'1996 World Cup side was better' - Murali

Pata · **'1996 World Cup side was better' - Murali -** 02-23-2007, 06:24 PM

Why he is telling something like that just before the world cup?? Its not good for the moral of our team... What do you think guys???

While Sri Lanka's name does the round of pre-World Cup predictions, Muttiah Muralitharan believes the side that lifted the 1996 World Cup was superior to the current contenders. "Some experts are tipping us to surprise a few at the World Cup and maybe even win it. I think we have a good chance but I still believe the Sri Lanka team of 1996 was better," he told the website bigstarcricket.com.

Muralitharan, 34, insisted the Arjuna Ranatunga-led side was a stronger batting unit, full of experienced attacking players. "When we won the World Cup in 1996, batting-wise the team was more experienced, had flair, everything was there in that team in 1996. This team now has a better bowling attack than what we had that time but we had a better balance in the 1996 World Cup because there were four spinners in the side and only two fast bowlers."

With 432 one-day international wickets, it would be easy to pinpoint Muralitharan as a threat on the slow and low pitches in the West Indies, but he felt spinners would struggle. "The rules have changed now with the 20-over power plays coming so the spinners go out of the game, you can't play two or three spinners any more," he said. "We have only one spinner at the moment so fast bowlers have more chance [of success] because they bowl in the power play."

Muralitharan and Chaminda Vaas, the other veteran bowler in the Sri Lankan side, were both rested for the recent ODI series against India. Both will play their final World Cup. Sri Lanka have been drawn in Group B along with India, Bangladesh and Bermuda.

lasanka · 02-23-2007, 06:26 PM

welll it could boost morale ina way and also it kinda makes the opposition metally kinda think were weak.. its strategy bro...

Anusha · 02-23-2007, 06:27 PM

I believe so too. We don't have reliable players anymore. Those days, Aravinda, Mahanama, Arjuna could take the whole load on themselves and steady the score if the top order batsmen failed. But we don't really see that now. When they fail, they fail in a row!!!

lasanka · 02-23-2007, 06:29 PM

umm well the top order doesn realli do well now... and the middle is gettin better .. with comments like dis our guys will wanna prove themselves ...

lasanka · 02-23-2007, 06:30 PM

we have mahela, sanga, marvan, dilshan, arnold, chamara these guys are those hu can bat... not includin sana and tharanga.. potentially were pretty gud...

Pata · 02-23-2007, 06:32 PM

If dats a trick its good.. otherwise I dont think its not good from the teams point of view

Quote:

Originally Posted by lasanka

welll it could boost morale ina way and also it kinda makes the opposition metally kinda think were weak.. its strategy bro...

Anusha · 02-23-2007, 06:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lasanka

we have mahela, sanga, marvan, dilshan, arnold, chamara these guys are those hu can bat... not includin sana and tharanga.. potentially were pretty gud...

But we don't have HITTERS. Every team has at least one hitter.

Our guys will just nudge the ball to gaps and steal a single. They can't hit boundaries in the 25-40 overs

Pata · 06:37 PM

Reliability wise its not the best batting line up.. But capability wise this lineup is far superior than what we had in 1996.. Sanga, Mahela,Upul, Jaiya, Dilshan, Silva .. These guys can do wonders if they can use their brain a little bit... And from the bowling point of view we have such agreat fast bowling aack than in 1996... Where we only had Vass who was the only Qty paceman

Quote:

Originally Posted by Anusha

I believe so too. We don't have reliable players anymore. Those days, Aravinda, Mahanama, Arjuna could take the whole load on themselves and steady the score if the top order batsmen failed. But we don't really see that now. When they fail, they fail in a row!!!

Anusha · 02-23-2007, 06:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pata

Reliability wise its not the best batting line up.. But capability wise this lineup is far superior than what we had in 1996.. Sanga, Mahela,Upul, Jaiya, Dilshan, Silva .. These guys can do wonders if they can use their brain a little bit...

Brains + improvisation.

lasanka · 02-23-2007, 06:43 PM

yaaa improvisation.. pace attack is pretty gud! ya as long as the guys hold it together.. with vaasi bk they should pull through .. if they shape up yea sure have a good attack.. as for the batsmen the only hitter of sorts will be maharoof....