National cricket team members laud Radella training facility

 The Lankan team at practice in Radella

Sri Lanka Test Captain Dimuth Karunaratne and Head Coach Chris Silverwood during a practice session at Radella

• Preparation for New Zealand tour

Sri Lanka Test Captain Dimuth Karunaratne, senior player Angelo Mathews, and Head Coach Chris Silverwood have lauded the training facility afforded to the National Cricket Team at Radella in their preparation for the tour of New Zealand later this month.

The Radella training facility was upgraded by Sri Lanka Cricket to help the team prepare for the upcoming tour.

Silverwood said: “We are here trying to replicate as closely as possible the conditions we may face. What Godfrey (Dabrera) and his team has done is absolutely fantastic. To give us the conditions and the facilities we have here is absolutely superb. The wickets that we played on have been excellent with pace, with bounce a little bit of movement and obviously the climate has suited us training in this altitude.

“The curator and his staff have done a great job in a short period of time producing the wickets for us. It’s been excellent so far, decent pace, good bounce and very similar to what we may face in New Zealand. Honing our skills so that once we arrive in New Zealand we hit the ground running.”

Karunaratne said it was a great boon to the team ahead of the New Zealand tour to practice in nearly similar conditions and pitches. “The conditions here are cold and the fast bowlers adapted themselves well to them, also the spinners on how they can grip the ball in cold conditions. There are a lot of youngsters in the team and most of them have not experienced playing in New Zealand. This is a good experience for them before going there.”

Mathews praised the curator and ground staff for giving them the conditions suited to New Zealand in such a short time.

The national team’s Fast Bowling Coach Darshana Gamage and Fielding Coach Manoj Abeywickrema, also expressed their satisfaction with the new training facility.

The Sri Lanka squad which began training at Radella on 17 February will return to Colombo today following the completion of a week-long training session.