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By Sa'adi Thawfeeq

Marvan Atapattu and Hashan Tillakaratne were yesterday given the vote of confidence by the four-member cricket selection panel to continue as captains of the Sri Lanka One-day and Test teams respectively for the tour against Australia starting next month.

As expected the selectors played it safe by not trying to make changes at this stage especially against Australia, the top team in the world in both forms of the game.

Although there has been pressure brought on the selectors by certain sections to revert to one captain for both Test and One-dayers, their opinion is that the time is not appropriate for a change right now.

Tillakaratne thus retains the Test captaincy although it won't be for long. Having recorded his first Test victory as captain in the third and final Test against England at the SSC last December, Tillakaratne will certainly want to improve on that record against Australia before he either quits from the captaincy or has it taken away from him.

The captain in waiting Atapattu gets a further chance to enhance his reputation as a successful one-day captain having led his country to series victories over West Indies and England.

With five one-dayers lined up against the world champions, Atapattu will be tested to the hilt and, if he comes through it successfully, the waiting for the Test captaincy will probably be over.

Australia is due here on February 14 for a series of three Tests and five one-day internationals. The one-day international series commences at Dambulla on February 20 and the Test series on March 8 at Galle.

The selection committee is expected to name a one-day squad and a Test squad at the end of the TenSports provincial tournament preliminary round matches on February 9.

CAPTAINCY RECORDS  

H.P. TILLAKARATNE   P   W  L  D 
Tests                      8  1   1  6 
ODIs                       -   -   -  - 

M.S. ATAPATTU 

Tests                      1   0  1  0 
ODIs                       11  7 4   0

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