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| November 16, 2003 | Sunday | Ramazan 20, 1424 |
Inexperienced England team relishes Sri Lanka challenge
COLOMBO, Nov 15: The upcoming Test and one-day cricket series against Sri Lanka will be an enjoyable challenge for young England team, captain Michael Vaughan said on Saturday.
“Sri Lanka are a very good and experienced team playing on their home soil. We are relatively young ... been around together for eight months now,” Vaughan said.
“The challenge is to give it our best shot. I’m looking forward to some enjoyable cricket,” the skipper said.
England begin their campaign with a warm-up limited-overs match against Sri Lanka Cricket President’s XI.
The first one-day international will be played at Dambulla in central Sri Lanka on Tuesday.
The second and third one-day matches will be played at Premadasa Stadium in Colombo on November 21 and November 23. The Test series begin in Galle on December 02.
“The keyword is experience. Not many of our players have played too many games and I think (Sanath) Jayasuriya is about to play his 300th game,” Vaughan said.
Sri Lanka’s one-day skipper Marvan Atapattu said his team’s preparations for the tournament went well, despite the players’ long break since their West Indies tour in June.
“My first impressions about the team were that they were professional in their approach toward physical training and practicing,” Sri Lanka’s new coach John Dyson said.
“I’ve been made to believe that all teams in the subcontinent are not too keen about physical training sessions,” he added.
The series will be Dyson’s first with Sri Lanka since he took over from Dav Whatmore who was sacked after an unsuccessful World Cup campaign in March.
Atapattu said England team, which whitewashed Bangladesh in a recent two-Test, three one-day match series, will not be complacent when facing the Sri Lankans.
“At this level everyone realizes the strengths and weaknesses of their respective teams. I don’t think they’ll get carried away,” he said.—PPI
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