Even though India and Sri Lanka said they were focussed on Saturday’s game, the Big One was always lurking at the back of their minds.
Even though both teams said they were focussed on Saturday’s game, the Big One was always lurking at the back of their minds
VISAKHAPATNAM: For a change, the questions were not aimed at the match. Nor at Sachin Tendulkar’s stiff back. No, not even on the team composition, or the wicket. The World Cup overshadowed everything else.
How will this win help India/Sri Lanka? Won’t it be a big psychological boost for the two teams at the quadrennial event, particularly as they are in the same group. How are they going about the preparation, and so on…
Only, the skippers were not thinking about it, though “it’s always there in the back of our heads”.
Sri Lankan skipper Mahela Jayawardena summed it up best: “They are two different things. The venues will be different, the crowd will be different, the atmosphere, conditions, wickets everything will be different. We can’t emphasise too much on the World Cup at this stage. Right now, it’s this series. Even if we win the series here, it’s not that it’ll give us a big psychological boost. You can’t just compare this series with the World Cup.”
Coach Tom Moody added, “Yes, if we win tomorrow, it will give us big confidence boost. But that counts for nothing at the World Cup. The conditions there will be entirely different. Even the team composition for the group stage and beyond will be different. We can’t just think about it now.”
Rahul Dravid too said the same things. “True, the World Cup is always there in the back of everyone’s minds. But I don’t think the result of this match will have any bearing on our performance at the World Cup,” he said.
“Right now, it’s important for all of us to stay fit. Each player should know his job well and work for a common cause. We have been working towards it, we all have made a commitment towards the team’s cause, and have been trying hard to achieve it,” he added. Dravid, though, looked particularly concerned for Yuvraj.
“He’s a key player for us, in all departments, be it batting, bowling or fielding. It’s important that he remains fully fit. Thankfully, his knee is looking good,” the skipper said.
Any one department that still remains a concern? “I think we have to lift our fielding standards. We have been bowling well, our batting is no more a concern. Even our running between the wickets has improved a lot. We only have to work more on our fielding. In fact, we have been giving a lot of stress to that aspect in recent days, but I still think we have scope to improve further,” Dravid said.
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