Sri Lankan skipper Kusal Mendis has apologised for the squad’s poor performance at the 2023 ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup, and assured that proper measures would be taken to avoid the repetition of such a fate.

Speaking to the media upon arrival at the Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA) in Katunayake this morning (10 Nov.), Mendis expressed his regret that despite playing their best as a team, the Sri Lanka squad was struck with continuous losses during the tournament.

“We started off well. And when we started losing matches, we looked at ways in which we could prevent this from happening, ways to better ourselves and we hoped to do our best as  a team”, the Sri Lankan skipper said.

Responding to recent claims that the squad had a lack of sportsmanship and unity, Mendis asserted that he does not think this was the problem, or that the matter was even true about the team.

“I don’t think that there was no unity amongst the team. Everyone’s eyes were on winning the tournament. I got a lot of support from the team, but winning and losing matches is a difficult matter for us to control. But we have to look at our upcoming matches, and take measures to perform better”, he said.

Despite having made a terrific entry into the 2023 ODI World Cup, Mendis failed to fire since he took over as captain. He was thrust into the skipper’s role after Dasun Shanaka injured himself and got ruled out of the entire tournament, foreign media reported.

Mendis started the World Cup by hitting a magnificent half-century against South Africa at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in New Delhi. Mendis scored 76 runs off 42 balls, hitting eight boundaries and four sixes in a failed 429-run chase. Despite Sri Lanka losing the match, Mendis’ innings stood out as a sign of positive things to come for the 1996 champions.