A chat with Chaminda Vaas on cricket gives you so much insight. As we met during the silver jubilee celebrations of World Cup win, he was absolutely convinced that there is no dearth of talent in the country, just that we needed to manage talents properly.
A week later, young Pathum Nissanka was proving him right, scoring a century on debut. He is just the fourth Sri Lankan to have achieved the milestone and the first in 20 years. He is also the first Sri Lankan to achieve the milestone overseas.
There were a few good things about Pathum during his debut in Antigua. Firstly, he exhibited patience in abundance and then cashed in when loose balls were on offer. Then there’s this calmness showing the need to concentrate on the job at hand. His enthusiasm has rejuvenated the side. Not often you see Sri Lankan batsmen pushing for threes. But the likes of Nissanka and Ashen Bandara are getting their seniors to do it. The seniors falling in line! Great to see that.
Unfashionable Pathum is also uncomplicated with strong will power to succeed in his chosen field. There are two more recent cricketers like him – Dhananjaya de Silva and Oshada Fernando. They too rose to limelight with similar backgrounds and to their credit have remained grounded.
Should he have got a look in earlier is a question that has been asked in a few quarters. When it was clear that a few guys were struggling to be fit for the England Tests, we seemed to be going back to the guys who had been tried and tested rather than bringing in a rookie. Obviously, people are suspicious with the runs you make in domestic cricket because the level of competitiveness is so diluted. But the fact of the matter is that this is beyond the players’ control.
Pathum has always been a top order player and it defied logic to get him to bat at number six. He would have been ideal at four between Oshada and Dinesh Chandimal.
Selection for the home series against Bangladesh is going to be very interesting with Angelo Mathews and Kusal Perera set to return. A couple of seniors need to score some big hundreds next week to stay in contention for the two match series that is coming up in April at home.
Credit should go to Sunil Saluwadana, the brilliant coach from Kalutara for nurturing this special talent of Pathum. Realizing that he has got better prospects in Colombo, he generously gave away young Pathum for Isipathana College as he finished under-15 cricket. Isipathana and then NCC nurtured his budding career from thereon.
It has been a great initiative by NCC to accommodate their First Class cricketers from outstations within the club premises. The premier cricket playing club has supported the careers of so many players like this. SSC has done the same thing having put out a dormitory at the club premises below the press box. This helps outstation player as otherwise they have to pay exorbitant rents in Colombo. Tamil Union started the practice in 1980s having housed players in the club premises and found them employment at reputed companies such as George Steuarts.
The result of the first Test was a bitter pill to swallow as many fans thought that 100 overs is ample time for Sri Lanka to bowl out the opposition. But West Indies are no pushovers. It was a superb fight back by the Sri Lankans after being shot out for 169 in the first essay.
They may not have many big names but this West Indies side won a Test match in England last year and two Tests in Bangladesh this year.
Lahiru Thirimanne with twin fifties is justifying all the faith kept on him over the years while Suranga Lakmal bowled his heart out finishing with career best figures of five for 47. This has been a tough few months for Lakmal but he has averaged 23 with the ball since 2018 and that’s some achievement.
With 156 wickets to his credit, Lakmal is Sri Lanka’s fifth highest wicket taker in Test match cricket and the nation’s second most successful fast bowler behind Chaminda Vaas.
The presence of Dhananjaya de Silva gives Sri Lanka so much of depth and assurance. He’s the ideal player to occupy number six and bat with the lower middle order and tail and then his off-spin is more than handy.
Niroshan Dickwella has always been smart behind the stumps, rarely missing a chance. It was his batting that made people to scratch their heads. His fearless approach needs to be appreciated but there are times they look totally out of place and critics call for his head. In this Test, in both innings, he played crucial roles. Such a shame that he missed out on a well-deserved hundred, again. All the investment the selectors have done with him over 40 Tests is paying off and if he can be more mature with his calls on reviews it will benefit Sri Lanka immensely.
All in all, it was a good Test match. There were fears that Sri Lanka throwing in the towel after their collapse in the first innings but they did well. If they bag the next Test match, it will be Sri Lanka’s maiden Test series win in the Caribbean.
It was worth burning the mid-night oil over the last five days.
