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by Premasara Epasinghe

Breaking records in cricket seems to have become a habit with Sri Lankans. The latest notable World Record was established by Chaminda Vaas, who routed the Zimbabians by capturing eight wickets for 19 runs and thus dismissing them for a paltry 38 runs - the lowest total in ODI history. Further, Vaas also took a hat-trick which added more colour to his magnificent and virtuoso bowling effort.

There are 24 cricketers in the International Cricket Circuit who captured more than six wickets in an innings in ODI's and now the Top Spot belongs to Chaminda Vaas.

Vaas, in spite of all his laurels, is essentially a cricketer of immense humility.

When I pen these few lines, my mind goes back to an incident that is indelibly etched in the depth of my memory.

The day was 6th October, 1997. The occasion was the ceremonial launching of my Book, "Ma Dutu Cricket Lowa. The World of Cricket that I saw."

The venue was the Sri Lanka Foundation Auditorium. The distinguished gathering included the Chief Guest Speaker K. B. Ratnayake, Minister of Sports S. B. Dissanayake, Minister of Cultural Affairs, Lakshman Jayakody, Tyronne Fernando, MP, former Secretary General of Parliament and Ombudsman Sam Wijesinha, Mrs. Srima Dissanayake, Deshamanya Nissanka Wijewardane and many past and present cricketers.

At the end of the ceremony, I had to autograph many copies of my book. While I was bending my head autographing a Book, I heard a very familiar voice.

"Sir, could you kindly autograph mine too."

I looked up to see, Chaminda Vaas handing over a copy of my Book and I autographed it with great pleasure.

"Sir, I need a favour from you."

I was taken aback not knowing what Chaminda had in mind.

I said "I will most certainly do whatever I can for you."

Chaminda said "Sir, could you please teach me, how I can get the kind of eloquence you have?"

I smiled and replied: "Chaminda, I will certainly teach you, if you think it is worth learning, if you could in return teach me how to bowl like you."

Vaas is always a team man. He always put country before self. Soft spoken, unassuming, Chaminda, blossomed into a fine club cricketer at the Colts CC and he is ever grateful to his school and his club.

There are two fundamental principles of all types of bowling.

Every bowler must master Length and Direction. Without them, a Bowler cannot hope to succeed. Briefly, LD are the foundations and the quintessence of Bowling.

The biggest draw in boxing is the heavyweight. In cricket, the greatest box office appeal lies with fast and medium pace bowlers. As a commentator, I have experienced, that there is something extremely exhilarating and thrilling in pace bowling.

I have on many occasions seem that it was Vaas who gives the initial breakthrough for Muttiah Muralitharan to demolish many international teams. Today, the latest weapon reverse swing of Vaas has proved a great vanquisher. Besides, he introduced the expression reverse swing again into the current cricketing vocabulary.

Left arm fast medium bowler Warnakulasuriya Patabendige Ushantha Joseph Chaminda Vaas, was born at Mattumagala on 27th January 1974. He is a devoted Roman Catholic, who grew up in Wattala before moving to St. Joseph's College, which is one of the great seats of learning and a crest jewel of Catholic Education in Sri Lanka. He had once a desire to become a Catholic priest, but later had second thoughts because of cricket.

At the young age of 20 years, Vaas made his debut and won his "Sri Lanka cap" against Pakistan at Kandy in 1994-1995, a venue, he returned to in 1999, to set up a test series win as he ran through the Australian batting in the first session of the match.

He created history and became the first-ever Sri Lankan bowler to take a ten wicket haul in a Test match when he toured New Zealand in 1995.

He is a left-arm bowler, who bowls with a rhythmical run up and a smooth sideways - on action. Although, not express in pace, he is able to swing the ball into right handers and seam off the pitch.

He is the best left-arm medium pace bowler that I have seen in my commentating career.

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