Murali expects pitch assistance

Muttiah Muralitharan will use his wealth of experienced at the World Cup © Getty Images

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Sri Lanka bowler Muttiah Muralitharan is expecting the West Indian pitches to favour the spinners at the World Cup.

Muralitharan, a spinner himself, is second in the list of all-time wicket-takers in one-day internationals - only Pakistan’s Wasim Akram has more more scalps in the shorter version of the game.

And the 34-year-old is hoping for plenty of assistance from the tracks in the Caribbean.

“In the past the pitches in the West Indies favoured the faster bowlers as they had quite a few of them,” he said.

“But my thinking is it will help the spinners this time.”

Murali and chief strike bowler Chaminda Vaas were left out of the Sri Lanka squad for the four-match series against India in February and the former believes it was a shrewd move.

He added: “I did take a break from the Indian tour because the management wanted me to do so to look at the leg-spinner Malinga Bandara more closely.

“I must say that the rest has benefited me immensely.

“Looking back at the Indian tour the side consisted of inexperienced bowlers who had to bowl on flat tracks.

“This is where we missed Chaminda Vaas’ experience. Having said that the exposure the young guys got out of the tour has been great.”

Former skipper Sanath Jayasuriya believes the key to success lies in keeping things simple.

He said: “The expectations of any country before a World Cup are very high.

“I think, however, we need to keep things pretty simple and less complicated.

“We should look at winning one game at a time and not try to create too much pressure for us.”