Jayawardene shows the Diplomat in him

ELMO Rodrigopulle reporting from Australia

Sri Lanka Captain Mahela Jayawardene showed the Diplomat in him by answering cleverly the barrage of questions that were thrown at him by journalist at the post match press briefing on the alleged ball tampering by Peter Siddle.

'Everyone saw the incident on the television. We have no evidence because we did not see it. But the TV carried it for all to see. So now it is up to the officials to take it from there.

'If they do not find anything, then we have got to move on. We mentioned it to the Match Referee Chris Broad and there was no necessity to make an official complaint'.

He kept reiterating that the incident was there for everyone to see and that the broadcasters apparently saw something happening and that is why they kept on showing the incident.

Moving on to the match that was lost, Jayewardene was happy the manner in which the team fought back to take the Aussies to the final overs.

'It was disappointing to lose, but that is how the game goes', he said.

'It is vital that when we bat first to make a formidable score and put the opponents under pressure. That is not happening. Losing 4 wickets on the second day pushed us back.

'We played good cricket and we will have to tighten some loose ends in our game.

There were a lot of positives for us out of this game and with a few extra days to put things right before the Boxing Day Second Test, we should be okay in Melbourne' he concuded. Bellerive Oval, Hobart, Tuesday,