'Manner in which you play the game important'

Much focus was on Suraj Randiv's big no-ball to Virender Sehwag when Sri Lankan captain Kumar Sangakkara spoke to the media here on Wednesday.

He said, " An unfortunate incident has occurred. Our job is to be professional and get on with it." Sangakkara added, "I regret what happened overall. We need to take up the responsibility as a team and we need to get back to the right mindset ahead of tomorrow’s (Thursday's) game. The incident is up to the board to take a decision. The board has said it will take action. I spoke my mind out to the team on the whole incident and had a chat with my team manager."

Sangakkara said, "We will stand up to the right thing and try to protect the players who are not at fault. If because of a lack of experience or due to influence, if something happens, and if we feel that a player needs to be supported, we will support him."

Sangakkara opined that the game was more than winning and losing, "You also keep trying to impress upon the players that the responsibility of playing cricket is not all the time about runs, wickets and winning. The manner in which you play the game and the manner in which you present yourself on and off the field is also important.."

He said,"All sides have gone through such incidents including India. This unfortunately seems to be newsworthy at the moment. There has been some damage done to the reputation. But, that reputation cannot be taken away from us completely, because over the years, we have done well.”

Sangakkara was emphatic that Monday's episode would not affect the otherwise splendid relations between Sri Lanka and India. "I don’t think it’s going to affect relationships. There’s been this incident in Cuttack (Sachin Tendulkar was a stroke away from his hundred) that has been brought up. I have seen the replay of it and that was actually a leg-bye. The umpire signaled a bye and the batsman implied that he might have even hit it."

Asked whether he would like to say anything in particular to Sehwag, Sangakkara replied, "I don’t think there is anything special to say to Sehwag. I have spoke to Mahi (M.S. Dhoni) and Gary Kirsten. Sehwag has tweeted that there have been other approaches made to him. I think if you all talk of the spirit of the game, once you set right things in motion, it’s the responsibility of all players, to be within that spirit. We can’t expect just one side to keep making the advances and holding out the hand while it has been sensationalised by the other players,”

The Sri Lankan captain revealed, "As a side, we were under the impression that even in the normal situations of the game, even off a no ball, you get the runs. I was under the impression that Sehwag was on 105. Tony Greig asked me at the post match presentation whether Sehwag was denied a hundred. That was a surprise to me.

I don’t think anyone understood the intricacies of the law in first place. It doesn’t matter whether the law is right or not. The laws are made with certain things in mind.

Sangakkara went on, "I would have thought that if he (Sehwag) was stumped off a wide, we would have denied him. In my view, the batsmen is then out."

He said the side would have to cope with the pressure from the Indian media. "India is a big country, media there is one of the strongest.

They always try to take things to their advantage whenever something happens. Not just these one or two days, we will have to go through this for a week or even until the tournament is over. We need to be in the right frame mentality to overcome these challenges."

New Zealand captain Ross Taylor said, "I think the issue has been dealt with. It was disappointing for Virender (Sehwag). I was watching the game at the time and I thought he deserved a hundred. It was an unfortunate incident."

Queried whether the no-ball was deliberate, he said, "I think you have to ask Randiv that. I am not sure."