Sri Lanka Cricket today (29) announced the appointment of Thisara Perera as captain of the Limited Over team for the forthcoming ODI and T20I Series against India.
Addressing the Media this afternoon, Perera said that Captaining his country was a dream he had since childhood, and he was happy to have received this opportunity.
“All teams go through tough patches, it’s upto each of us to get past our mental barriers and perform best for our country. The goal for each one of us is to bring glory to our country. This must be clearly stated.”
“I can confidently say that although India are currently best in the world in all 3 formats, if you compare each player of our team with any player in the world [not only India] we are on parr with the best of the best”
“My policy as captain is to stop dwelling on the past and failures, and to march forward together with my team with our eyes firmly planted on the goal of bringing glory to our motherland”
“I believe that if each player can perform to his individual potential, we can easily win this series” He concluded.
Speaking on the appointment Chairman of the National Selectors Graeme Labrooy stated;
“We are keen to implement our selections policy across the board in all aspects of the game, and Thisara’s appointment is one such move. We believe this is the leadership skillset the team needs right now, and have made this decision specifically with our long term goals in mind.”
“Quite contrary to the baseless speculation on Social Media sites, Tharanga had not failed us in anyway, we want him to keep making big scores and want him to concentrate on his game without burdening him with the captaincy, this is merely a strategic move, and we have discussed it with Tharanga too, who being the 100% team player he is, understands our reasoning and requirement.”
