da premier bet： Hashan Tillakaratne will make a comeback into the Sri Lankan nationalside in first Test against India in Galle on Tuesday after twofrustrating years on the sidelines
Charlie Austin13-Aug-2001Hashan Tillakaratne will make a comeback into the Sri Lankan nationalside in first Test against India in Galle on Tuesday after twofrustrating years on the sidelines.He was dropped after the national selectors implemented a radicalyouth policy after Sri Lanka’s disappointing performance in the 1999World Cup.Aravinda de Silva, Arjuna Ranatunga, Roshan Mahanama and Tillakaratnewere all axed from the one-day side, though de Silva and Ranatungawere retained for Test cricket.Mahanama decided to call it a day and went to Australia to write hisautobiography `Retired Hurt’. Tillakaratne continued playing cricket,but did hide not his anger with the selectors’ decision."I was angry because I could not understand the reasons for me beingleft out of the Test side and I wanted to play," he said.His bitterness led to an ugly argument with Sidath Wettimuny, who hadbeen chairman of the selectors when had been dropped, in the car parkat the Nondescripts Cricket Club. Tillakaratne had to be restrained byfast bowling coach Rumesh Ratnayake and Wettimuny filed a complaint atthe local police station.Tillakaratne’s slim chances of a recall looked to have been squashedand he took up an administrative position within the cricket board’stournament committee during the Pakistan and South African tours toSri Lanka last year.But he had not given up. "I never gave up hope of playinginternational cricket again and I have wanted to represent Sri Lankaever since I was dropped," he said. "I believed in myself and mytechnique. I was still enjoying the game and I wanted to continueplaying the game."When Ranatunga retired from Test cricket in August last year and withAravinda de Silva’s appetite for international cricket a continualsource of debate amongst cricketing circles, Tillakaratne came back incontention for England’s tour of Sri Lanka.He just missed out after failing in one of the warm-up games, but wenton to score 665 runs at an average of 110.83 in the domestic seasonand was recalled into the training squad for the India tour."There was always a couple of vacancies in the side and I realisedthat if I did well, there was a chance of me getting back into theside, so I tried my level best and did well in domestic cricket," hesaid.Since coming back into the frame, he has attracted praise from themanagement for his hard working attitude. He may be 34 years old, buthe retains his youthful complexion and remains extremely fit.Those who have seen him bat recently claim that he batting as well ashe did throughout his 52-match Test career, in which he averaged38.59."I have not made any drastic changes to my game, though there were acouple of technical errors that I worked on with Dav (Whatmore), Owen(Mattau), and Hemantha (Devpriya)," he reveals. "I now have a lot ofconfidence in my batting and have been playing well recently."Expected to bat at No. five, it will not be easy returning after twoyears, but he is not outwardly concerned."This is like a second debut, but I don’t have any nerves," he says."I don’t need to prove anything to anyone else, but I want to proveto myself that I can still play successfully on the internationalscene."