Sanga seeks personal improvement in his third World Cup

Kumar Sangakkara was more than once officially ranked as world’s best batsman and he has been held in high esteem among contemporary cricketers. In World Cups, however, Sangakkara has been less than impressive and addressing journalists after Sri Lanka beat West Indies in their final warm up game ahead of the ICC Cricket World Cup, the Sri Lankan captain said he’s hoping for an improved performance in his third World Cup. His World Cup average – 30:94, is way below the career average of 36:86 and in 21 World Cup matches the Sri Lankan captain has managed just four half-centuries.

"You always want to do well in big tournaments and in big games. This is my third World Cup. In my first World Cup in South Africa I batted at number nine, seven and five. When you are more settled in the line up it gets a bit easier, but there is always room for improvement. I just want to kick on and do as well as I can, score as many runs and keep wickets as well and make sure my contribution on the field adds value to the team," Sangakkara said.

The Sri Lankan captain will have a hectic schedule ahead of his team’s first game against Canada as he was supposed to travel to Bangladesh on Wednesday and return home after Friday’s Opening Ceremony in Dhaka and will immediately travel to Hambantota to catch up with his team-mates ahead of Sunday’s game.

"The Manager and I will be going to Dhaka. We are leaving tomorrow and will be back on the 18th and will be flying to Hambantota. It’s going to be a hectic couple of days before the first game, but that’s something the ICC expects us to do," he said.

Batting second at R. Premadasa Stadium has been a challenging task in the last four years or so, but after the wickets were relayed, Sangakkara said there was a marked improvement. "The wicket was much better than we expected it to be. They put a lot of work in. When we started three weeks ago, they asked us not to play any cricket on this so that they could prepare the wickets and that hard work has paid off. There’s good bounce, enough turn and all in all a good track to bat on."

He also said that the team needed to improve in certain areas particularly giving away too many runs in the first 15 overs. "Preparation wise there is still a lot of work to be done although we don’t have much time. The first 15 overs today were not good enough. For World Cup cricket we need to make sure that we are focused. We can’t allow 100 runs off the first 11 or 12 overs."