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| Saturday, 15 November 2003 |
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Vaughan worried about the weather than Murali by Sa'adi Thawfeeq
What concerned England captain Michael Vaughan most was not the spin of Muttiah Muralitharan or the left-arm pace of Chaminda Vaas, but the Sri Lankan weather. "We have come here to play some good and competitive cricket, but my main worry is the weather," Vaughan told a packed media conference at Taj Samudra yesterday evening. The England team arrived in Sri Lanka on Thursday night for a six-week tour which will see them play a series of three one-day international and three Tests against Sri Lanka in the next six weeks. However the country has been experiencing intermittent showers the last few weeks which could hamper England's well laid plans. Vaughan was confident that his batsmen will be able to tackle the spin of Muralitharan during the upcoming one-day international and Test series. "Muralitharan and Vaas are the two bowlers we have to look out for. Muralitharan is a world class spinner. But we have six of our batsmen who played him well in the last two series," said Vaughan. "We will use the three one-day games to watch him closely," he said. Vaughan is one of the batsmen who played successfully against Muralitharan. The others are left-handers Graham Thorpe, Marcus Trescothick and Mark Butcher, Nassser Hussain and Andrew Flintoff. England has won the last two Test series against Sri Lanka by margins of 2-1 and 2-0. England and Sri Lanka play all three one-day internationals under lights after it was confirmed by Sri Lanka Cricket that they had received the go ahead to use the newly installed lights at Dambulla Stadium, venue of the first international on Tuesday. The second and third matches will take place at the R. Premadasa Stadium on November 21 and 23. Vaughan said the five weeks they spent in Bangladesh had given his team which is largely inexperienced in bowling the opportunity to get used to subcontinent conditions. "We got an opportunity to play spin for long periods of time which on the long run will help us in Sri Lanka," said Vaughan. "Sri Lanka offers us a challenge to measure how far we have improved in our cricket. We expect strong opposition from Sri Lanka than we got in Bangladesh," he said. The last series played between the two sides in Sri Lanka two years ago was marred by a heap of controversies, but Vaughan assured that the game will be played in the right spirit on this occasion. Vaughan said the turning point of his career from being a member of the England team to be at the helm came in the series against New Zealand last year when he was promoted from a middle-order batsman to opener. He has not looked back since gaining a swift transition from being England's best batsman to become its leader succeeding Hussain who led England on their last tour here. SLC President Thilanga Sumathipala whilst welcoming the England team said the entire country was excited about the tour and called upon the public to put aside the current political crisis and to enjoy the cricket. Lalith de Silva, CEO of Mobitel, the sponsors of the Test and One-day series presented two trophies to Sumathipala to be given to the winners of the two series. The Test series commences on December 2 at Galle. |
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