"Just enjoy the game" - Aravinda

Former Sri Lankan batting great, Aravinda de Silva has made a plea to let the young cricketers at the ICC U19 Cricket World Cup just play the game and enjoy it.

De Silva is adamant that for the emerging cricketing talent gathered for this eighth U19 CWC, the event should be about the players being able to showcase their talents ? rather than having their flair curbed by to much pressure and too higher expectation.

One of the world?s most entertaining batsmen, Aravinda de Silva scored more than 6000 Test runs and nearly 10,000 ODI runs for his country ? including an unforgettable match-winning century in the final of the 1996 World Cup.

Here in Christchurch he fills the role of team consultant to the Sri Lanka Under-19 side for the World Cup.

Aravinda says his job is " to help develop cricket discipline" within his country's young players. "There is an enormous amount of raw cricket talent here," he says. "But that is only 20 percent of the equation ? there are a lot of other areas a cricketer must work on."

He says he gets a lot of pleasure passing on advice on how to prepare for the big cricketing moments. "The earlier you can pass on this information, the earlier a cricketer will be able to compete successfully at the highest level."

Aravinda also believes the mental preparation area of the game often is neglected.

After this U19 CWC campaign is over, de Silva says his company business is needing his input, so sadly his coaching expertise will be put on hold for a while.

But his passion for the game, and for young players will continue, he says. "I'm so looking forward to seeing the matches at the World Cup ? but please let the young cricketers play and enjoy themselves".