Test status for us is a bit far fetched: Dutch captain

The good thing about Roland Lefebvre, the Dutch captain, is that he has no delusions about his team's place in world cricket. Despite losing to Sri Lanka by 206 runs in their first match of the ICC Champions Trophy 2002, Lefebvre had a smile when he spoke to the press. And no, he did not demand that the ICC grant the Netherlands Test status.

"I think Test status is a little bit far fetched. For that, cricket has to become a part of our culture, you need a lot of wickets, grounds and generally resources. To play one-day cricket at the international is more our goal - something we can achieve with continued support from the ICC."

About the game itself, Lefebvre took a few positives out of the game, despite the heavy, if unsurprising loss.

"You look for positives when you lose. The positives are plentiful. I was not surprised that Sri Lanka elected to bat, but to restrict them to 292 was a grand effort by our bowlers. The wicket was very flat. The Sri Lankans could easily have run away from us but our bowlers stuck to their task. We dropped a few catches. If we had luck going our way, we could have restricted them to less."

Addressing the divide in ability between teams like the Netherlands and the best sides in the world, Lefebvre raised a valid point about the exposure sides like his need so badly.

"You have to play this type of cricket over and over again to get used to playing such good teams. We're not even used to playing under lights. I'm sure it took Sri Lanka a little while to start winning when they first came into international cricket. Bangladesh are struggling a bit now. If we get the opportunity to play in strong tournaments and gain experience we will grow slowly."

Sanath Jayasuriya, while obviously happy with the win, looked forward to the tough game ahead against tournament favourites Australia.

"We expect a tough game against the Australians. That is something we always do. We have a few days and will think about the game, work out our plans and pick our best team. We tried out Dharmasena today as he hasn't played international cricket in a while. Now that we have tried out most of our cricketers we can take a decision on the team to play Australia."

With Sri Lanka taking on minnows the Netherlands expectations were high for a run feast for the Lankans and perhaps a record or two being broken. Jayasuriya explained that it was never Sri Lanka's aim to chase records.

"We wanted to win the match. We didn't go in trying to hit the ball all around the place. We just wanted to score 250-275 and make sure we won the match."