19 February - Paarl - Sri Lanka Captain Chamari Athapaththu post-match press conference
[Reporter]
How would you explain how it went from such a great start against South Africa to what we've seen in the last two games?
[Chamari Athapaththu]
Actually, the first two games we were playing really good cricket, you know, the batting department, bowling and the fielding department, all three departments were doing really good. As a team, we stick with our plan, we execute our plans really good. Unfortunately the third game we lost against Australia, so we all know Australia is a world champion team, obviously they have good players, but we're playing good cricket. I'm not worried about Australian games, I'm a little bit worried about today's game because this game is very open for both teams and a very crucial game for us. We have to stick with our plans and today's game is very crucial for us, so we have to use our experience in this game. I feel some of the girls in my team, they take too much pressure on their shoulders, so I think they didn't handle that pressure very well, especially the bowling department, and we dropped a couple of catches and the batting department, we struggled a lot in the first six overs, so that's the thing we lost this game.
[Reporter]
Do you think it was more nerves or do you think it had something to do with the execution?
[Chamari Athapaththu]
I think execution is the most important thing in this game because we can plan a lot of things but we have to execute that plan in the middle and other things, we take too much pressure on our shoulders, but yesterday I talked to my team and said don't take too much pressure on your shoulders, play your natural game, because I have a lot of youngsters, so they have not played a lot of cricket, so they take too much pressure on their shoulders.
[Reporter]
There are two aspects to what you just said, handling pressure and defending the game that you guys play on the field and then defend the players. What is more difficult, for you to explain to the newcomer how to handle a pressure or after a bad game like this, defending the team and coming back again here and defending them because the gap is widening between the Asian teams and the top two teams in the world. Your views?
[Chamari Athapaththu]
Definitely, after this kind of game, the players are going down, their mentality is going down because a lot of youngsters think we lost the game, we lost the semi-finals like that, but as a senior player, as a captain, I always defend them, I encourage them, this is not a world end, again, the sun is coming tomorrow, so I don't want to blame them, I always try to encourage them and my focus is next game, next tour, so I want to build a good team for the future, so that's what I want to do, this is one game, but I know today is a bit hard, feeling is not good, but we stick with our plans for next game, I always try to encourage the youngsters.
[Reporter]
We've seen that teams like Australia are so far ahead of the other teams, what can other countries do, what can their boards and their planners do to close that gap between teams like Australia?
[Chamari Athapaththu]
Yeah, because obviously we all know Australia have good structure, good domestic structure, they play a lot of cricket, like they play in domestic tournaments and they play in school tournaments, so they have good structure, so other nations like Asians - India, I feel India has good structure, but Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh - we have to develop our structure, essentially try and do their best to rebuild the structure and now I feel we have a lot of youngsters, so we restructure our domestic level, hopefully next two years we can build good teams in Sri Lanka because we are playing good cricket in under-19 level, so we have good under-19 players, so next year we can play good cricket.
[Reporter]
I know the defeat is still fresh, but what are some of the positives from your team that you can take from this tournament?
[Chamari Athapaththu]
Definitely, we play really good cricket throughout the tournament, not today, but last three games we played really good and warm-up game also, so as a betting unit we try to score some runs, because normally our average score is 120-125, it's not enough for T20 format, so we try to score 150-160 like that, so we have to improve our batting a little bit, and bowling department is really good - not today, but I feel we have to improve our fielding also. So we have some off-period, one month, so then we have to again, we have Bangladesh come to Sri Lanka, so I hope we can train in the nets and I hope we can develop that area.
[Reporter]
Is this the right time to talk about some changes, considering you are almost through with your World Cup, is it time for some change in the team, in the mindset or the coach?
[Chamari Athapaththu]
No, actually I don't think we don't want any changes, so I feel today game is tough day as a team, so I don't think we don't need any changes, we have to stick with our plans, we try to play positive cricket, we have to handle the pressure, that's the main thing, so I don't think we don't want any changes.
[Reporter]
Just in terms of yourself, how much longer and more time do you want to spend playing and leading Sri Lanka?
[Chamari Athapaththu]
I will try my best to play for my country, I want to build a good team for Sri Lanka for future, so that's my goal, so a lot of youngsters come in, so I want to encourage them to be a role model and always try to lead them from the front, so my target is playing another one or two years for Sri Lanka, that's what I want to do.
[Reporter]
Just wanted to touch up on one of the things you spoke about, between the T20 World Cup in 2020 and till the start of 2022, Sri Lanka did not play a single T20 match and even after that they hardly got to tour or play bilateral against top teams, the top teams that you generally struggle in the World Cups, so how much do you think playing more bilateral with the top teams going forward in the future is important to build the confidence for the youngsters?
[Chamari Athapaththu]
Definitely, the youngsters need some experience or experience not coming from playing in the nets, so they need to play more cricket in future, that's what we want to do, so SSC try to try their best to organise some tours in future and actually you are right because we have to play a lot of cricket against top four teams, so then we can improve our cricket and we can build good teams, so we need some matches in future, so I hope SSC will organise some tours for us.