da doce： The Pakistan A team is soon to arrive in Colombo where they will play threeunofficial Test Matches and three One-Day matches
da heads bet： CricInfo06-Jun-2001The Pakistan A team is soon to arrive in Colombo where they will play threeunofficial Test Matches and three One-Day matches. The Sri Lankan coach,Hemantha Devapriya, who played first class cricket for Colts Cricket Club asa wicket keeper batsman and joined the rebel tour of South Africa in 1983,is looking forward to the three-week tour despite the inclement weatherwhich has marred preparations.Devapriya believes that members of the final A team squad, which is topicked from a 27-man training pool shortly, have a chance to push for placesin the senior team. “It’s a good opportunity for these youngsters to putpressure on the national side. The players are very keen to perform and thenational players will have to be on their toes. With a triangular and Testseries so soon after they have a great opportunity to further theircareers.””There is plenty of talent in the side including many players who haverepresented Sri Lanka in the national level before like Tilan Samaraweera,Avishka Gunawardene, T.M. Dilshan, Chamara Silva, Lanka de Silva, AkalankaGanegama, Indika Gallage, Dilhara Fernando, and Prasanna Jayawardene.”The selectors are keen to unearth a partner for Muralitharan and a middleorder batsman,” he revealed. “It is up to the players to prove themselves.”Pakistan too has named a strong 15-man squad. Ten members have representedPakistan at international level and some played in Sri Lanka last yearduring the Under 19 World Cup.”We are looking forward to win, but you know, the “A” team concept is notonly about winning,” he said. “We want to give the players a chance toimprove their skills. The main idea of the A team is to give exposure tothese youngsters and provide them a chance to prove themselves.”The players have had some match practice in Mercantile Cricket Tournament,but team practice has been restricted because of the poor weather in SriLanka recently. Most of the training has taken place indoors. Indeed, theconditions have been so bad that the first Test Match on June 13th will nowbe played in Dambulla, which is situated in a dry zone.”During the last few weeks we haven’t been able to train outdoors as muchas we would have liked to. We have been restricted to practicing indoors andhave been having very short practice sessions. It’s been verydisappointing.”Interestingly, the tour represents a significant turnaround in policy, asSri Lanka’s cricket authorities have decided to move away from thetraditional preference for preparing slow spinning tracks, surfaces whichhave discouraged the faster men from really bending their backs.”The selectors, the board and everyone is keen that we play on goodwickets,” revealed Devpriya. ” We want a little bit of grass and some bouncein the wicket to give some encouragement to the faster bowlers. In fact, wehave been preparing on some grassy surfaces as well. I am sure that thecurators can provide the fair wickets that we need.Pakistan arrive in Sri Lanka on June 10th and the First Test Match inDambulla will be played June 13th.
