Thursday 7th January 2010
Jayawardene, two others flown in
Three Sri Lankans cricketers, including former captain Mahela Jayawardene, were flown in to prop up their team.
The Lankans are struggling to put 11 fit men together in the ongoing cricket tri-series.
Sri Lanka team manager Brendon Kuruppu said besides Jayawardene, who was part of the Sri Lankan team that played an ODI series in India last month, the other two players are uncapped wicket-keeper batsman Lokuge Dinesh Chandimal and left-handed batsman Mahela Udawatte.
Kuruppu said Chamara Silva and Muthumudalige Pushpakumara, who were injured during Sri Lanka's opening match against Bangladesh, would return home while in-form opener Tillakaratne Dilshan would stay back despite the groin strain he suffered during his match-winning knock of 104 against the hosts.
"Jayawardene, Chandimal and Udawatte have arrived, while Silva and Pushpakumara will return home. We are hoping that Dilshan will be okay and will play a part in some point of time in the tournament, which is why we have kept him here," Kuruppu told PTI.
"Dilshan though is unlikely for our next game (against Bangladesh on January 8)," he added.
The 20-year-old Chandimal is a promising right-handed wicketkeeper batsman who was the vice-captain of the Sri Lankan team in the under-19 World Cup in Malaysia in 2008.
In August last year, he scored a century for Sri Lanka Development XI in a first class match against the visiting New Zealand side.
Twenty three-year-old left-handed batsman Udawatte, on the other hand, has played nine ODIs, the last against Zimbabwe in Harare in 2008.
Sri Lanka have won both their first two matches in the tri-series against Bangladesh and India.
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