INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
LONDON, Sunday: Sri Lanka manager Ashantha de Mel has defended his players for not turning up for the official post-match press conference
after their World Cup defeat against Australia at the Oval here on Saturday
It is the norm at all ICC conducted tournaments for a player to be present for the pre and post-match media conferences, but after Sri Lanka
had thrown away a golden chance of beating world champs Australia no member of the team presented himself at the conference which reflected
&What can you do when no one wanted to go to the press conference The players were so deflated after letting go off such a golden
opportunity to post a win they were not prepared to go and face further questions and be humiliated,& said De Mel.&We had some issues at
Cardiff where the players were unhappy with certain questions thrown at them by the media writing the team off
They were not prepared to go and face them especially after today game,& he said
Asked whether the ICC had written or spoken to him about the no-show, De Mel said they had not
&I am prepared to go and answer the questions myself but the request is for players whom we don&t want to further undermine their confidence
when it is already low.&Australia was represented by their captain Aaron Finch at the media conference.Although Sri Lanka lost the contest
by 87 runs, De Mel said that there were a lot of positives they got out of the match
&We know we have a solid opening combination in Dimuth Karunaratne and Kusal Perera and our bowling at the death was also very good, but we
have to improve our fielding and create chances because we are not a great bowling side,& said de Mel who is also the chairman of selectors
&Our middle order batting is a big concern with Kusal Mendis and Angelo Mathews not firing
Our late order batsmen must also learn that they cannot hit a six off every ball against a good bowling attack
I have been telling them that they should learn how to defend as well but in the nets all they do is try to hit the leather off the ball
from ball one which is not helping our cause,& he said.CHANGE OF COLOUR IN CLOTHINGSri Lanka has six days off before their next game which
is against England at Headingley, Leeds on June 21 and, for which they will have to change their top coloured clothing
&We have been asked to have less blue and more yellow in our shirts for the matches against India and England because these two countries
also have a lot of blue in their playing kits,& said De Mel
Thus, for the matches against England and against India which is on July 6 at Leeds, the Sri Lankan players will wear a different coloured
top with more yellow than blue than they have at present
The Lankan team left for Leeds yesterday where they will spend the next five days trying to rectify their mistakes learnt from the defeat
against the Aussies.Despite their loss Sri Lanka still retain fifth spot with four more games to play against England, South Africa, West
They need to win at least two of those matches to be realistically in with a chance of qualifying for a place in the semi-finals by
finishing in the top four.
