COLOMBO, Nov 7: Sri Lanka’s cricketers have added a new entry to the lexicon of excuses from defeated sportsmen by blaming the team’s tailor for their loss to Pakistan in the Champions Trophy one-day final in Sharjah Sunday.

Skipper Sanath Jayasuriya and his normally agile team claim to have been seriously hampered by kit that was so ill-fitting they had to do their own alterations in the dressing room.

“We had to add extensions to the trousers as they were dangerously too short,” Jayasuriya was quoted as saying by a Sri Lankan cricket official.

“The T-shirts were also too tight and they looked more like the tight-fitting women’s blouses worn with sarees.”

The official, who declined to be named, said that Board of Control for Cricket in Sri Lanka (BCCSL) was taking the complaint seriously and there will be some plain-talking with the tailors.

An investigation is underway. There was no immediate reaction from the new tailor.

Sri Lanka’s team changed their outfit after a change in sponsors last month and the Sharjah tournament was their first outing in their new garments.

The cricketers are now almost certain to sport new outfits, hopefully made to measure, when the three-Test series against the West Indies starts next month.—AFP