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| Saturday, 31 May 2003 |
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Atapattu expects his batsmen to turn the corner in the Caribbean By Sa'adi Thawfeeq Sri Lanka's one-day captain Marvan Atapattu said that expectations from the public to win has been so high that it has put a lot of extra pressure on his team. "I don't blame anyone for thinking that way. We have done so well in the past seven to eight years that everybody expects us to win," said Atapattu prior to his departure to the Caribbean for a series of three one-day internationals against Brian Lara's West Indians. The dilemma Atapattu faces is that his top and middle-order batsmen are not firing, as they should be. The slump started in Sharjah and has continued in Dambulla where for the first time in their history Sri Lanka failed to qualify for a home final in the Bank Alfalah Cup tri-nation series. "I haven't seen anyone working this hard for the past six to seven years. We are in a desperate situation to get runs. This is a great batting line up. There is no doubt about it. There is enough and more talent in this line up. It is just that we've got to put things together and perform," said Atapattu. "The sooner we come out of this rut the better. I won't be happy if we win one game with our batting. It should be a continuous process of three to four wins on the trot. Then I will put up my hand and say we have got it right. "All credit to the guys to have done this amount of work. They are experienced enough and they have realised their weaknesses and are working on them. It is a pleasing thing to see that everybody is keen. No one is sitting around. They are talking, watching cricket and getting advice, which I haven't seen for a long time, maybe because we were successful earlier. We've got to understand this sort of situations will also come. This is part and parcel of the game," he said. "When things aren't falling into place and expectations are high the players tend to change their game in desperation. The best example I can give is in the recent past. After the 15th over there is a spate of boundaries scored. The opponents keep the field up and bowl to us but we are afraid to go over the top for the fear that if the top order fails there is no one else to score runs. This wasn't the case earlier when we had brilliant players like Aravinda, Arjuna, Roshan and Hashan. Now that it has happened it is better off for us to play our natural game. We don't feel that guilty because we have all been doing our homework right. We are putting in 110 percent work to come out of this situation," said Atapattu. He hoped his batsmen would hit their peak during the Caribbean series because it is the area that has let them down badly in the last two tournaments. "If we play our normal game we should do well. Now that we have lost we've got to stand up on our feet on our own by playing our natural game which was our success. If there is fear of failure then you won't perform at your best. Given the good conditions of pitches in the West Indies, we will do good," said Atapattu. "West Indies has a whole bunch of young lads playing and they are not performing too badly. From our point of view we have a significant problem in batting. If we can come out of it the earlier the better," he said. Sri Lankan batsmen are susceptible to bouncy pitches as had been proved in South Africa and Australia and they expect similar tracks in the Caribbean as well. However Atapattu said: "If you ask any of these batsmen whether they want to play on slow tracks like in Sri Lanka or the fast bouncy tracks in Australia, most of them will say it is Australia. Though it is bouncier you know where the ball is going to come once you sight it from the bowlers hand because they are so true. "We are born and bred on slow wickets and it is hard for us to adopt straight away. But over a period of time, we got adjusted brilliantly and we liked those wickets very much more than the one's at home. The classic example was after the World Cup when we went to Sharjah. We were struggling to score runs on those wickets. They were extremely slow. It is hard to keep on changing but modern day cricket demands that," said Atapattu. As captain Atapattu didn't make the start he would have really wanted. His team failed to qualify for a home final for the first time. "It could have been better if we had made it to the final. But that's how things have gone. By nature I won't get starts anyway, so it's good to know the worst side of it first and hopefully you see the bright side of it later. Then you know this is the deepest you can be," he said. Atapattu made one of the worst starts to an international career when he was dismissed for five ducks in his first five Test innings before blossoming out to become one of the most stylish and copybook batsmen in world cricket today. TOUR ITINERARY June 4: v Shell Academy at St. George's, Grenada |
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