Pushing the envelope

There is one simple word that best describes why this Sri Lanka team has changed for the better: It's called "attitude". There has been a sea-change in the way we all are approaching cricket thanks to the efforts of Tom Moody, Trevor Penney and the rest of the management team. Their greatest success has been to shake us out of our comfort zones and introduce a new culture of self-improvement and dynamism. The changes have been seismic and have ensured that we are now growing stronger by the day.

After Tom's arrival in Sri Lanka we quickly settled into a successful groove. We defeated (a weakened) West Indies, won the Indian Oil Cup and brushed aside Bangladesh. With hindsight I think we were lulled into a comfort zone. We thought this was the best we could be and expected victories to come our way. But the tour of India proved a rude shock to the system. We were still grappling with the Powerplays and Supersub regulations and in the end we were hammered in both the ODIs and the Tests. Suddenly it sunk in that other teams were improving much faster than us.

This was the context in which Tom started to usher in changes to the team, by altering our "attitude" to not just matches but to net practice, fitness training and even our lifestyles. We were one of the fitter teams in the world and we'd always had our fair share of skilful players. But we'd lost sight of the fact that there is always room for improvement. Tom insisted that our mental attitude had to change if we were to satisfy our own high ambitions.

It started with a special emphasis on physical fitness that was tailor-made to individual needs. We had worked hard previously but within limits. We realised that we could be fitter and that we could do things differently. We pushed our boundaries and looked to exploit every advantage we could, from our actual running and turning techniques to building up much greater endurance levels. We were given minimum fitness levels to qualify for selection and soon the pride of the players pushed them to reach these and, then, to go further.

We were very lucky too to have the help of Sandy Gordon, one of the world's leading sports psychologists. In my mind his inputs have been instrumental to us. Through a series of informal one-on-ones on cricket and our lives in general he offered customised advice to each individual. In short, he gave us options on how to improve ourselves and helped reinforce the message that we could improve ourselves. I remember one thing he told me very clearly: "The only direction you can cruise is down".

Sandy had an impact on us as individuals and also as a team. He pointed out the little details that get lost: the details that we may have thought unimportant but actually go a long way to forming the mental make-up of the team. He made us conscious of how an innocuous negative remark in a dressing-room environment can snowball into a problem. He identified situations where we might be subconsciously limiting ourselves by apportioning blame rather than accepting collective responsibility.

This all led to us as a team putting our core values down on paper. We discussed as a team the characteristics that we cherished within the group - like commitment, discipline, pride and enjoyment. These core values stretched from the field to the dressing-room and into our lives. We wanted the dressing-room to be a neat and positive environment that reflected our professionalism and commitment. We wanted our lifestyles outside to be healthy and well-balanced. We wrote it all down so we would not lose sight of it.

He also, of course, worked on our skills. When I look back now with hindsight on my batting I can see I was in a comfort zone. I was not thinking about broadening my range of strokes. I was subconsciously saying to myself, "this is as good as you are going to get so just work on your shot selection." But Trevor changed all that. He looked at every single scoring option and stroke with every player. His energy was amazing. We broke down our games and practised on each different aspect.

The impact has been huge. From a personal perspective I can see just how much my game has developed. I used to find it hard to tick things over during the middle overs of one-day games, especially against the spinners. But I worked hard on the sweep and now it is giving me quick scoring opportunities. I have learnt how to drop the ball for singles better and how to guide the ball down to third man. Three simple areas have been vastly improved.

It was all a case of accepting logical analysis. Trevor and Tom were saying "I think you are a good player but I think you can be better, why don't you look at these strokes to reduce pressure?" As players it was about not coming up with excuses and saying to ourselves "this is an avenue worth exploring." We had started a journey but lost our way. However, we were now pushing out of our comfort zones.

One of the huge conundrums with Sri Lanka's cricket has traditionally been the absence of the question "why?" We are generally spoon-fed from an early age. The senior players are expected to know best and you can easily get caught-up in a herd. Nobody thinks of how things can be changed. An intelligent, questioning attitude is quietly repressed. But to stay ahead you must diversify. What we need is a system from grassroots to the national team that is continuously evolving to make you better. We need to free minds.

During the England tour it first became evident that we were turning the corner. The groundwork had been laid, the processes were in place and without us even realising it all started to come together. The prime example was the Lord's Test where we had the inner strength and confidence to rescue ourselves from a perilous position. It was hugely satisfying to save that game and a source of great pride. Even though we lost at Edgbaston, we had begun to believe that we were an equal match to England, and were ready as we ever were to win on English soil.

Then, right after the final Test at Trent Bridge, we had a meeting and discussed what Sri Lankan cricket was all about. Pre-1996 we had played a brand of cricket that was not our own. We were respectful to the game's traditions and techniques but it was an alien tradition that we were trying to conform to. Then in 1996 with that emphatic World Cup victory we established our brand of cricket, our own cricketing identity that was positive, aggressive and exciting. As we sat there in England, we realised as a group that we had lost sight of this brand.

I think we had become too passive a one-day team, waiting for our opponents to falter. We were masters of the slow strangle, especially with our spin-heavy attack in the subcontinent. But we now had a diverse and balanced team capable of playing a more aggressive game and we made a conscious decision to go back to that more explosive old brand. There was a massive attitude shift and now we are looking to capitalise on every single delivery: the simplest theory in cricket and one that had worked so well for us in the past. The extended Powerplays have encouraged this and we strive to capitalise on top and then maintain momentum with smart cricket.

It's been a refreshing period to be in the side and it's wonderful to feel the hunger for success all around you. Right now we are inspiring each other and feeding on each other's confidence. It's exciting and I believe we are well on the way to playing a brand of cricket that will not only be successful but that will allow us as Sri Lankans to be proud.