By Srian Obeyesekere
The three captains Chamari Athapaththu of Sri Lanka, Laura Wolvaardt of South Africa and Harmanpreet Kaur of India yesterday vented their optimism that they were all keyed up and geared to Sunday’s ICC Tri Series that it would help their respective teams to gel for this year’s 2025 ICC Women’s World Cup in India.
Addressing the media after Sri Lanka Cricket’s Head of Marketing Upul Nawaratne Bandara had in his keynote address welcomed the three captains, key sponsor Lanka IOC’s Managing Director Dipak Das, and the media at Saturday’s captain’s confab at Colombo’s R. Premadasa International Cricket Stadium complex auditorium, all three captains said that the 6-match ODI tournament would be the ideal build up to muscling for the big show extravaganza to be staged in India.
Sri Lankan captain, Chamari Athapaththu said, “Definitely this series is important for us where we are facing two world class teams and I hope our girls will play their best cricket.
She said that the Sri Lankan squad had been strengthened with accent on youth by the addition of Sri Lana U19 captain and vice captain Manudi Nanayakkara and Rashmika Sewwandi respectively to the squad.
As to tomorrow’s curtain raiser against India, Athapaththu said that she and her players were confident of coming good.
To a question that Sri Lanka had beaten India at Dambulla last time out, the Lankan captain said, “Of course that was in a different format in the T20s.”
While stating that it would be up to the seniors to take responsibility while not pressurizing the younger players who had been given a free hand to play their game, Athapaththu said that a shaky middle order was an area of concern which she hoped to plug during this tournament which was why the U19 captain and vice captain were at hand. This series would be an opportunity for the youngsters to step up.
Meanwhile, South African captain Laura Wolvaardt to whom the day was extra special being a birthday girl who turned 26 yesterday, expressed hope to conditioning to the heat and the pitches in Sri Lanka.
“It is an opportunity for us to play against two of the world’s best teams ahead of the world cup.
The Indain Captain, Harmanpreet Kaur said that her team was all keyed up looking forward to maximising the Lankan conditions which were similar sub continent conditions to India. “Conditions here in Sri Lanka are much like India where there is a lot of turn.
SLC Head of Marketing Upul Nawaratne Bandara made lauded the role of Lanka IOC, the Title Sponsor and Ground Branding Sponsor in making special mention of its Managing Director, Dipak Das for the immense weight IOC had b put behind this Tri Series to make it a grand success.
Similarly, he had a high word of praise and appreciation for Dialog Axiata PLC as the Production and Broadcasting Partner noting that SLC had partnered with Dialog on several occasions in the past and looked forward to doing so in the future.
Dipak Das, Managing Director of Lanka IOC addressing the gathering, said that it was so pleasing to note that women’s cricket in the world was fast picking up.
He said it was a privilege to partner with Sri Lanka Cricket in such a cricketing venture and looked forward to supporting SLC in the future too. He thanked SLC for affording Lanka IOC this opportunity to tie up as a key sponsor.
The event was followed by the trophy launch.
