ICC World Cup 2011: Muralitharan aims to ‘put up his best for http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Sri-Lanka-c758’
The legendary spin wizard of Sri Lanka, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Muttiah-Muralitharan-c78157, stated that he aims to focus on his performance for his fourth World Cup appearance.
“My aim is to put my best for Sri Lanka,” Murali told the media reporters in Colombo ahead of a warm-up match against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Netherlands-c753 on Saturday.
The record-breaking bowler stated that he will try hard to claim as many wickets as he can in his last World Cup appearance, so that he ends his glorious career on a high.
The former Test bowler recently announced that he would quit One Day format of the game after the World Cup, which goes underway from the 19th of February in the Subcontinent.
He bowed out of the longer-format of the game in July last year, after the opening game in Galle against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/India-c750. He became the world’s leading wicket-taker in Test matches after he picked up his 800th wicket in that match. He
is also One-day’s leading wicket-takers with 517 wickets.
However, the experienced bowler admitted that he can feel the pressure of lifting the cup once again in the Subcontinent, since winning the tournament in 1996 at Lahore, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755.
“1996 was one of the greatest moments for us... (Since then) the team has now got more professional and expectations are much higher,” he conceded.
He, however, maintained that the 1996 team cannot be compared with the current team as the “playing technique” and the conditions have changed over the times.
He stressed on the fact that the team needs to look ahead, instead of looking backwards and try to perform their best.
When asked about Sri Lanka’s chances of winning the World Cup, he denied to add fuel to the speculations but admitted that the team has the advantage of playing on the home conditions.
“The disadvantages are minimal,” he stated before saying that it is hard to name one favourite team for lifting the cricket extravaganza’s prize as all the 14 teams have the experience of playing in these conditions.
The team will be beginning their bid to win the World Cup from the 20th of February, 2011 when they play their first game against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Canada-c748.
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