Sri Lankan women’s cricket team captain Chamari Atapattu said that they have already started training for the next international tour including the World Cup qualifying tournament.
They have missed nearly four months of training due to the lock down for the Coronavirus and now have to adjust soon for the forthcoming tournaments.
Atapattu missed an opportunity to play in the IPL women’s tournament, the English League as well as the Big Bash league which were all cancelled. The women have started practicing with the focus on fitness at the Kettarama Max Academy. They practice three days of the week with coach Mahesh Weerasinghe.
The pool has 20 contracted players from the national squad and 15 players from the emerging squad.
Skipper Atapattu is the only player from the Grade ‘A’ SLC contract.
“The retirement of experienced players like Shashikala Siriwardena and Sripali Weerakkody is a big loss for the team. This will give the youngsters a good opportunity to fill these vacant places,” said Atapattu.
“Sripali is a qualified trainer from Australia and we like to see her with our support staff in the future,” added Chamari.
“Actually I cannot be happy with our performance at the last World Cup T-20 tournament. Our fielding was not up to expectations at important matches.
“At times the middle order struggled after making a good start and these are the areas we have to develop for the benefit of the future,” commented Atapattu.
“We have to be ready for the future tournaments. We hope SLC will extend their fullest support to get maximum results,” added Atapattu.