LONDON, May 15: England cricket captain Nasser Hussain does not expect a repeat of his team’s last ill-tempered series against Sri Lanka which led to the players acting like children “running riot in the school”.

Hussain, speaking Wednesday on the eve of the first Test at Lord’s, also defended England’s decision to opt for experience ahead of youth.

Hussain said: “I expect Sri Lanka to play tough — every time I’ve played against them they’ve played it tough — and we will as well.

“Last series, the standard of umpiring led to the schoolchildren running riot in the school but I had a good chat with (Sri Lanka captain) Sanath Jayasuriya during that series and sorted it out.”

England won 2-1 in Sri Lanka at the start of 2001 but the series was marred by repeated on-field clashes between players which led to several fines and suspended bans.

Jayasuriya added: “I think that’s history now. It’s a new series and we want to play the right way. We don’t think there will be any problems this time.”

Hussain defended recalling players like 39-year-old wicket-keeper Alec Stewart, batsman John Crawley and swing bowler Dominic Cork (aged 30, like Crawley) rather than go for younger players.

“We are not naive when we select sides, we don’t select sides to get the right reaction,” he said. “We play the best side available.

“We have picked the leading run scorer (Crawley) in county cricket and the leading wicket-taker (Cork).

“We expect to win but we don’t underestimate them. They’re playing away from home but they are a top outfit.”

Crawley was recalled ahead of young pretender Ian Bell after being sidelined England for three years. Stewart was recalled after James Foster, 17 years his junior, broke his arm during a net session.

Sri Lanka, who have won their last nine Tests in a row to move to third in the world rankings, are playing their first three-Test series in England.

The home side have not won a series for a year since winning in Sri Lanka, having drawn against Pakistan and New Zealand and lost to Australia and India.

Following two weeks of wet weather, sun is forecast for the start of the match but Hussain said the pitch could still be damp enough to offer something for the seamers.

England released left-arm spinner Ashley Giles from their squad Wednesday and will go into the game with an all-seam attack although Darren Gough is out injured.

Sri Lanka, deprived of injured off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan, are likely to follow suit.

Meanwhile, Sri Lanka coach Dav Whatmore called on his bowlers to put their “shoulders to the wheel”.

In Muralitharan’s absence, Whatmore said it was time for the rest of the attack to take on their share of responsibility.

“You don’t have to be Einstein to know that you’re going to miss a guy who has taken 412 Test wickets,” Whatmore told reporters.

“Every other bowler who represents Sri Lanka in this match has to put his shoulder to the wheel and help us to take 10 wickets in each innings.”

In Muralitharan’s absence, left-arm seamer Chaminda Vaas becomes the spearhead of the attack and Whatmore said he had been pleased with the paceman’s progress.

“Chaminda’s developed extremely well in the last year and a half. He’s turned the corner and we’re looking to him to continue that form,” said Whatmore of Vaas, who needs just four more dimissals for 200 Test wickets.

Sri Lanka come into this match on the back of nine successive Test wins, albeit eight of those were at home and the other in Pakistan.

“You’d rather win nine in a row than not,” said Whatmore, who admitted conditions at Lord’s would be vastly different.

“We can take confidence from that because we know that we’ve been doing in those games we’ve been doing well.”

Previously Sri Lanka have only been granted one-off Tests in England and Whatmore said the fact they now had a full series would provide some extra incentive.

“Playing at Lord’s is great motivation in itself but to have three Tests here is great for the guys,” former Lancashire coach Whatmore added.

Teams (from):

England: Nasser Hussain (captain), Marcus Trescothick, Michael Vaughan, Mark Butcher, Graham Thorpe, John Crawley, Alec Stewart, Andrew Flintoff, Dominic Cork, Andy Caddick, Matthew Hoggard, Alex Tudor.

Sri Lanka: Sanath Jayasuriya (captain), Marvan Atapattu, Kumar Sangakkara, Mahela Jayawardena, Aravinda de Silva, Hashan Tillekeratne, Russel Arnold, Thilan Samaraweera, Chaminda Vaas, Nuwan Zoysa, Charitha Buddika, Ruchira Perera, Upul Chandana, Eric Upashanta.

Umpires: Daryl Harper (Australia) and Srinivas Venkataraghavan (India).—Reuters/AFP