Tour of Zimbabwe 2003-04            Captain: Marvan Atapattu

Thirty-second Test tour

Third official Test-playing tour of Zimbabwe by Sri Lanka

 (April-May 2004)

Marvan Attapattu succeeded Hashan Tillekeratne as captain for this one-sided mismatch of a series that soon led to Zimbabwe withdrawing from Test cricket.

Already hopelessly weakened by the gradual loss of most of its leading players in the previous three years, the Zimbabwe Board now sacked 15 white players before the series began. It was inevitable that Sri Lanka would win both Tests and all five one-day internationals.  The margin of victory in each Test match was greater than an innings and 200 runs

Muralitharan had undergone testing at the University of Western Australia biomechanics lab and was approved to bowl again. He overhauled Courtney Walsh's record of Test 519 wickets during the series and was feted on return to Colombo.

The Sri Lankans suffered from poor facilities and felt the Zimbabwe Board were giving more attention to dealing with their players' revolt than organising their tour facilities well.

Other Sri Lankan Tours

Previous tour

West Indies 2002-03

Next tour

Australia 2004

Next tour of Zimbabwe

None scheduled

Members of the Test tour party (16)

Opening batsmen   Marvan Atapattu, Sanath Jayasuriya, Ian Daniel.

Batsmen: Mahela Jayawardene, Kumar Sangakkara, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Thilina Kandamby, Tilan Samaraweera.

Wicket-keeper: Prasanna Jayawardene.

Spinners : Muttiah Muralitharan, Upul Chandana, Rangana Herath Fast bowlers: Chaminda Vaas, Nuwan Zoysa, Dilhara Fernando, Farveez Maharoof.

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Representation of clubs :

B'fd: Bloomfield  (5)

Ct: Colts Cricket Club (1)

Ga:   Galle (0)

Ms: Moors Sports Club (1)

NCC: Nondescripts (3)

SSC: Sinhalese Sports Club (5)

TU: Tamil Union (1)

Average age of  team at time of first Test match

(6 May 2004) :

            26 yrs 10 months.

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: member of the squad for one-day internationals

Test Appearances made before the tour

Muralitharan 88,  Jayasuriya 86,  Vaas 74,  Atapattu 71,  M Jayawardene 57,  Sangakkara 36,  Zoysa 26,  Samaraweera 16,  Dilshan 15,  Fernando 14,  Chandana 10,  Herath 4,  P Jayawardene 3,  Daniel 0,  Kandamby 0,  Maharoof 0.

Management Team

Sri Lanka Cricket secured the services of Australian John Dyson from September 2003 as national team coach

Selectors

Lalith Kaluperuma (Chairman),  Aravinda de Silva,   Jayantha Paranathala  and  Roger Wijesuriya.

Selection

Unavailable:  Prabath Nissanka (hamstring).   At first Nuwan Zoysa (injured leg muscle) and Dilhara Fernando (stress fractures in back) looked unlikely to be fit to tour.

On 30 March the selectors named a pool of 22 to begin training on 4 April : 

MS Atapattu, ST Jayasuriya, KC Sangakkara, M Jayawardene, TM Dilshan, TT Samaraweera, RP Arnold, U Chandana, CU Vaas, DNT Zoysa, CRD Fernando, M Muralitharan,  S Jayantha, N Kulasekera, R Herath, T Kandamby, F Maharoof, P Jayawardene, I Daniel, DA Gunawardene, C Gamage, K Lokuarachchi.

On 1 April 2004 Marvan Atapattu was named as captain. On 7 April a 16-man squad for the five one-day matches was announced.

Test party announced :  25 April 2004.

The squad for the Test series was announced after a three-day practice game, adding  Samaraweera,  Daniel and  Jayawardene to the squad. On 29 April, the names of three players who would return home after the ODI series were announced.

Not selected:  Skipper Hashan Tillekeratne;  spin bowler Kaushal Lokuarachchi 

Tillakaratne indicated that he wanted to continue playing Test cricket.

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

  9 days

(7 April to 16 April)

Travel

The Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports and the Deputy Minister visited Sri Lanka Cricket HQ to wish the team well prior to their departure on the afternoon of 16 April 2004.

On Saturday 17 April the Sri Lankan team arrived in Bulawayo.

The 3 additional Test players (Thilan Samaraweera, Ian Daniel, and Prasanna Jayawardene)  left  Sri Lanka on Monday 26 April and arrived in Harare early on Tuesday 27 April.

Time spent in Zimbabwe

   33 days

(17 April - 20 May)

On-tour selection panel

Lalith Kaluperuma (Chairman of selectors and selector-on-tour),  Marvan Atapattu,  John Dyson

Reinforcements

None

Fixtures/Results

� not first-class

§  one-day international

Time spent in Zimbabwe before First Test: 

19 days

(17 April - 6 May)

TSC Played at Takashinga Sports Club, Highfield, Harare

Test appearances on tour

2  -  Atapattu,  Dilshan,  Jayasuriya,  M Jayawardene,  P Jayawardene,  Maharoof,  Muralitharan,  Samaraweera, Sangakkara,  Vaas,  Zoysa.

0  -  Chandana,  Daniel,  Fernando,  Herath,  Kandamby.

Match appearances

Highlights

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Tour Summary

Return to Sri Lanka

Russel Arnold, Saman Jayantha and Nuwan Kulasekara returned to Sri Lanka at the end of the five-match one-day series.

After ten hours of flying from Zimbabwe on an Emirates Airlines jumbo, the Test party touched down at Bandaranaike International Airport at 4 pm on 20 May.  They were welcomed by Government officials at the Airport and in honour of Muralitharan's achievement were given a motorcade to Sri Lanka Cricket headquarters. It took more than four hours for the procession to reach Maitland Place.

Time away from Sri Lanka    34 days  

(16 April  to 20 May)