External: Take Bangladesh seriously to remain on top - Moody -Daily News SL

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BY SA'ADI Thawfeeq
Sri Lanka coach Tom Moody was of the opinion that if his team was to remain on top of their game they should treat the series against Bangladesh seriously.
"We've got a lot of cricket in the next 6-12 months and we want to maintain some positive momentum. This series is as important than any other series we have got in the future," said Moody at a press conference held in connection with the upcoming series at Hotel Taj Samudra yesterday.
"It is important we play our best players and during the process maybe blood some players as we go along."
"It is important we play our strongest side because we have a lot of respect for Bangladesh. They are an emerging side and improving all the time," said Moody.
Sri Lanka captain Marvan Atapattu also had words of praise for Test cricket's minnows when he said: "Over the years they have shown potential and what they have got. They have improved and it shows in their recent performances too."
"As far as we are concerned we would like to think about ourselves and play the way we normally perform here. We will try and concentrate in our own game than think too much about the opposition," said Atapattu.
Bangladesh coach Dav Whatmore said that Sri Lanka being ranked second in the ICC one-day table was a reflection the way the team was playing.
"They have won a lot of games and fully deserve to be there. They are a good side especially at home. We are not going to underestimate the opposition. We go with both our eyes open against a very good side," said Whatmore.
Answering questions as to why all the matches on the Bangladesh tour had been scheduled in Colombo, Sri Lanka Cricket interim committee secretary Tryphon Mirando said that it was to reduce the effort of going and playing out of Colombo since the series was only for two Tests and three one-day internationals.
"We thought that instead of the team spending time travelling from one place to another, they could spend their time practicing in Colombo and decided to play all the matches there," said Mirando.
"Maybe the decision to play the matches in Colombo is not to everybody's liking, but after talking to all the people concerned we finally arrived at the decision," he said.
Questioned why the one-day matches were switched over to day games, Mirando said: "For a day night game unless you have a full house it is not going to be a source of encouragement. What we thought was it is better to play a day game where you'll have more people coming in."
"The R. Premadasa Stadium can hold around 25,000 people and if you don't have that kind of crowd, it is not going to be encouraging to anybody.
After all the cricket we've had we felt that people have spent their resources and may not be in a position to come and watch cricket again. That is why we changed the three one-day internationals to day games," said Mirando.
The two series will be sponsored by Bank Alfallah for Rs. 12 million. The bank's chief executive in charge in Karachi, Sirajudeen Aziz said that the bank felt they ought to contribute towards the development of society and that sports was a great medium to do that.
"If we can build that on the spirit of cooperation and competition between people and get the best out of them, I think we have played the role that is precisely what we intend to do here," said Aziz.
This will be the second tournament Bank Alfallah will be sponsoring. Two years ago they sponsored a one-day triangular which involved host Sri Lanka, New Zealand and Pakistan.