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'Let Hashan Tillakaratne prove fixing allegations'

April 29, 2011 22:23 IST

Former Sri Lankan captain Mahela Jayawardene has urged his one-time teammate Hashan Tillakaratne to come out with substancial proof about the allegations of fixing matches since 1992 including the team composition for this year's World Cup final.

"People can say whatever they want. You need to prove the allegations," Jayawardene said on Friday.

Jayawardene refused to get into the details of the allegations stating that it is Tillakaratne who first needs to come out with substantial evidence of any kind of wrongdoing.

"I have no comments. Honestly, I just saw the news. We will have to wait and see what he has to say and what he has to come out with to be honest with you, no comments till then."

On the Kochi strip that saw Ishant Sharma creating havoc just the other night, the Kochi Tuskers captain said, "Wickets look okay. We are not the ones who are making the wickets. Our job is to go out and play. We will have a look tomorrow as well and see what is the best combination for that wicket, opposition, and play that."

On his team's back-to-back defeats, Jayawardene said "If you see the entire tournament, in the last 7 matches we played, we kept changing the few things in the team according to opposition, and according to the conditions, that's how we have gone about and we will keep thinking in the same lines.

"If the last two outings were a bit disappointing, we need to concentrate on the processes and try and execute a proper game plan," he said.

When asked about the Kochi Tuskers defeating the formidable Mumbai Indians in Mumbai, while losing to bottom ranked Deccan Chargers at home, Mahela said, "If you have a look at the points table, it's still very open. A couple of victories can get you at the top."

About their opponents Delhi Daredevils, Jayawardene said, "There are some wonderful players in their list. They haven't executed a few things properly in most of the games with close matches. I'm sure they are disappointed, when you are down they can be dangerous opponents.

"We have make sure when we go up against them, that we handle those situations well and try and keep them in where we could control them from. They have some match winners and we have to be very careful about them."

Local lad S Sreesanth hasn't done well but coach Geoff Lawson defended the temperamental pacer.

"He has good pace and is a match-winner. He was a close to taking a wicket and that probably would have changed the match (against Deccan chargers)."

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