Jayawardene exudes confidence ahead of series opener

Ever since Sri Lanka lost 6-1 to India in October-November 2005, there has been talk of revenge when a Sri Lankan captain has addressed the press in India. It happened in the Champions Trophy, and it happened again ahead of the first one-day international at Kolkata, coming, of course, from the media rather than from the Sri Lankans themselves. Jayawardene, who was vice-captain of the team under Marvan Atapattu in that series, and has since made the top job his own, once again stressed that a lot had changed since that hammering.

"From the last time that we came here, there have been changes in personnel, in the composition of the team, in our mindset," said Jayawardene. "We have played more than 30 one-dayers in that period. We have grown as a side and while winning is our top priority here, we are also looking at guys gaining confidence from this series. We are assigning different roles to different players, and we want the players to get used to their roles in the team. Both from a team's perspective and individually, I am looking at this competition most positively."

With India being in the same group as Sri Lanka in the World Cup, interest in this series is piqued and Jayawardene admitted that it would be good to get a positive result and carry this into their World Cup campaign. "It will be great if we can get on top of India in this series and carry some momentum into the World Cup," Jayawardene said. "But then again, that is a totally different tournament. You won't be playing just one opposition, the conditions will be different and we will be playing on neutral venues. But we aren't looking that far ahead. Right now, our focus is on playing in India, in Kolkata and at the Eden Gardens. We haven't played here in a long time, and we are looking forward to playing at this venue as much as the Indians are."

When asked if the presence of senior players like Atapattu, Sanath Jayasuriya and Kumar Sangakkara make his job as captain more pressure-filled, Jayawardene laughed. "Of course not," he said. "In fact, they have made it that much easier. Not only these three, but [Chaminda] Vaas and [Muttiah] Muralitharan too have contributed to making my job easy. They know their roles, they give me feedback all the time. The youngsters are also feeding off them. They are great role models, and they bring something new to the team every day."

When asked if this series was especially important because Sri Lanka were without Chaminda Vaas and Muttiah Muralitharan, and that this would give them a chance to look at some other players, Tom Moody, the coach, pointed to the need to build a squad. "This series is very important to us, regardless of the fact that Vaas and Murali are not here. They are key players, no doubt, but their absence means others will get an opportunity," he said. "It is important not to take just a strong eleven to the World Cup, but a strong fifteen."

Moody, whose name had been bandied about as a possible candidate for the Australian coaching job, which has since gone to Tim Neilsen, insisted that he did not look beyond the World Cup at this stage. "I am not making any plans post the World Cup. My main focus is the World Cup, and I will worry about the future beyond that," he said. "It has been a brilliant last two years working with the Sri Lankan team, but I won't make any plans now."