeful that Muralitharan would recover quickly and be available from at least the second Test beginning at Edgbaston on May 30.

Apart from Muralitharan, Sri Lanka are also handicapped in the bowling by the absence of fast bowler Dilhara Fernando who is still being carefully monitored by team physio Alex Kountouri.

"We will get Dilhara to England so that he can work with Alex and see if we can at least play him from the second Test," said Jayasuriya.

Fernando suffered from stiffness and slight pain on his return to competitive cricket for SSC in the Premier trophy semi-final after recovering from a stress fracture in his back.

Jayasuriya said that the team will retain 17 players for the tour, and that one fast bowler will return home when Fernando comes to England.

Sri Lanka are taking six fast-medium bowlers on the tour to grapple with English conditions in the early part of the summer namely, Chaminda Vaas (on whose shoulders rest a heavy burden in Muralitharan's absence), Nuwan Zoysa, Buddhika Fernando, Ruchira Perera, Eric Upashantha and Ishara Amerasinghe, the only uncapped player in the squad.

There is going to be keen competition among the six to retain their places for the entire tour which should augur well for the team.

Jayasuriya said the debacle in the Sharjah final would not affect his team's performances in England.

"Overall, our performance at Sharjah was good. There were a few batsmen who did not perform to expectations. We won three games and played well throughout the tournament except in the final where we were outplayed in every department," said Jayasuriya.

"Everything went against us. The batsmen and bowlers did not do their best at all. But I don't think that is a worrying factor. What we got to look at is, that all that is history. We know what went wrong and the batsmen and bowlers know what their expectations are in England," he said.

When questioned why Sri Lanka went into the final with only five batsmen, Jayasuriya replied: "We tried Kalu (Kaluwitharana) in the middle-order and as an opener and he didn't succeed. We even tried (Tillakaratne) Dilshan in the no. 6 position. We needed somebody who could handle pressure. So what we thought in the final was to play Kumar Dharmasena who could add variety to the bowling and also bat at no. 6. That was the plan we had and we went with five batsmen".

Batting coach Richards

Former South African and Hampshire batsman Barry Richards in his capacity as batting coach of the Sri Lanka team is expected to be with the players for the first two first-class fixtures of the England tour to help them out with any problems they may encounter.

Richards has been contracted by the Sri Lanka Cricket Board to help them sort out batting techniques especially in overseas conditions with the 2003 World Cup in South Africa in mind. This will be his second of four assignments.

FOLLOW SRI LANKA IN ENGLAND 

April 26-28: v Kent at Canterbury May 2-4 : v British Universities at Northampton May 7-9: v Durham at Chester-le-Street May 11-13: v Middlesex at Shenley May 16-20: v England (1st Test) at Lord's May 23-26: v Glamorgan at Cardiff May 30-June 3: v England (2nd Test) at Edgbaston June 6-9: v MCC at Chesterfield June 13-17: England (3rd Test) at Old Trafford June 19: v West Indies 'A' at Hove (d/n) June 21: v Somerset/Glamorgan/Gloucestershire at Taunton/Cardiff/Bristol June 23: v Gloucestershire/Somerset/Glamorgan at Bristol/Taunton/Cardiff June 24: v Northamptonshire at Northampton

NatWest One-day Series June 27: Sri Lanka v England at Trent Bridge (d/n) June 29: England v India at Lord's June 30: Sri Lanka v India at The Oval July 2: Sri Lanka v England at Leeds July 4: England v India at Chester-le-Street (d/n) July 6: Sri Lanka v India at Edgbaston July 7: Sri Lanka v England at Old Trafford July 9: England v India at The Oval July 11: Sri Lanka v India at Briston (d/n) July 13: Final at Lord's

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