Jayawardene plays down 'grudge match' talk

Mahela Jayawardene scotched suggestions that Tuesday's match against South Africa was in any way a "grudge match". Speaking to the media in a pre-game briefing, he said: "Mark [Boucher] can call it anything he wants. For me, it's not about revenge or grudge. We are all professionals and we are here to play cricket. The media can build up any type of hype," he said. "I know teams who have been called worse things. I don't believe Mark really means it. We players never responded to South Africa leaving the Sri Lankan shores. We never called them chickens. But if they want to treat this as a grudge match, I think we are in good hands. Their focus will not be on cricket then. So we'll be happy about that."

Jayawardene was reacting to the comments made by Mark Boucher, who was captain of the South African team on the recent visit to Sri Lanka in Graeme Smith's absence when the team prematurely pulled out of the tournament and returned home amid security fears following a bomb blast near the team hotel in Colombo. Complaining about the reaction by the Sri Lankan media, Boucher had said, "We were called 'chicken' and various other things, which was unfair and uncalled for. We have nothing against the any of the players, but the press in Sri Lanka were out of order. I am definitely one of those treating this game as a grudge match."

Jayawardene, however, dismissed any suggestions that his team had these matters in mind when looking forward to tomorrow's game. He was merely interested in winning a game of cricket that was crucial to his team's chances of progressing to the next round in this competition. "We are pretty serious about tomorrow's game because it is a crucial game for us and we want to emerge winners in that," he said. "We have already played a match here earlier and we are hoping to derive some positives out of it."

Spin played a huge role in Sri Lanka's comprehensive win over New Zealand in Mumbai, with Muttiah Muralitharan and Sanath Jayasuriya taking 6 for 49 between them. But Jayawardene conceded that the South Africans were good players of spin. "South Africa play spin pretty well," he said. "They showed in recent matches that they can handle spin as well as any other team. The advantage we have is that Sanath is an experienced player and Murali is exceptional, and that give us a lot of flexibility."

When asked that well-worn question on the pitch, the answer was along expected lines. "All the pitches in India will assist spinners, but it depends to what extent. The wicket here will differ to the ones in Mumbai, Mohali or Jaipur," he said. "Fortunately we have the luxury of a lot of part-time spinners in the side and all of them are very experienced. They can adapt to different conditions. Until we play on the pitch, I cannot say it will suit us. But we have played here before against Zimbabwe, and the wicket did turn. Hopefully it will do the same."

Taking a charming little detour from the controversy of grudge matches and the dourness of the pitch conditions, Jayawardene spoke of Jayasuriya's visit back home to Sri Lanka to be with his new-born child. "Sanath became a father just before our last game. He flew back and spent some quality time with his new-born. He got back last night and is in a good mood," said Jayawardene. "In situations like these, the family always comes first. We were in a good position to release him and give him that extra bit of time to spend with his family," adding, with a smile: "We have a boy who might play for Sri Lanka one day."