Sri Lanka Have Shaken Up The T20 World Cup, Believes Mickey Arthur

Sri Lanka head coach Mickey Arthur believes that his team has shaken up the ongoing ICC Men's T20 World Cup. Ahead of his team's final match in the tournament against defending champions West Indies, Arthur added that Sri Lankan cricket right now is in good hands with the current lot of players needing consistency in selections now.

Sri Lanka had to take the route of Round 1 to enter the Super 12 stage of the mega event. After becoming the only unbeaten team from Group A, Sri Lanka began Group 1 with a five-wicket win over Bangladesh. But losses against Australia, South Africa and England meant that the 2014 champions are now out of the race for the semi-finals.

"We've shaken up the World Cup. I think we have. We're not going to qualify this year. But Sri Lankan cricket is now in good hands. We've got some very good young players who just need consistency in message. They need consistency in selection. And they need to be given a platform to go and play," Arthur said in the pre-match press conference on Wednesday.

"So, I'm immensely proud of the efforts of the players, immensely proud of the efforts of the support staff who put in a massive amount of work with these players. And I think we just -- I'd like to say we've just planted the seeds because I think in a year or two time those seeds will start to turn into some pretty good flowers and Sri Lankan cricket is in a healthy state with this bunch of young players," added Arthur.

Arthur was of the opinion that Sri Lanka had turned a corner in the tournament because he thought of T20Is as Sri Lanka's weakest format in cricket. "I said before the campaign I thought Twenty20 was our worst format. We know we're in a building phase as a cricket nation. We've turned the corner. I certainly think our test team's in a good place. I think our one-day team is getting there. Because it was the Twenty20 team that worried me a little bit."

The 53-year-old admitted that when he will look back later at this Men's T20 World Cup, the missed chances of winning matches against South Africa and England is something which will come up first. "I guess the thing that I'll always look back on this World Cup at is I know we're a young team. But we had chances. We had opportunities. Certainly to beat South Africa. And we had an opportunity to certainly beat England. And those missed opportunities, I think, are going to be the thing that holds me at the end of it when I look back."

"But again, as I've always said, I'm just immensely proud of this group of players and coaches who have worked incredibly hard as a unit for 250 days in the last 11 months in a bubble. They've been wonderful," concluded Arthur.