Fielding is the key to success, says Mathews

BY SA'ADI Thawfeeq

IF Sri Lanka intend making any major headway towards lifting the ICC under 19 World Cup they will have to hold onto their catches and make a big improvement on the field.

Three vital catches were dropped in the final against Bangladesh in the under 19 tri-nation tournament held in Dhaka last month which cost them the match and with it the title.

"We were a better outfit than Bangladesh but we still ended up on the losing side because of our fielding which let us down," said Sri Lanka's under 19 captain Angelo Mathews looking ahead at the sixth ICC organized under 19 World Cup which gets underway tomorrow at four venues in Colombo.

One of the pleasing aspects from Sri Lanka's point of view in that tournament was that they beat England three times out of three, a result which more or less compensated for their 0-2 (in the one-dayers) and 0-3 (in tests) losses in England last year.

"They were not the same side that we met in England last summer because most of their players especially the bowlers were over age to play in the World Cup," said Mathews.

Mathews is one of the finest strikers of the ball at this level and around him revolves the team's success.

He was one of the few successes on the England tour making scores of 80 (Shenley) and 123 (not out at Leeds) in the under 19 test series against bowlers far superior to those he will be facing in the under 19 World Cup.

Former Sri Lanka cricketer Roy Dias who currently coaches Nepal was of the opinion that a cricketer in the calibre of Mathews should be groomed into the all-rounder's spot ahead of next year's World Cup in the Caribbean. So high is he rated.

"I have a major role to play as captain. I have to get things done as well as I have to perform. I have improved quite a bit but I have certain areas to work on. I am working hard on them individually to become a good cricketer in the future," said Mathews.

"As captain sometimes I have failed in my duties but I have done it most of the time. The England tour was a total failure but when we met them in Bangladesh we won all the matches."

Mathews is a product of St. Joseph's College, Colombo and was groomed as a leader in the early stages of his career having captained the Sri Lanka under 15 and under 17 teams for the Asia Cup in 2002 and 2004 respectively.

He is the only surviving member of the last under 19 World Cup held in Bangladesh two years ago.

"When the match is on we leave it entirely in the hands of the captain because we feel he needs to be developed as a leader," said Sri Lanka under 19 manager Ashley de Silva.

"Angelo has developed so much that in the last series what we noticed was that he kind of handled everything on his own. He made some good decisions and we were quite happy with it."

According to De Silva, a former Sri Lanka Test wicket-keeper/batsman and national selector, preparations for this tournament for Sri Lanka "has been excellent".

"The tours to England, India and Bangladesh gave us the opportunity to pick the right combination for the tournament. We have been preparing for it for a long time," said De Silva.

"There were certain areas that we identified as our strengths and our weaknesses on these tours. We have basically worked on them where we felt it needs to be developed.

In order to do that Sri Lanka Cricket has been very supportive by appointing former Test cricketers Ruwan Kalpage as our fielding coach and Champaka Ramanayake as our bowling coach. Hemal Mendis is supporting head coach Sumithra Warnakulasuriya in the batting. The whole team is shaping up quite well for the tournament," he said.

De Silva also added that the squad had a residential camp where the team was put up at Taj Samudra for two weeks.

"We carried out a lot of programs during that time. We got some of the past Sri Lanka cricketers to come and talk to the players. We also videoed individual performances so that they could see for themselves the areas they need to develop. We also got a local psychologist to come and talk to the boys," said De Silva.

The real crunch comes when Sri Lanka starts to meet opponents from the Test playing nations. They already have India, one of the tournament's strong favourites in their group. But that draw to them looks favourable because they are unlikely to meet them again in the tournament until at least in the final. The other two opponents in Group 'C' are Scotland and Namibia.

"Playing in home conditions our chances are very good. But we are not going to take any team lightly. We will take all three matches seriously. Our main objective is to get into the quarters first and then to progress from there onwards," said Mathews.

A total of 16 countries which includes the ten Test playing nations will take part in a fortnight of matches where cricketers of the future will be in focus.

The tournament has become quite popular for the number of international cricketers it has thrown up each time it has been held. Quite apart from winning it, most countries especially the Test-playing ones will concentrate on producing players who would go on and make it to the senior team.

Some of the more famous names the tournament threw up when it was last held in Sri Lanka six years ago were South African captain Graeme Smith and batsman Jacques Rudolph, Yuvraj Singh and Mohammed Kaif from India, Jermaine Lawson and Marlon Samuels from West Indies, Michael Clarke, Nathan Hauritz and Shane Watson from Australia, Tatenda Taibu and Sean Ervine from Zimbabwe and Mohammed Sami (Pakistan), Brendon McCullum (New Zealand) and Collins Obuya (Kenya).

The last tournament held in Bangladesh brought to the forefront two Sri Lankan players Farveez Maharoof and Upul Tharanga.