Sangakkara lack of practice at World Cup

 

Kumar Sangakkara has said Sri Lanka's lack of practice at the country's World Cup venues, which are yet to be completed, will rob them of some home advantage during the tournament. Construction delays have prevented Sri Lanka from training at the new stadiums in Hambantota and Pallekele.

"We would love to train at all the grounds [in Sri Lanka], but we need to have the proper facilities to train," Sangakkara told AFP after beating West Indies on Sunday, in Sri Lanka's last international fixture
before the World Cup. "We need to have side [practice] wickets and gyms at the venues, otherwise it is difficult.

"We've accepted the fact that we'll have to play World Cup matches on those grounds without knowing the conditions too well." Sri Lanka have, however, played a rain-marred Test against West Indies recently at Pallekele.

Hambantota and Pallekele will host five Group A matches in all, with Sri Lanka featuring in two of them, one at each of the grounds. After the ICC delegation's final inspection of the stadiums on January 22, Sri lanka's World Cup director Suraj Dandeniya had said the stadium at Pallekele was 99.9% complete, while the "finishing touches at Hambantota, the roofs and the roads leading to the stadium" were pending.

Sangakkara said the players were happy with the facilities at Sri Lanka's third World Cup venue - the renovated R Premadasa Stadium in Colombo - where the squad has played a few domestic matches recently. "We've got to prepare as well as we can in the two weeks [before the tournament begins] with the best facilities and those facilities are here in Colombo." Sri Lanka play their first match at Hambantota on February 20 against Canada.