Sri Lanka in World Cup Cricket 2007

 

Sri Lanka is one of those teams who participated in all of the past world cup cricket tournaments. Within a few hours, the opening ceremony of World Cup Cricket 2007 will be staged at the Caribbean. All the 16 teams are now ready. Sri Lanka is one of the hot favorites of this tournament. I think they have some young cricketers along with some cricket's living legends like Muttiah Muralitharan and Sanath Jayasuria who have the capability to repeat their success of world cup 1996. Today, I read an article published in The Age regarding the profile of Sri Lankan cricket team.

It stated:

Blockbuster: Seeded to meet the world champions in the uper Eight stage on April 16 in Grenada.

Coach: Tom Moody, former Australian all-rounder who was art of the 1999 World Cup win and has become one of the world's most sought-after coaches through his work with Worcestershire and Sri Lanka.

Rising star: Chamara Silva, though 27, is now emerging as a stabilising force in the middle order, where he recently scored his maiden one-day century against India.

I also support the idea that Coach Tom Moody can play a vital role in World Cup 2007 and the potential batsmen Chamara Silva can be a surprise performer for the side. However, I think, it would be a hard task for the team management to select one from Chamara Silva, Russel Arnold and Tillakaratne Dilshan.

Moreover, I think, Farveez Maharoof, Malinga Bandada and Kumar Sangakkara will be on fire. Farfeez Maharoof is a good all rounder and his inclusion in the team has made Sri Lanka more balanced. On the other hand, Malinga Bandada seems to be a match winner with distinctive pace bowling action and his reverse swing at yorker length in the slog overs can be very important for the team. Kumar Sangakara is the most consistent batsmea at this moment in the team and he is capable of playing long innigs. Sri Lankan batting line up seems very deep as they have two experienced batsmen Sanath Jayasuria and Mahela Jayawardene. In the pace bowling, their old soldier Chaminda Vaas would be the main focus but the only problem for Sri Lanka is that they do not have a good spinner who can support Muttiah Muralitharan. It is true that a bowler like Muralitharan can single-handedly change the fate of a game.

Anyway, in the preliminary stage Sri Lanka will play in Pool B where they will play against India, Bangladesh and Bermuda. Until last week, most of us thought that India and Sri Lanka would advance to the Super Eight stage from this group. However, the recent performance of Bangladesh in the warm up matches has changed this calculation. So, Team Sri Lanka should take nothing for granted.