LONDON, May 26: Cricket's governing body should have cancelled Sri Lanka's Test matches earlier this month against a severely weakened Zimbabwe team, Sri Lanka captain Marvan Atapattu said on Wednesday.
Sri Lanka, facing a Zimbabwe side without 15 leading white players who have been embroiled in a festering dispute with the Zimbabwe Cricket Union (ZCU), won both Test matches by an innings after sweeping the one-day series 5-0.
In an effort to protect the integrity of the Test game, the International Cricket Council (ICC) threatened to strip Test status from this month's Zimbabwe-Australia series, before the two countries agreed to postpone the two matches.
However, the one-day series between the sides has gone ahead, Australia winning the first of three matches by seven wickets on Tuesday. "What I feel is that we should have been treated in the same way as Australia," Atapattu told cricket website wisden-cricinfo.com on Wednesday.
"If they agreed to consider stepping in and cancelling the Test series against Australia, then they should have done the same for us." Atapattu said the weakness of the opposition had made it hard for his team to prepare for the matches.
"It was difficult to motivate ourselves, but we had to concentrate on our performance and forget what was happening in their camp," he said. "During the first Test, Murali's (Muttiah Muralitharan) world record kept us focused, and during the second we concentrated on wrapping the tour up with a final win."
Atapattu added the organisation of the tour had been the worst he had experienced. "On the cricket side...when it came to things like net practice... there were no net bowlers and sometimes there weren't even any nets ready.
"Even the lunch during the last day of the Test match was 15 minutes late. "One morning when we were batting, the fourth umpire, who is supposed to ask us which roller we want, used the heavy roller without asking," Atapattu said.
Meanwhile, Muralitharan will have the support of his Sri Lanka team mates if he boycotts next month's tour of Australia, Atapattu said. Muralitharan said earlier this month he would not tour Down Under because of comments made by Australian Prime Minister John Howard over the off spinner's bowling action when he agreed that Murali "chucked" the ball.
"Any captain would want a player like that in his side," Atapattu said. "But as a team we are going to accept whatever Murali decides. "He is going to consult a couple of people before he makes that decision. I am sure he will take the right decision." -Reuters
