‘The ugly Australians’ that’s how the head curator of the SSC has termed the visiting Australian cricket team.

“I’ve never seen an Australian team complain so much for everything,” said Michael de Zoysa, a veteran cricket administrator and curator at SSC.

“They have complained about the pitch preparation, the state of the pitch, the pitches prepared for practice and on which side of the ground they should conduct their warm-up sessions,” he said. “Some of the Australian cricketers had a look at the SSC pitch prepared for the ongoing Test match and said that it was a terrible one and that it would not last three days.

“Well, by the end of three days what have we? Four centurions and two teams scoring over 350 in each innings, so what is wrong with the pitch I’d like to ask the Aussies?” said de Zoysa, who was also a former Sri Lanka team manager.

“All I can say is that they are poor losers. They came to Sri Lanka hoping to steam roll our team following our losses in England, but to their surprise they find themselves 0-2 down in the series and the possibility of being white-washed if they lose this Test, so they are whingeing at every turn.”

De Zoysa said that the Australians were guilty of digging holes on either side of the pitch where the close in fielders stand and brought it to the notice of match referee Chris Broad.