There is nothing we cannot handle - Mahela

Sri Lanka leave for England today

Sa'adi Thawfeeq

CRICKET TOUR: Sri Lanka captain Mahela Jayawardene expressed the fullest confidence that his team could overcome English conditions and England if they perform to their capabilities.

"There are no fears out there. There is nothing we cannot handle. It is just how we prepare ourselves mentally and physically and what we want to do," said Jayawardene as his team prepared to take wing to England today on a 80-day tour that will see them play a series of three Tests, five one-day internationals, a Twenty-20 international, four first-class matches, three one-day practice matches and two internationals in Holland. The team is due to return home on July 8.

"I have the fullest confidence in this young group because they want to learn, so they will learn quickly. We have 6-7 young guys going to England on a big tour and they will learn a lot. That will be an investment itself for the future," said Jayawardene.

"The tour is going to throw you a lot of challenges out there. The county matches are going to be tougher as well. It won't be a walk in the park. These guys are professionals and they want to prove themselves. They will come hard at you. Every game is a tough assignment. It's going to be a good learning process for the entire team," he said.

Sizing up England Jayawardene said: "It's going to be tough. There is no doubt about it. They've got the balance and a strong unit. A couple of all-rounders, a good pace attack and a solid batting line up. They play good cricket. But we should not worry about what they will do to us.

"What we should worry about is how we are going to handle them and control that. We know the players and should work on their strengths and weaknesses. We just have to work hard and give our best shot. If we perform to our capabilities I am sure we can do well."

Limitations

Jayawardene said the biggest limitation his team had was trying to worry about things ahead of time.

"For instance in England you will start talking about the ball moving and all that jazz. We should not worry about that. We haven't even gone to England yet. In England you have some of the best batting wickets, which I have batted on, Lord's for instance and Nottingham where the third test is scheduled to be played," said Jayawardene.

"It's all about how you go there and adjust and how you apply yourself. It is simple as that. We should not worry about it from here. We usually worry about so many things we should not. We should go there with a positive frame of mind and do exactly what we are capable of doing. I think we did that very well in Australia and proved that we can handle pace, bounce and movement. It's all in us, how you believe in your capabilities. How we are going to prepare ourselves mentally and physically and apply ourselves. It's all up here," he said.

Jayawardene said that he wanted his team to be very free to express themselves.

"The guys whom we have got on tour are those who have attained this status because they have done good things in their careers at school or club levels. I don't want them not to do those things when they come here. I want them to do exactly those things, which they are good at and try and improve themselves which is the most important thing," said Jayawardene.

"As a young group we will make mistakes. I've made a lot of mistakes in my career. I want them to learn quickly from their mistakes. The quicker you learn the lesser mistakes you will make and you will become a better player and contribute to the team," he said.

Reflecting back on his first tour to England in 1998, Jayawardene said:

My first tour

"My first tour of England taught me a lot. I had the opportunity to play in every game and learnt a lot in English conditions.

"Even though you are set when you are on 60 you can still get a good ball and get out. You have to concentrate on every ball because there is something for the bowlers all the time. You have to be positive because the wicket is going to do a bit and the bowlers will have some assistance.

"The first couple of matches were tough for me but luckily I had a lot of experienced guys to advice me. I learnt quickly and it helped me a lot especially to adjust myself for the next tour, which was in 2002. I had a very good tour mainly from what I had learnt from the first."

Jayawardene said the English experience of Australian-born coach Tom Moody (who played and coached Worcestershire for 15 years) and Zimbabwean-born assistant coach Trevor Penney (who played 14 seasons for Warwickshire) would prove invaluable to his team.

Both coaches went ahead of the team and are in England at the moment.

"They are the best guys to let us know exactly how to play in those conditions.

They are going to teach us a lot and we need to learn very quickly. It's going to be a lot of hard work. And if we do it well the results will be good," said Jayawardene. "It's the start of the season and I've been in touch with Tom.

"He's been saying it's raining and most of the matches haven't been played." Jayawardene said his team were relaxing and enjoying a welcome break after a hectic five months of international cricket.

"There was no point practicing here because the conditions are going to be totally different in England. So we used the time to give the players some rest.

"We have only undergone physical training to freshen ourselves after a hectic season," said Jayawardene.

The Sri Lanka tour party to England:

Mahela Jayawardene (captain), Kumar Sangakkara (vice-captain), Upul Tharanga, Michael van Dort, Jehan Mubarak, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Tilan Samaraweera, Chamara Kapugedera, Prasanna Jayawardene, Chaminda Vaas, Nuwan Zoysa, Farveez Maharoof, Lasith Malinga, Nuwan Kulasekera, Muttiah Muralitharan, Malinga Bandara.

Officials: Michael Tissera (manager), Tom Moody (coach), Trevor Penney (assistant coach), Tommy Simsek (physio), C.J. Clarke (trainer), G. Niroshan (computer analyst).