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| |  Friday, 23 February, 2001, 13:04 GMT De Silva's golden reply  De Silva sweeps to the boundary in Galle BBC Sport Online's Thrasy Petropoulos on the return to form of Sri Lanka's World Cup hero, Aravinda de Silva. Three years ago, Aravinda de Silva was asked what he intended to do when his playing days were over. "Pass on my knowledge to kids," he replied. "I have a fair idea of what exactly is required to reach the top level - the mental toughness, the development of the physical and technical sides." Mental toughness? Well, if de Silva thought he knew all about mental toughness back then, he was soon to find out that he had much to learn.
Two years down the road, he was to face his greatest challenge. As with all touch players suffering a dip in form, he became increasingly scratchy at the crease and Sri Lanka's national selectors made no pretence in indicating that de Silva's advancing years - he is now 35 - counted heavily against him. Late replacement To cap it all, when India's Central Bureau of Investigation published their findings late last year, de Silva was accused by Indian bookmaker Mukesh Gupta as having accepted $15,000 to fix a Test against India in 1994. When de Silva, who vehemently denied the allegation, was overlooked for the tour party to South Africa earlier this year, he might well have dug up those retirement plans and redefined the section on mental toughness. For a player of such distinction - Clive Lloyd and Viv Richards are the only other batsmen to have scored a century in a World Cup final, as de Silva did in 1996 to give Sri Lanka one of their greatest moments, sporting or otherwise - this, surely, was not the way to go. As fate would have it, an injury to Upul Chandana, the leg-spinner, offered de Silva a life-line as a late replacement, even if his form once out in South Africa was nothing to write home about. Back in Sri Lanka there was speculation that de Silva would once again face the chop.
A compromise was found by playing seven batsman in Galle and the rest - well, read the scorecard. A pattern is developing here. Of current players, Mark Waugh, Wasim Akram, Brian Lara and Alec Stewart were also named in the CBI report. World-class performances In the case of Waugh and Akram, the allegations - including those which preceded the report - appeared to have had a galvanising effect. For a short while early last year, Akram was in the spotlight while Pakistan were touring the West Indies. As the three-Test series hotted up, so did the pressure on the former Pakistani captain to make himself unavailable for selection until the mess was cleared up. Akram simply refused to bow to the pressure, reiterating his innocence, and took his place in the final, deciding Test in Antigua. Two plucky batting contributions in a low-scoring Test were as nothing compared to figures of six for 61 and then five for 49 as the West Indies chased 216 for victory. Akram bowled himself into the ground but could not help the West Indies sneaking home by one wicket. Then there were Waugh's runs recently against the West Indies and Zimbabwe - 339 at 48.43 in the Test series and 542, including three hundreds and two fifties in the triangular one-day series that followed. Memorably, he stepped out to hit 173, the highest score in Australian one-day international cricket, in the second final against the West Indies. Stewart out of sorts
It followed a ding-dong in which he first refused to attend an interview with the ICC's anti-corruption unit and then, under orders from the Australian Cricket Board, agreed to comply to the request, Lara's case is more complicated, but he too has responded to the most intense pressure with flashes of brilliance. Indeed, the only player whose form appears to have suffered - temporarily England supporters hope - is Stewart. As to de Silva's future, the wristy strokeplay evident when he made his Test debut as a 19-year-old against England at Lord's in 1984 was there for all to see during his 106 in Galle. Will he add to his 19 Test hundreds? Don't bet against it. | |   Sri Lanka's obstacle
See also: Other top England on Tour stories: Links to top England on Tour stories are at the foot of the page. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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