March 01, 2007	Thursday	Safar 11, 1428

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COLOMBO, Feb 28: Sri Lanka skipper Mahela Jayawardene goes to the World Cup in the Caribbean hoping to erase bitter memories of the previous tournament.

The 2003 World Cup in South Africa ended in a nightmare for Jayawardene, who scored just 21 runs in nine matches. His form was so poor that he did not once reach double figures.

“That was a disappointing World Cup for me. Hopefully, I'll turn things around this time,” Jayawardene said before his team's departure for the mega one-day event on Wednesday.

“I wanted to do well, but it just didn't happen. But if you see, we went on to reach the semi-finals. The greatest thing about this team is that when someone is not in the best of form, the others put their hands up for him.”

The Sri Lankan captain is currently struggling to regain form. He is without a half-century in his past 17 One-day Internationals.

“I know my personal contribution has not been that great during the last six months or so, but I am looking forward to get back among runs,” said Jayawardene, who has scored 6,185 runs in 236 matches.

He said he was confident of a good show from his side as they had learnt to adapt themselves to different conditions.

“Adapting to the conditions has been high on our agenda during the last year or so and we've done well away from home,” said Jayawardene, whose side won a ODI series in England and then shared a series in New Zealand.

“We want to continue in the same vein. The guys have been working really hard and I am very confident of our chances. If we are to win the Cup, we need to beat everybody and that means we (have) got to take every game seriously.

“Our focus is on playing good cricket in the Caribbean. We feel it's a very open tournament and whichever team peaks at the right time will go all the way.”

Sri Lanka coach Tom Moody said his team was keen to win all three matches in Group B against former champions India, Bangladesh and debutants Bermuda.

“Obviously, our first goal is to get to the Super Eight stage carrying the points through, which means beating India,” said Moody, who was recently in the Caribbean to inspect conditions.

“But we (have) got to be focused on the first game against Bermuda. That has to be our first priority. That's the most important match in the Cup for us. Whether they are minnows or not is irrelevant.

“I feel that (the) wickets will help any team that has discipline and variations and I believe that we have covered all... aspects in this squad. It's going to be an interesting tournament for Sri Lanka.”—AFP