Tour of West Indies 2002-03        Captain:  Hashan Tillekeratne

Thirty-first Test-playing tour

Second official Test-playing tour of the West Indies by Sri Lanka

 (June - July 2003)

Hashan Tillekeratne remained as Test skipper but retired from one-day internationals so Marvan Atapattu led the team until Hashan arrived at the end of the one-day series. 

Inconsistent batting, Attapattu apart, all through tour led to the fourth consecutive defeat in an overseas Test series (having lost in England and in South Africa twice) . After the first Test in St Lucia was badly affected by rain and drawn, the West Indians won the second at Sabina Park comfortably by 7 wickets. Sri Lanka’s batsmen were mainly responsible for losing the match, which ended inside three days, despite taking a first innings' lead, through a lack of application to play a long innings. "What was so disappointing was that they were not able to translate the 20's into 50's and the 50's into 100's", said the chief selector Kaluperuma.  Sri Lanka, which was placed third in the ICC table a year ago, now dropped to fifth place in the Test championship ratings.

Duleep Mendis temporarily stood in as coach.  John Dyson was the permanent successor to Dav Whatmore as coach, signing a 19-month contract in 1 September 2003.

Other Sri Lankan Tours

Previous tour

To South Africa 2002-03

Next tour

To Zimbabwe 2003-04

Next tour of West Indies

2007-08 

Members of the Test tour party  (16)

Opening batsmen:  Marvan Atapattu, Sanath Jayasuriya

Middle-order batsmen:   Kumar Sangakkara (wk), Hashan Tillakeratne, Mahela Jayawardene, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Thilan Samaraweera.

Wicket-keeper: Romesh Kaluwitharana.

Spin bowlers : Kumar Dharmasena,  Kaushal Lokuarachchi, Muttiah Muralitharan.

Fast bowlers : Chaminda Vaas, Dinusha Fernando, Thilan Thushara, Darshana Gamage, Prabath Nissanka.

⋄ contracted players are:

Russel Arnold, Marvan Atapattu, Kumar Dharmasena, Dilhara Fernando, Sanath Jayasuriya, Mahela Jayawardene, Muttiah Muralitharan, Prabath Nissanka, Tilan Samaraweera. Kumar Sangakkara, Hashan Tillakaratne, Chaminda Vaas.

 

Club representation:

B'fd: Bloomfield (6)

CCC: Colombo (0)

Ct: Colts Cricket Club (2)

NCC: Nondescripts (3)

Sb:  Sebastianites (1)

SSC: Sinhalese Sports Club (3)

TU: Tamil Union (1)

* Gamage may also be named as  H G D Nayanakantha

Average age of  team at time of first Test match   (20 June 2003)  28 yrs

Key to type : 

LHB left-hand bat,

LBG leg break and googly bowler, 

OB off break,

SLA  slow left-arm bowler,

RFM right arm fast medium bowler

ODI : Squad chosen for the one-day series

Test Appearances made before the tour

Muralitharan 80,  Jayasuriya 78,  Tillakeratne 75,  Vaas 66,  Atapattu 63,  M Jayawardene 49,  Kaluwitharana 42,  Sangakkara 28,  Dharmasena 27,  Dilshan 10,  Samaraweera 10,  Fernando 2,  Lokuarachchi 2,  Nissanka 2,   Gamage 0,  Thushara 0.

Management Team

C J Clark was physio because Alex Kountouri, who was Sri Lankan team's physio for nearly eight years from 1995, had resigned from his post at the end of the 2003 World Cup.

Selectors

Lalith Kaluperuma(chairman ),  Aravinda de Silva,  Ashley de Silva  and  Roger Wijesuriya.

Selection

Two one-day practice matches were played in Colombo on 25 and 26 May to guide the selectors as to form and fitness, and a three-day practice game took place the following week to finalise the Test squad. Hemantha Devapriya filled in as coach (because the Board had not yet found a permanent replacement for Dav Whatmore) until interim coach Duleep Mendis was appointed to the tour party on 21 May. 

Unavailable:   ⋄ Dilhara Fernando (back) and Nuwan Zoysa were not considered

One day Tour Party Announced : 28 May 2003.

Test touring party announced   10 June 2003.

Not selected:  ⋄ Russell Arnold.

Time between selection of one-day squad and departure from Sri Lanka:

3 days  (28 May to 31 May)

Travel

The team left Banderanaike International Airport, Colombo, on Saturday morning 31 May 2003.

They arrived in the West Indies on ……..

After the one-day series, Hashan Tillekeratne, Thilina Thusara Mirando and Samarweera flew out of Colombo on 9 June to replace Chandana and Nawaz.

Time spent in West Indies

   x days

(arrival - depart W I)

On-tour selection panel

-

Reinforcements

None

Fixtures/Results

† not first-class

§  one-day international

Time spent in West Indies before First Test: 

x days

(arrival - 20 June)

Match appearances

Test appearances on tour

2 -  Attapattu, Jayasuriya, Jayawardene, Kaluwitharana, Muralitharan, Nissanka, Sangakkara, Tillekeratne, Vaas

1 -  Dharmasena, Lokuarachchi, Samaraweera, Thushara.

Highlights

•   Marvan Atapattu scored Sri Lanka’s only  century (118), and 50* in the second innings of the First Test.

•   Kumar Sangakkara scored a fifty in each Test (56 in St Lucia, and 75 in Kingston)

•   Prabath Nissanka took 5/64 in the second Test at Kingston, as West Indies were bowled out for 191.

Tour Summary

Return to Sri Lanka

Naveed Nawaz and Upul Chandana returned to Sri Lanka after the one-day series on ……

The team arrived home on approx 2 July 2003.

Time away from Sri Lanka    32 days  

(31 May to 2 July)

Finances

…..

……..