It is very difficult to accept negative things one of your "favourite players", or to take on board that a player who you simply percieve as being very good is perhaps no longer worthy of that status.
But I am starting to come around in the case of Vaas.....In 9 test matches since the start of 2006 he has averaged a tick under 40 with the ball, if you take out the two tests against Bangladesh, his figures for this period read 7 matches for 13 wickets at an average of 49. A strike-rate of almost 100 balls per wicket.
Now I love Chaminda Vaas and always have, but after taking those numbers into account I begin to see the thinking of the Sri Lankan camp in suggesting he may be the one to miss out.
However if it were my call I would certainly still have him in the side tomorrow morning, his figures (like everbody else) were ordinary in Brisbane. However I felt like he was the seamer who made best use of the conditions on that first day, he beat the bat a number of times and to Jaques in particular I always felt like he was in with a chance, managed to move the ball around a little even once the sun came out (which Fernando and Maharoof never looked like doing). The one gripe I had was that his control was not as good as I've come to expect with him, he did let them off the hook a little on one or two occasions, however not nearly as badly as Fernando did and he still looked every bit the leader of the attack to me.
Plus theres what he adds with the bat and in the field (in comparison to Fernando atleast).
Interestingly his ODI record over the last couple of years is not nearly as bad as his test one, 55 wickets @27, indicates he still has a bit in the tank.
