Aravinda de Silva - "Once the boys can withstand the pressure, other things will fall in line."

Former batting great Aravinda de Silva, the mastermind behind Sri Lanka’s success in the 1996 World Cup triumph is busy these days gearing up for another challenge. Decades ago, the country’s under-19 teams were too strong for any opposition, but sadly the standards have dropped over the years and Sri Lanka’s under-19 team have never been serious contenders to win the under-19 Youth World Cup conduced by the International Cricket Council, once in two years.

With standards dropping drastically, the country’s cricket authorities rushed in de Silva to help regain past glories at under-19 level and the decision seems to be paying dividends following a terrific series win in Australia during their recent tour down under.

Sri Lanka won the five match series 3-2 against Australia under-19 and the team is now looking at the 2010 Youth World Cup in New Zealand in February, with optimism.

"I was very impressed with our bowling unit. The top order also batted well on wickets that had pace and bounce, but overall I was impressed with our fast bowlers, who I thought had an excellent series. Off-spinner Rushan Jaleel, I think has a good attitude. He looks to be a bloke who likes to take on a challenge and I like that sort of attitude," de Silva told ‘The Island’ in an interview.

"Banuka Rajapakse made a big hundred in one of the matches, but overall it was a great team effort. In a team game, what matters at the end of the day is the end result. I am a great believer in that concept. There were some good individual performances, but at the same time, most players took the responsibility and contributed during difficult situations," he added.

De Silva’s former school-mate Naved Nawaz functions as the head coach of the under-19 team where Aravinda is the batting coach while former Sri Lanka national Upul Chandana functions as the fielding coach.

"We tried to do a bit of changes with the players’ attitude. Their willingness to take on challenges was one thing that we tried to work on and all of them put their hands up and responded"

"Basically we wanted the boys to enjoy their cricket while working hard at their game. I must give credit to the relevant departments where Darshana Weerasinghe did an excellent job with the players’ fitness. The management side was well handled and Upul was keen on improving our fielding while Naved looked into all other aspects overall. We all sat together and worked out areas that we needed to look into and it’s pleasing to see what we have achieved that at the end of the day," Aravinda added.

While relishing the victory, Aravinda also stressed the need to improve on certain areas.

"It’s true that the team won, but they need to improve in a lot of areas. One thing that I’ve been saying is to minimize mistakes and learn to play under pressure. As the Youth World Cup gets closer, they should be able to consistently do this. Once the boys can withstand the pressure, the other things will fall in line."

The most important thing is to remain positive. I was told at school not to bother about anything, but to remain positive. By being positive, the players will gain confidence. That helps to not have any inferiority complex about the opposition and be confident that you are better than the opposition.

"I am not too worried about winning. As long as you give your best, the result will happen on its own.

Ahead of the Youth World Cup, the under-19 cricketers will have assignments in South Africa and a home tri-nation series against Bangladesh and Pakistan.