Wasn’t Really Surprised With Sri Lanka’s Asia Cup Triumph: Sanath Jayasuriya

According to former Sri Lankan captain Sanath Jayasuriya, teams don’t require exceptional individuals to win T20 matches, but decent players may still contribute to a team victory if they play well together.

The 53-year-old Sanath Jayasuriya, who contributed significantly to Sri Lanka’s victory in the 1996 ODI World Cup (221 runs and seven wickets), believes the Lankans would do well in the forthcoming T20 World Cup, which will take place in Australia from October 16 to November 13.

You Don’t Need To Have Outstanding Players: Sanath Jayasuriya

Many experts didn’t predict Sri Lanka’s victory in the recently held Asia Cup, where they lost to Afghanistan in the opening match before shocking India and Pakistan to go on and win the tournament for the fifth time, but opening great Sanath Jayasuriya from the cricket-mad nation didn’t seem surprised. 

“I wasn’t really surprised. We have quite a good bunch of cricketers. It’s the right time they peaked, you know. They lost the first game, anybody can lose a game and come back.

So, they lost the first game and realized what went wrong. They worked hard on their individual game and performed as a team. You don’t need to have outstanding players. They are good players who did well as a team,” Jayasuriya said on Wednesday. 

The two-time national top selector for Lanka mentioned the following while discussing the team’s strong points: “They’re playing good cricket. That’s all you need. If you play quality cricket, results will come.”  

He believed it was inappropriate to draw comparisons to his renowned 1996 World Cup-winning team. 

“Any comparison is out. As long as they play their own game, do their basics right, they’ll enjoy their cricket,” stressed the 52-year-old, while batting for Sri Lanka tourism at an event here.  

Sanath Jayasuriya Backs Sri Lanka To Do Well In T20 World Cup 2022

Even the “Marauder from Matara” wasn’t prepared to pick his T20 World Cup finalists in Australia, but he was willing to support the Lankans, who must first compete in the qualifiers, to succeed in the major competition. 

“Sri Lanka will definitely do well,” he said. “T20 cricket is a fast game, it’s a team game. Our boys are playing good cricket. Whoever’s doing well that particular day is going to win the game,” he felt.  

After the island nation was forced to give up on hosting the recent Asia Cup, which was later conducted in UAE, due to a severe economic crisis, Sanath Jayasuriya is optimistic that high-profile cricket would return to his country now that conditions are better. 

“If you see the last few months, things have been really good and getting better. It will get better. The new government is working on it. So, I hope that they’ll do the right things (for the country) to recover fast.

Our tourism minister (Harin Fernando) is working really hard to make sure that we do the best for our country,” he said.

He reiterated: “Things are fine now. There’s no issue. Don’t take the Asia Cup as an example. It was a totally different time from now. Everything has settled down in Sri Lanka now. We will stage the Lanka Premier League in December. I hope the Indian will travel to Lanka to watch it,” he revealed.  

Sanath Jayasuriya Promoting Sri Lankan Tourism

Sanath Jayasuriya, who has been designated the brand ambassador for Sri Lankan tourism, made time out of his hectic schedule to attend a news conference to promote tourism in Sri Lanka, which he highlighted was putting its crisis behind. Jayasuriya is presently in India to play in a few tournaments for retired players. 

“Things are getting better. Everyone knows what we went through 3-4 months ago. Now, it’s time for us to rebuild the country. So, that’s why I joined this honorary job-it’s not a paid job. The idea is to promote Sri Lanka as a tourism destination, to help our people to come out of this situation.

Since we depend a lot on tourism, people like us need to support it. People have suffered enough. Now, they need to come out of this situation. The tourism sector is the most important one for my island. So, I’m promoting it. We need to see the positive side of Sri Lanka now. Anyone can visit my country.

Things are going in the right direction. We need the support of the Indian media. That’s very important. What happened is history now. We can’t sit and keep talking about that. We need to move forward now,” Jayasuriya said. 

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