Lanka President thanks Team India for defying blast and staying back

Colombo, Aug 21 (UNI) Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapakse today thanked Team India for staying back, braving last week's car bomb blast even though the jinxed Unitech Cup had to be scrapped in the end because of inclement weather.

The Indian cricketers, without skipper Rahul Dravid, who returned to Bangalore this morning, today met Mr Rajapakse along with the Sri Lankan cricketers.

According to sources, the President talked to each player individually.

''He gave us a patient hearing and chatted for quite some time with Sachin Tendulkar. He asked Sachin if he had gone shopping and for freak-outs. Sachin said he couldn't move out much for the team needed to maintain the focus,'' a team source told UNI.

Mr Rajapakse cited the example of Andrew Abeysinghe who won the men's 200-metre backstroke swimming Gold in the ongoing SAF Games here and felt with proper grooming, Lankan players can make it big in international level.

Meanwhile, after the meeting with the President, Virender Sehwag and his wife Arti, Yuvraj Singh, Harbhajan Singh, Suresh Raina and Mohd Kaif boarded a Delhi flight this afternoon, while the rest of the team members, including coach Greg Chappell, the entire support staff, Sachin Tendulkar and others will leave by an evening flight for Chennai.

It was a disappointing end to the jinxed Unitech Cup. The tournament hit the first hiccup with the blast that saw South Africa pulling out of the tri-series and Sri Lanka Cricket and BCCI agreed for a three-match bi-lateral series.

But incessant rain and wet ground conditions didn't allow any full match and the closest it came to a match was on Friday when India won the toss and reached 11 for no loss in 3.4 overs before bad light and heavy shower washed away the tie.

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