Sri Lankan cricket captain Mahela Jayawardene believes that all the teams participating in the upcoming ICC Twenty20 tournament in South Africa have an equal opportunity of lifting the trophy.

Jayawardene said Twenty20 is a format of the game where even the smaller nations could also have an impact when he spoke to journalists on an ICC conference call this week.

"I definitely do believe the doors get opened to all the sides who can keep cool and get the job down, so any team in this Twenty20 World Cup are favourites to win it, basically," stated Jayawardene. "It creates more opportunities for everybody."

Sri Lanka play two warm-up matches against South Africa and Pakistan in Potchefstroom and Centurion respectively before opening their campaign against Kenya at the Wanderers in Johannesburg on September 14.

They play the other favourites in the group, New Zealand, a day later at the same venue. Both teams clashed earlier this year in a World Cup semi-final, no less, in the West Indies.

"They do have some very big hitters of the ball. Even if you make a couple of mistakes in 50-over cricket you still have the opportunity to get back into the game but 20 overs that chance is limited so you have to make sure you don't make big mistakes and whatever mistakes that you make must be minor ones. You must make sure that you have time to get back into the game, so that's why when you're playing Twenty20 cricket it becomes much more level."

"I don't see any favourites in this version because any good team makes one big mistake; they hardly have any time to come back into it so New Zealand are going to be a tough opposition in our group."

Jayawardene and his Sri Lankan team, ground-breaking as they were in one day cricket in the 1990s - have not quite mastered the 20-over version. He himself has scored just 25 runs in five matches (highest score 11 and a strike rate of 108.7).

" I think people are now getting to see a lot of twenty20 cricket in Sri Lanka. We've been playing domestically for about two years now but it's not as big as you see in England or in South Africa or anywhere else, but I'm sure that the cricket authorities are trying to revamp the whole Twenty20 tournament and try and make it a bit more attractive and market it properly. But it is catching on, people know about the rules and you know it's very good but it will take some time."

Sri Lanka will be without Muttiah Muralithan who withdrew on Thursday due to injury but you can still bet your bottom dollar that Chaminda Vaas, Lasith Malinga, Farveez Maharoof, Dilhara Fernando and Sanath Jayasuriya provide the Bosmanesque fireworks.