Lankans want Mahela, Sangakkara to go

Mahela Jayawardena not surprisingly became the first casualty after Sri Lanka choked in a World Cup final for the fourth time to hand West Indies their first major trophy in over three decades.

Jayawardena's decision to step down as Twenty20 captain appeared to be a well-kept secret since he claimed to have made up his mind before the World Twenty20 tournament started.

"It's not a surprise... I have had a chat with the selectors before the tournament started. I was going to step down from T20 captaincy after this World Cup," Jayawardene told reporters after Sri Lanka lost the final.

"I personally feel that for Sri Lanka going forward, we need a younger leader. I think it's a great opportunity for somebody to start in the T20 format.

"So I have spoken to the selectors. They were quite happy with the choice I have made."

Jayawardena said he would continue to lead the team in the other two formats.

"I haven't stepped down from other formats. I took over (to lead) till the Australian tour (in December)," he said.

"I will assess what I want to do after that. But I am going to step down, they will make a call on who is going to lead the national team in T20."

Sri Lankans shocked at their side's failure to chase down a target of 138 were calling for more heads to roll after they caved in to be all out for 101 venting their anger on social networking sites.

Lasith Malinga of IPL fame was once again the chief culprit in their opinion as he went for 40 in two overs which turned out to be margin of their defeat in the finaly analysis.

Jayawardena's gamble of attacking with his ace pacer misfired spectacularly with man of the match Marlon Samuels blasting five sixes, including three in the same, to almost single-handedly revive West Indies which had been subdued in the first part of the innings.

"The wicket was a bit slow. But today was a different mindset. I decided to attack their best bowler which is Malinga and it paid off for me," he said, revealing he had a score to settle.

"Well, I was facing him one time in Mumbai when he got me out bowled and I was very upset. So it was my time today..."

When Sri Lanka began their run chase, they were put on the backfoot by the dismissal of dashing opener Tillakaratne Dilshan for a duck to a peach of a delivery from Ravi Rampaul.

But when stalwarts Kumar Sangakkara and Jayawardena consolidated their innings, the target of 138 did not seem a difficult one.

"130 or 135 was a gettable target but we gave 20-30 extra runs. If we had kept them for 110 or 120, we could have done well," said Jayawardena.

However, the script changed dramatically as Sri Lanka's batsmen committed hara-kiri in a mad scramble to stay ahead of the required rate as they kept looking at the skies with rain having been forecast.

"The drops were falling, so we were not sure exactly how to go about it," Jayawardena said.

"We knew we had to play to win the game and not through Duckworth-Lewis but still we were 10-15 runs behind."

The rains never came, the big guns failed to fire and Sri Lanka literally ran themselves out to the disappointment of the multitudes who had packed R. Premadasa Stadium to capacity, some of them having paid exhorbitant sums to get tickets on the black.

"We made a big effort as a team. The game change in three or four overs. We couldn't control the criticial situations properly. Marlon Samuels took the game away from us. Credit to West Indies for playing better cricket than us," said Jayawardena.

"I'm disappointed for fans who came in large numbers for failing to executve a good game plan," whose decision to bring Malinga proved costly.

"I brought him on after 12 overs in the hope of taking a wicket. It backfired. That's cricket. I don't think he does it purposely," he said when asked why Malinga fails to deliver at crucial moments.

Asked whether the run-chase was difficult because of the slow nature of the pitch, he said: "130 was not a bad run chase but we had to start well against a bowling attack which they had. We kept losing wickets. We didn't have momentum. We just did not look agressive enough on the run chase. A few mistakes cost us the match."

Sangakkara's pull shot found Pollard in the deep, Angelo Mathews lost his stump to Sammy trying to play a scoop shot and then Jayawardene fluffed his reverse sweep to trigger a batting collapse aided by two run-outs down the order.

"I'm sad that Sri Lanka lost but happy that West Indies won," said a Sri Lankan fan Jayajeewa Karunaratne.

"We should introduce young blood into the side. It's time for Mahela and Sangakkara to go. For Twenty20 we need strong hitters," said Karunaratne who has played against Jayawardena at inter-school level.

He also questioned why a talented player like Dinesh Chandimal was not given a single game at all during the tournament.

Another disappointed fan Lanka de Silva said Malinga should be banished from the team.

"He has become a liability for the Sri Lanka team. He only plays well in the IPL," he said.

Jayawardena, , who played in each of the team's two 50-over World Cup final losses in 2007 and 2011 and the T20 final loss to Pakistan in 2009, left Sri Lanka to figure out how to break the World Cup final jinx.

"It hurts a lot, because you want to do something special, not just personally, but for the public as well," he said.

"We've been playing really good cricket but we haven't been able to cross that hurdle. So it hurts as a player, as a cricketer, as an individual...

"But we just need to move on, try, and see how well we can get over this and get back on and keep fighting again."

But there were no tears at Jayawardena's decision to quit the Twenty20 captaincy because the old order has to give way to the new if Sri Lanka's fortunes are to change for better or worse.

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