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From the Press Box by Sa'adi Thawfeeq

Of all the countries taking part in next year's World Cup in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Kenya, Sri Lanka have the best opportunity to prepare itself for the big event? They will be touring South Africa later this month for a two-Test and five-match one-day international series. Then having experienced the fast bowling in South African conditions, they travel to Australia in December to be part of the tri-nation World Series with England. Here too, they will get exposure against the best fast bowlers in the game today and on bouncy pitches.

Sri Lanka cannot have asked for a better preparation for the World Cup than exposure against two countries that produce some of the best quickies in cricket and facing them in their own conditions, although in South Africa, of the ten matches they are scheduled to play, Sri Lanka have been rather discreetly been kept away from all their World Cup venues barring one, Bloemfontein. Nevertheless, the experience of playing in South Africa should hold them in good stead and expose whatever flaws there are in their technique to cope with fast bowling. It is no secret that Sri Lankan batsmen brought up on home made subcontinent pitches are weak against pace, movement and bounce. They have not been able to win matches consistently away from home as a result of it.

The recent tour to England found flaws in their technique and judgment to cope with the moving ball. The Board of Control for Cricket in Sri Lanka (BCCSL) has done its best to arrest this situation by preparing a number of strips of varying pace and bounce at the R. Premadasa Stadium for the benefit of our cricketers.

However, the newly laid strips are not as quick as they were intended to be and we are told that it will be sometime before the soil settles down to provide the real pace and bounce which the batsmen need to practice against.

Sri Lanka won the 1996 World Cup purely on its batting and fielding.

One-day cricket is all about batting and the subcontinent pitches provide for that in abundance. However, in South Africa and Kenya where Sri Lanka have one World Cup game, the pitches often provide bowlers with a chance and do not heavily weigh against them as they do in the subcontinent. The victories of Sri Lanka in Morocco and at home in the ICC Champions trophy in Colombo, when they shared the title with India, are good to boost the confidence and morale of the players, especially after the bitter experience in England.

However one cannot be wholly satisfied that everything is right on the pretext of these victories because the conditions and pitches under which these results were achieved are a far cry from what they will experience in South Africa.

Past experience of tours to South Africa will show that Sri Lanka have won matches there only in conditions which has suited their style of attack, which is largely spin. They have experimented with several young fast bowlers in the past and failed. Once more the forthcoming tour has a crop of young and inexperienced fast bowlers who, if they come through, will be a big bonus to the bowling department, which over the years, has more or less relied on the skills of spinner Muttiah Muralitharan and the left-arm fast-medium pace of Chaminda Vaas. It is a long accepted notion that the mention of South Africa brings forth an immediate conclusion that all pitches favour pace. However we are made to understand that it is not so. That some of the pitches do indeed help slow bowling. Sri Lanka will be lucky if they can get some of those pitches for their World Cup matches.

Two of a kind

The retirement of Aravinda de Silva from Test cricket brings to an end an era in the history of Sri Lanka cricket, where with former captain Arjuna Ranatunga, the two formed the nucleus of the batting for well over a decade.

Ranatunga bowed out of the game two years ago with 5105 runs from 93 Tests and 7456 runs from 269 one-day internationals. De Silva also quits the longer version of the game after 93 Tests, but with more runs in his bag than his former captain - 6361. No doubt de Silva is the classier player between the two, but for guts and gumption few can rival Ranatunga. That de Silva no longer finds Test cricket an attraction to motivate him is no surprise. The amount of cricket that is played around the world can take its toll on any international player. The ICC at its recent executive board meeting in Colombo has decided to restrict a country to an average of 14 Tests and 30 one-day internationals per calendar year.

De Silva, who turns 37 on October 17, has been on the international circuit for 18 years since making his Test debut against England at Lord's in 1984. That is one helluva long time. He is presently the longest serving international cricketer. Sri Lanka should be thankful that he is still around and available for selection to the one-day team even if it is only till the 2003 World Cup, after which he plans to hang up his boots for good.

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