| Tour of West Indies 2007-08 Captain:
Mahela Jayawardene | |
| | | | |
| Sri Lanka’s forty-first Test tour Third
official Test-playing tour of West Indies by Sri Lanka (March - April 2008) | Sri
Lanka sent an experienced squad in their
endeavour to win a Test match for the first time on Caribbean
soil. The first Test brought the historic victory against the West Indies at
the Providence Stadium in Guyana
but overall the tour results were disappointing. They had to share the spoils
in the Test series and did not win any of the one-day internationals. The first Test was a glorious landmark in Sri Lanka’s Test history but West Indies
fought back magnificently in Trinidad and,
chasing 254 to level the series, strolled to their target for the loss of only
four wickets. In the one-day series Sri Lanka
flew in seven fresh players, partly to gain international experience before
the next World Cup. They lost the first match on the final ball when Vaas was
hit for six. West Indies gained victory in
the second match as well, and the third was rained off. | Other
Sri Lankan Tours Previous
tour Australia 2007-08 Next
tour Bangladesh 2008-09 Next
tour of West Indies 2012-13 (cancelled) | |
| Members
of the Test tour party (15) Opening batsmen: Michael
Vandort, Malinda Warnapura Middle-order batsmen:Mahela Jayawardane, Kumar Sangakkara, Thilan Samaraweera,
Tillekeratne Dilshan, Chamara Silva. Wicket-keeper:Prasanna
Jayawardane Spin bowler:Muttiah
. Muralitharan, Rangana Herath Fast bowlers:Chaminda
Vaas, Ishara Amarasinghe, Thilina Thushara, Nuwan Kulasekera, Chanaka
Welegedera | I D Amerasinghe | Ct | 29 | RFM | ODI | | T M Dilshan | Bf'd | 31 | RHB OB | ODI | | R K Herath | Ms | 29 | SLA | | | M D Jayawardene | SSC | 30 | RHB captain | ODI | | P W
Jayawardene | Bf'd | 28 | WK | | | M D N Kulasekera added | Ct | 25 | RFM | | | M F Maharoof (w/d) | | | | | | S L Malinga (w/d) | | | | | | M Muralitharan | T U | 35 | OB | | | T T Samaraweera | SSC | 32 | RHB | | | K C Sangakkara | NCC | 30 | LHB reserve WK | ODI | | L P C Silva | Bf'd | 28 | RHB | ODI | | M T Thushara | SSC | 27 | LFM | ODI | | C U Vaas | Ct | 32 | LFM | ODI | | M G Vandort | CCC | 28 | LHB opener | | | S M Warnapura | Ct | 28 | LHB opener | | | C A Welegedera added | Ms | 26 | LFM | | | | C M Bandara (Ragama) | ODI | | | | J
Mubarak (CCC) | ODI | | | | C K
Kapugedera(CCC) | ODI | | | | B A W Mendis (SL Army) | ODI | | | | W U Tharanga (NCC) | ODI | | | | M L
Udawatte (Ch
Marians) | ODI | | | | K
Weeraratne (Ragama) | ODI |
|  Average age of team at time of first Test match (22 March 2008) : 29
yrs 8 months. Representation
of clubs : Bf'd: Bloomfiield (3) CCC: Colombo (1) Ct: Colts Cricket Club (4) Ms : Moors (2) NCC: Nondescripts (1) SSC: Sinhalese Sports Club (3) TU: Tamil Union (1) 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 | |
| Test
Appearances made before the tour | Muralitharan 118, Vaas 102,
M Jayawardene 93, Sangakkara
71, Dilshan 43, Samaraweera 40, P Jayawardene 17, Vandort 14,
Herath 12, Silva 10, Kulasekara 4, Warnapura 2, Thushara 1,
Welegedera 1, Amerasinghe 0. | | |
| ⋆
Tour Officials | Shriyan Samararatne | Tour manager | Trevor Bayliss | Coach | Paul
Farbrace | Assistant coach | Tommy
Simsek | Physiotherapist | Jade
Roberts | Trainer | Nalin de Alwis | Computer analyst | Lal
Thamel | Masseur | Jayantha Seneviratne | Selector
on tour. |
| | |
| Selectors | Asantha de Mel (chairman), Ranjith Madurasinghe, Jayantha Seneviratne
and Don Anurasiri. | | |
| Selection | Unavailable : Sanath
Jayasuriya retired from Tests in 2007. Dilhara Fernando (injured in Australia) The Selection Committee met on 17 February. Tour Part.y announced: 19 February
2008. Stand-bys: Upul Tharanga (NCC),
Chamara Kapugedera (CCC),
Malinga Bandara (Ragama),
Sujeewa Silva Not selected: Withdrawals: Two
of their fast bowlers Lasith Malinga (knee bone) and Farveez Maharoof (side
strain) were injured and their places were taken by Chanaka Welagedera and
Nuwan Kulasekera. One-day squad announced : 11 March
2008. One-day stand-bys: Thilina Kandamby, Dhammika
Prasad. Sanath Jayasuriya was not
chosen for the ODIs. | Time between selection and departure from Sri Lanka 21 days (19 February to 11
March) | |
| Travel Colombo Q London Q Barbados Q Guyana | The team had just returned from
competing in the Commonwealth Bank tri-series in Australia Departure from Sri Lanka
was on Tuesday 11 March On Friday 14 March 2008
the team arrived at Grantley Adams International
Airport, then left Barbados on Friday night for Guyana
, where they arrived at Cheddi
Jagan Airport
after a tiring flight on 15 March. | Time spent in West Indies x days (14 March - depart Host) | |
| On-tour
selection panel | Trevor Bayliss (coach), Mahela Jayawardene (captain), Kumar
Sangakkara (vice-captain), Jayantha Seneviratne (selector on tour). | | |
| Reinforcements | None. | | |
| Fixtures/Results A three-day game scheduled for St.
