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MUMBAI — India wants Sachin Tendulkar to lift the World Cup at his home ground, but Sri Lanka is aiming for a repeat of its cricket win 15 years ago.
Sri Lanka won its first World Cup in 1996, inspiring a generation of players to try to emulate the achievement.
The players led by Kumar Sangakkara are the latest in that line. Only Muttiah Muralitharan remains from the 1996 winning squad. If he's healthy, he'll play his final game for his country at the Wankhede Stadium on Saturday.
Sangakkara wants his players to motivate a new generation.
"The inspiration (from 1996) has always been there," captain Kumar Sangakkara. "Everything that's come afterwards has been because of that positive factor.
"For us, 1996 belongs to that particular team. Since then there have been other teams trying to forge their own path and leave their own legacy for Sri Lanka cricket. I think Sri Lanka has kicked on from that, achieved great heights in cricket."
As in 1996, Sri Lanka is one of three co-hosts. Just like 15 years ago, the team will play the final on foreign soil. That isn't where the correlations end.
A bomb in the country's capital Colombo killed 90 people just a month before the 1996 tournament began. As a result, Australia and West Indies refused to play their matches there because of safety issues, leaving some Sri Lankans feeling betrayed.
Sri Lanka went on to defeat Australia in the final.
This time, Sri Lanka is getting back on its feet after the end in 2009 of a decades-long civil war and the devastating tsunami of 2004.
"We've come through a very tough period, a lot of people have laid down their lives for our country," Sangakkara said. "In this new future, hopefully we can take home a World Cup and that will be even more occasion for celebration."
Four years ago, Sri Lanka was beaten in the final by a dominant Australia side, led by a brutal batting display by Adam Gilchrist. Sangakkara said the current batch of players are determined to go one better.
"Everyone's excited, but it's nice to see that it's a kind of controlled excitement," he said. "Everyone's relaxed, having a laugh. But also you can see there's a kind of steely determination behind all of that, knowing what a big job comes our way tomorrow.
"World Cup finals are huge occasions. We just want to hold on to what we have and do what we know we can do."
