Archives

by Sa'adi Thawfeeq

Singer (Sri Lanka) who have played a major role in the development and promotion of sports in this country particularly cricket, undertook another gigantic task when they came forward to sponsor the Board of Control for Cricket in Sri Lanka's (BCCSL) talent search.

The program launched six months ago is targeted as identifying the most promising under 15 and under 17 cricketers throughout the country, especially outside the Colombo district.

With the help of around 36 to 38 national coaches from the BCCSL's Cricket Operations department lending a helping hand to spot talented youngsters in the respective age groups, a total of 67 boys (27 fast bowlers, 20 batsmen, 20 spinners) were put under scrutiny at the Rangiri Dambulla International Stadium on Tuesday.

The BCCSL's director operations Bandula Warnapura while thanking the sponsors and the coaches who willingly came forward to assist in this worthy cause, admitted that the present method adopted in picking talent was not foolproof and that he was only 50 to 70 percent happy with it.

"We hope to have this program every other year so that we can identify the boys who are going to make it to the national grade and give them enhanced coaching in Colombo. We intend covering the entire country," said Warnapura.

He said the biggest drawback of introducing this concept much earlier was finance. "We had to manage with whatever budget that was given to us and we were careful on what we spent. Singer stepping in is greatly appreciated and we hope they will continue to support us in the future," he said.

Warnapura said what he discovered from these youngsters was that a majority of them were trying to copy the batting and bowling actions of our national cricketers, which he said was not a good idea.

He said apart from teaching the cricketing skills, other areas such as communicating with the media, speaking English, money management etc were also part of the coaching program taught to the boys.

"More than cricketing skills it is the lack of confidence that puts back our cricketers. At least 70 percent of the boys lack in confidence. That is why other countries are superior to us in this age group," said Warnapura.

Singer (Sri Lanka) chairman Hemaka Amarasuriya said one of the biggest drawbacks of Sri Lanka cricket today is that there wasn't sufficient replacements for the national team. He said the Singer talent search program was a step towards rectifying that shortcoming.

He wished the BCCSL concept would go from strength to strength and that it will produce a number of Muralitharans, Jayasuriyas and Aravindas in the near future. 

News | Business | Features | Editorial | Security
Politics | World | Letters | Sports | Obituaries |

Produced by Lake House
Copyright 2001 The Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Ltd.
Comments and suggestions to :Web Manager