Yash Sardesai, CEO of Sri Lanka Legends, and Tillakaratne Dilshan, Captain of Sri Lanka Legends, recently joined NewsX for an exclusive conversation as part of the NewsX India A-List. Sri Lanka Legends is currently competing in the Road Safety World Series 2021. Sharing his journey as the CEO of Sri Lanka Legends, Yash described how it happened, but had to stop in between due to the pandemic.
“Everything is in the ongoing continuation. It has been a great and wonderful experience altogether. I had got a wonderful platform and a good learning background from Sachin Tendulkar and Brian Lara,” Sardesai added.
Talking about getting back on field post retirement, Tillakaratne Dilshan, former captain of the Sri Lanka national cricket team, said, “It’s a great feeling because after a long time, we are sharing the same dressing room with past cricketers and official cricketers like Sachin Siva; we used to play IPL and it feels like we are playing international cricket again, especially in India.”
Often regarded as one of the most innovative ODI batsmen of all time, Dilshan shared how it feels to be playing post the pandemic,” It was little hectic because we are stick to the room. We can’t go outside due to the Covid rules but it was the best time to build up our team. We are altogether playing outside, going to gym, pool, meetings. This is the bonding time I feel.”
Speaking about his bond with Sardesai, Dilshan said: “Yash and I has really good bond. Yash is everything to us. We are doing really good as a family. Tomorrow we have cooking session where Sri Lankan and Indian players are going to make lunch together. Moreover, Yash trust us a lot. Sometimes I call on him regarding what is the plan for upcoming match and he says cricket is not in my hand. Go and play cricket with your team.” He further mentioned that only the finals and semi-finals are left and the team is really looking forward to win.
Talking about the sport and how it is helping to raise road safety awareness, Sardesai said, “Cricket, which is watched all over the world, is helping create awareness by following the particular cricketers, they follow the rules as well.” Dilshan added, “Nowadays cricketers have fan pages and following them means that the message is going strongly to the people. Life is valuable to this world so we can pass this message through cricketers and it’s the main aim. I am so happy that the organisation come up with these safety measures, especially for Asian countries.”
“Last game we had with England was really amazing. We bowled out them and we chase them in seven overs. Post that game, we were all pumped up and everyone heighten up to go in semi-finals. So, we did bowl and bat really well. We are looking forward to perform in the same pattern,” Dilshad said.
On a concluding note, Yash Sardesai said that it saw really a good fan moment seeing players winning the game. “I am a big fan of cricket, but never played it on big level. And I am passionate about the game. So, this particular series helped me a lot in gaining experience. It’s a constant fan moment for me.”