Sri Lanka's captain Mahela Jayawardene says that he never told the chairman of cricket selectors Ashantha de Mel that former captain Marvan Atapattu didn't support him after he became skipper of Sri Lanka team. De Mel was recently quoted as saying that Jayawardene didn't get the fullest support from Atapattu, but the present captain, while admitting he had a discussion with the chief selector, denied the ‘lack of support’ claim.

"I didn't make such comments. What I said was what I have been telling ever since I took over as captain. I have been telling that if we are getting a player back, the selectors need to tell him why he was dropped. I definitely said that, but I never said that he (Atapattu) didn't support me," Jayawardene said.

"I told the selectors that we should speak to him and see how he feels because he's a damn good player for us to lose. He's got a lot of cricket ahead of him. He's a senior player and very handy with his experience in a place like Australia," Jayawardene added.

Responding to Atapattu's statement that his omission from the entire World Cup competition made him turn bitter, Jayawardene said that Atapattu was clearly told that he wasn't going to be in the first XI as the team management and the selectors had opted for Upul Tharanga.

"Marvan must have been disappointed that he couldn't get a game, but the reasons for his omission were told to him by myself and Tom (Moody). I don't think he's disappointed in this regard as we told him upfront," Jayawardene said speaking for the first time on the issue at a media briefing on Saturday (13). "We were part of the selection committee and after the first warm up game in Barbados; we told Marvan that he's not going to be in our starting eleven. If he says that he's not told so, that's not true. We told him that Upul was in good form and we went on with it," Jayawardene added.

"The combination we had was a very good one. We didn't want to change the winning combination. Yes, Upul was not very consistent, but in a tough game he came up with runs, even in the semi-final.

"You have to take such tough decisions. Marvan would’ve been disappointed because he's a senior player and not to get a game is hard, but I had to do what's best for the team," Jayawardene elaborated.