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ICC WOMEN'S WORLD T20November 16, 2018Chamari AthapaththuGros Islet, Saint Lucia Q. To begin, what was it like playing in that atmosphere tonight? I'm sure it was a crowd like you never played in front of before. CHAMARI ATHAPATHTHU: Yeah, I think this is big crowd today because the home team playing today. So good cricket actually. They're obviously playing really good with the home conditions and the spectators enjoy seeing big hits. And this is good experience for our side who have not experienced this sort of atmosphere before. Q. And do you hope that sort of atmosphere can be replicated in Sri Lanka in the future, that you can host tournaments and they can have a response to your team like that? CHAMARI ATHAPATHTHU: Definitely. You know, now a lot of Sri Lankan girls interested to play cricket because the last World Cup we did good. I score 178 against Australia. Now there are very young girls interested in cricket, and a lot of the Sri Lanka people love ladies cricket. So I feel we have chance next World Cup and in future World Cup's, and we have a lot of crowd in our own stadiums watching us. Q. How much of the innings you played at Bristol last years changed cricket in Sri Lanka? CHAMARI ATHAPATHTHU: Actually that innings change my cricket career and Sri Lanka cricket. Now a lot of people and the young girls love to play cricket. They want play cricket, because they know we have good team, and if they want play cricket they have to be good we have a lot of support from the men's team, the ICC, that helps support a lot of the youth and allows young girls play cricket in Sri Lanka. Q. Your batting as a team has struggled not just here, but for a long time you've been the one player that's consistently made runs over the last five or six years. What needs to change structurally so more Sri Lankan women can come through and compete on the world stage with the bat? CHAMARI ATHAPATHTHU: Yeah, we have only few players, we have only few international quality players. Shashikala and me, we are playing good cricket couple of years, but unfortunately we don't have not enough good international level players. But we try our best and we trust our players. We give chance for them to improve. I think they have here and today they played a good match and they want play more cricket. Next couple of years we we can build good team. That's my target and the ICC target. Q. Is it frustrating for you that you have to do so much of the heavy lifting personally knowing you personally definitely can compete on the world stage, and you've done so in the Big Bash and KSL as well but you don't have enough support around you. CHAMARI ATHAPATHTHU: Definitely I learn lot of things in KSL and Big Bash. I learn more things. I played with the big players. I know they're strategy planning and their skills and it helps me and the team. Main thing we don't have good experience in the international levels because only me playing both leagues. We try to play good cricket next couple of years. I think now we have good structure in women's cricket in Sri Lanka, so next couple of years we can produce young top players to the side. Q. And what was the biggest positive coming from your experience at the tournament? CHAMARI ATHAPATHTHU: This tournament? Q. Yeah. CHAMARI ATHAPATHTHU: Yeah. We are playing good cricket. We are playing good competitive matches we had a win. Because this ground and this condition is not good for the T20s in the early stages. Last couple of the matches we struggled because the ball is not coming too quick to the wicket, and I feel a lot of teams struggle. But today match a really good. I think it showed it was a good pitch to play cricket because the West Indies scored 180. I think that is highest score in this T20 World Cup which is good. Our bowlers doing really good this World Cup, but unfortunately our batters struggle. We learn a lot of positive things and go back to the home and practice hard for next tours. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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