Sri Lanka captain Sineth Jayawardene previews ICC u19 world cup
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00:00 How are you feeling ahead of the first match of this World Cup? How excited?
00:07 As a team we are pretty excited to play this World Cup because this is a great opportunity for the boys as well. So really excited.
00:16 What does it mean to you to be captain of your country?
00:19 It means a lot to captain the country because for the boys, I mean, it's a...
00:30 Just give me a second.
00:32 Making childhood dream or what?
00:34 No, it's not a childhood dream.
00:36 It means a lot to captain the under 19 team.
00:42 Because...
00:48 Because you have a lot of responsibility towards the team.
00:54 You have to do it.
00:56 I'm a grown up now.
00:58 You have to do it.
01:02 You have to win the World Cup.
01:07 I'll ask it again. What does it mean to you to captain?
01:10 It means a lot to me because Sri Lanka hasn't won the under 19 World Cup.
01:16 So this time as a captain, I would like to bring the cup to our home country.
01:22 What can we expect from you as a player?
01:30 Sorry, I didn't hear you.
01:33 Like when you are competing at this World Cup, what are you going to bring to the team as a player?
01:42 You can speak about your batting or you can speak about your leadership.
01:49 First of all, as a captain, I would like to keep my players very calmly.
01:57 Because if they get pressure, then they won't do well.
02:01 So I think as a captain, I need to be cool.
02:06 And as a player, as a batter, my only goal is to bat all the 50 overs without giving my wicket, without playing a rash on.
02:15 When you talk about being a leader, what type of leader are you?
02:20 I think I like to be like MSD. He's my idol.
02:26 So I would like to be as cool as him.
02:29 What did you appreciate most about him?
02:33 The way he captains the team, the way he handles things, the decision making, everything about him is really amazing.
02:40 What do you think it will take for you to go all the way this tournament as a team to the final? What do you need to do?
02:48 As a team, we need to be consistent and keep our heads down because every team is better.
02:57 In the group stage, we have Namibia, Zimbabwe and Australia.
03:02 Namibia and Zimbabwe are African countries. They have been in this situation.
03:07 So it won't be easy, but we need to do well.
03:10 So our mentality is high and we're hoping to do well in this tournament.
03:14 Will you give us a sense of what is cricket like back in Sri Lanka?
03:19 Just the cricket landscape. What is it like growing up in Sri Lanka and loving cricket?
03:25 What would it mean to everybody back home if you won it?
03:37 We start playing cricket at school level.
03:59 In Sri Lanka, cricket is like a religion to us.
04:10 In school, when we do our subjects in the interval, we only get 20 minutes.
04:17 At that 20 minutes, we go and play cricket.
04:20 Everyone in the school likes to play cricket.
04:30 I think they also need to be happy because we need to do well and win for Sri Lanka.
04:36 They are expecting more from us.
04:39 I think it's like a religion to us.
04:42 What a great onset. That was beautiful.