Two other key players who will miss the tie are men’s national champion and number one ranked player Sharmal Dissanayake and Yasith de Silva who have opted out due to school examinations. The non-playing captain is former Sri Lanka Davis Cup doubles player Rajeev Rajapakse who will be appearing with the team for the first time after his retirement. The other countries that will be in action in this tie are Iran, Kuwait, Malaysia, Qatar, Syria, Vietnam and Singapore. Sri Lanka was relegated to group III last year.
Godamanna is back from the United States of America for this tie taking time off studies and coaching. In all previous Davis Cup ties Godamanna has won almost all his matches against some strong opponents and took Sri Lanka to higher levels.The only lapse has been in the other player who could not match the standard of Godamanna. It will be a big loss for Sri Lanka without their next best player in Sharmal Dissanayake who has to give preference to examinations in his endeavour to pursue his professional career.