Augustine was shifted to Shaw
Park in Tobago,
because a blind tournament was using the University ground. West Indies
Cricket Board said that flight difficulties prevented them from organising
the Tobago game and offered net practice
facilities instead | † Providence | Guyana Board President's XI
(3-day) | Drawn | PROVIDENCE, GUYANA | WEST INDIES First Test | WON
121 r | St
Augustine’s (UWI) | West Indies A | Cancelled | ϯ Scarborough, Tobago | West Indies A | Cancelled
(flight problems) | PORT-OF-SPAIN | WEST INDIES Second Test | LOST 6
w | § Port-of-Spain | West Indies (1st
ODI) | Lost 1 w | § Port-of-Spain | West Indies (2nd
ODI) | Lost 7 w | § Gros Islet | West Indies (3rd
ODI) | No result |
| † not first-class § one-day international Time
spent in West Indies before First Test: 8 days (14 March - 22 March) | |
| Test
appearances on tour | 2 - Dilshan,
M Jayawardene,
Muralitharan, Samaraweera, Sangakkara,
Thushara Mirando, Vaas,
Vandort, Warnapura 1 - Amerasinghe, Herath,
P Jayawardene, Silva. 0 - Kulasekera, Welegedera
| | |
| Match
appearances | | a | b | c | d | e | f | g | I D Amerasinghe | | | | T | o | | | T M Dilshan | x | T | | T | o | o | o | R K Herath | x | T | | | | | | M Jayawardene | x | T | | T | o | o | o | P Jayawardene | x | T | | | | | | C K Kapugadera | | | | | o | o | o | N Kulasekera | x | | | | o | o | o | B A W Mendis | | | | | o | o | o | M Muralitharan | x | T | | T | | | | T Samaraweera | x | T | | T | | | | K C Sangakkara | x | T | | T | o | o | o | L P C Silva | x | | | T | o | o | o | W U Tharanga | | | | | o | o | | M T Thushara | x | T | | T | | | o | M L Udawatte | | | | | o | o | o | C U Vaas | x | T | | T | o | o | o | M G Vandort | x | T | | T | | | | S M Warnapura | x | T | | T | | | | K Weeraratne | | | | | | o | o | C A Welegedera | x | | | | | | | R E S U L T S | D | W | C | L | L | L | N |
| | |
| Highlights | • Malinda Warnapura (120) and Michael Vandort (52)
made a stand of 130 for the first wicket at Providence • Jayawardene (136) also contributed a century
to Sri Lanka’s
massive 476 for 9 declared • Chaminda Vaas took 5-61, bowling Sri Lanka to their first Test victory in the Caribbean. • Muralitharan took 5-79 to restrict West
indies’ first innings lead at Port
of Spain • A century from Thilan Samaraweera (125) gave
Sri Lanka
a chance of winning the second Test. | | |
| Tour
Summary | | P | W | L | D | Aban | Cancelled | Test Matches | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | - | - | Other first-class matches | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | - | 1 | ϯ Minor matches | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | - | 1 | §
One-day internationals | 3 | 0 | 2 | 1 | - | - | Å T20 internationals | 0 | - | - | - | - | - | All Matches | 8 | 1 | 3 | 2 | - | 2 |
| | |
| Return
to Sri Lanka ? Q LondonQ Colombo | . Last match 15 April | Time away from Sri
Lanka
x
days (11 March to ? April) | |
| Finances | ….. | | |
| Postscript | The selectors had decided to bring Sanath Jayasuriya’s one-day
international career to a close and left him out of this tour but had to reconsider
their selection policy after Jayasuriya struck the second-fastest century for
Mumbai Indians in the Indian Premier League (T20) and chose him for the Asia
Cup tournament in June. Sri
Lanka lost the services of
physiotherapist Tommy Sismek who joined the Indian Premier League. He had
supported the squad since June 2005 when Tom Moody took over as coach | | |