Ceylon Radio
Sanath Jayasuriya in an interview with Australian media said he likes what he sees from the current Sri Lankan team but is expecting strong challenges from the likes of South Africa and England, who have never won the tournament.
“It’s going to be a very open tournament, you can’t predict anything at this stage,” Jayasuriya said at the draw announcement in Melbourne.
“India and Sri Lanka are doing well at the moment, South Africa has never won a World Cup, England has never won a World Cup so those guys will do their best to do something different in Australia and New Zealand.”
The 44-year-old added of Sri Lanka’s recent form: “I think with 15 months to go we are (heading) in the right direction at the moment.
“What we want is to try and play in similar conditions to the World Cup and we know that it’s different to Sri Lanka.
“In Australia we’ve got more bounce and more seaming conditions here, but I think as a Sri Lankan team we are heading in the right direction.”
However, Jayasuriya says the Sri Lankan cricket board and the ICC must find a better balance when scheduling Test cricket and the shorter forms of the game.
“That was a bit unfortunate that we couldn’t play too much Test cricket and I hope Sri Lankan cricket and the ICC will do something to give Sri Lanka more Test cricket,” he said.
“It’s unfortunate that Sri Lanka couldn’t negotiate more Test tours because more ODI games (were scheduled) and some of the local T20 tournaments we couldn’t (schedule enough Test matches).
“From next year we need to get that balance right and we need to play more Test cricket along with those ODIs.”
Source:sundaytimes
