Chamari Athapaththu has never hidden what she wants from this Women’s ODI World Cup: a ticket to the semi-finals. Sri Lanka have not reached that stage of any ICC event for 11 years and the women’s side have never gone that far. The captain believes this squad, younger and a touch braver than in previous editions, may just be able to change the story.
“More than in the other tournaments, I’m pretty relaxed in this one,” Athapaththu said during the team’s final camp in Colombo. “The youngsters have been performing – Harshitha Samarawickrama, Vishmi Gunaratne, and Kavisha Dilhari, are all batting well. So more than other times, I’m able to relax a bit.”
A quick glance at the fixture list explains why relaxation will be fleeting. Sri Lanka open against India in Guwahati on 30 September, then host Australia in Colombo on 4 October, before meeting England (11 October), New Zealand (14 October) and South Africa (18 October). Only after that quintet do they face Bangladesh in Navi Mumbai (20 October) and Pakistan back in Colombo (24 October).
It is a brutal run, yet the captain’s mood is upbeat. The trio she names – Gunaratne, Dilhari and Samarawickrama – were central to last year’s T20 Asia Cup title, evidence, Athapaththu feels, that the younger players can now shoulder their share of the load.
“I’m going to be playing the game I play in the powerplay,” she said, referring to the first ten overs when only two fielders are allowed outside the inner ring. “Then, after that, the challenge is to figure out how I can change gears and do more damage. My one aim is to get Sri Lanka into the semi finals. Before I retire, what I want is to take Sri Lanka to a semi-final. If we can get there, we can figure out the next steps. But even getting there is big.”
The side has waited a long time for an opportunity like this. Covid-19 restrictions meant Sri Lanka played no international cricket from March 2020 to January 2022 and consequently missed out on the last ODI World Cup. That absence still grates.
“We haven’t been able to play a World Cup since 2017. We lost the chance to play in the last World Cup, because with Covid we couldn’t play the qualifying rounds, and that’s where our rankings were. It’s after eight years we’re playing a World Cup,” Athapaththu reminded reporters.
Perspective, though, is everything. The last two seasons have seen genuine progress: wins over England in a T20I series, competitive cricket against Australia and India, and the Asia Cup triumph at home. That experience, allied with Athapaththu’s decade of run-scoring at the top, gives Sri Lanka quiet confidence.
“We’ve sacrificed a lot and worked really hard to get here,” she said. “We’ve played really well in the last cycle. We’re in a good mental space. I’m hoping we can get a good start to the tournament.”
Should Sri Lanka nick one of those early matches, the semi-final dream suddenly looks less distant. That, more than anything, explains the calmness in the captain’s voice – a calmness rooted less in optimism than in hard-earned belief.
