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| Saturday, 26 June 2004 |
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Jehan Mubarak - the David Gower of Sri Lanka? by Sa'adi Thawfeeq Jehan Mubarak is of the belief that being given the responsibility of captaining the Sri Lanka 'A' team is the best thing that could have happened to his cricket. A graceful lefthander, Mubarak has been described as having the air of a Sri Lankan David Gower and playing the game as though it was his birthright. As the former England captain he has despairingly got out on several occasions when a big score from him was on the cards. "I have been criticized for being carefree. I think the captaincy will go a long way in helping me towards tightening up my defence," said Mubarak who will lead the Sri Lanka 'A' team to England on Monday. "Being burdened with the captaincy I think will help me to become more responsible in the middle. It will actually help my shot selection because of the added responsibility of the team behind me." "I struggled a bit in New Zealand. It is basically tightening up my defence and on shot selection. I know where I have gone wrong and what I need to work on. I will be concentrating on trying to correct those mistakes on the tour," Mubarak continued. His batting technique has been honed by some of the best cricket coaches in this country. "I stared off with Lionel Mendis at the NCC who taught me the basics of cricket. Then I attended Stanley Jayasinghe's private coaching school, which was also very useful. Nihal Kodituwakku took over after that. That's when I started scoring runs at school and began making a name for myself. In the 'A' team a lot of coaches have helped me. I managed to rectify a few faults with Hemantha Devapriya by working with him on the bowling machine," said Mubarak. "The 'A' team captaincy I think is definitely a step up for me in my career. It is a big achievement in my life. It is an honour to captain the 'A' side. I also think it is a big challenge. We had a fairly disappointing tour of New Zealand. We will be playing some good competitive cricket in England. It is a good opportunity for everybody," he said. "There are bout 4-5 players on the fringe waiting to get into the national team. Anyone who can string together a few big scores and take wickets has a chance of making it to the national team. There are also some youngsters from the under 19 squad who are in the 'A' team for the first time who will be trying to cement their spots." This is the first time Mubarak is captaining a team at this level. His previous experience has been to lead the Royal College junior teams and being vice captain of the first eleven. Cricket and swimming Not surprisingly Mubarak took to swimming like a duck takes to water, before he even held a cricket bat. Today he combines both sports equally to keep himself fit. "Swimming wasn't in any way second in passion or preference to cricket," recalled 23-year-old Mubarak. "At school level I could combine swimming with cricket. But now I have to focus a lot more on cricket. Swimming has taken a back seat at the moment." Mubarak has represented his country in swimming at junior level in under 12 and under 15 competition and been to countries like China and participated in a few international meets. He also captained Royal College at swimming. "Swimming helps me in my cricket. Especially at fitness levels I have found that I can go and swim a meet purely on cricket fitness," said Mubarak. "The last couple of years I haven't been doing any swimming training. I have found that purely on cricket fitness I can compete in swimming at national level." "Swimming I am sure will also help my cricket. We have been incorporating a lot of swimming into cricket fitness training. It is a different kind of fitness to what we have been used to. I think it is very effective," he said. Cricket has been in Mubarak's blood. His father Dr. Aziz M. Mubarak was an outstanding batsman for Cambridge University and later for Moors SC. It was at Cambridge that he won his Blue for three years since 1978 and made a lot of runs as an opening batsman. Dr. Mubarak is best remembered for his dashing knock of 86 (15 fours) in 150 minutes for Combined Universities against the touring West Indians at Cambridge in 1980 facing the might of Roberts, Croft, Marshall and King. "My father combined cricket and studies together. He always reminds me even now not to forget my studies and my education even though my main goal is to play cricket," recalled Jehan Mubarak who holds a bachelors degree in science (second upper class) in the University of Colombo. "Now that I am going to England he is giving me a lot of hints on how I should go about my business there. He doesn't see me playing very often but every time I get out even if I am abroad, he will ask me how I got out and what I did to get out and things like that. He would advice me where I am going wrong. It helps me a lot," said Mubarak. "I was hoping to follow a chemistry environmental side of things but there isn't much of a scope in Sri Lanka. At the moment I am working at CIC doing a few project for them in my own time because of cricket. In the long term I am looking at that as a professional career," he said. It was during his father's university days that Mubarak came to be born in Washington DC. "My father went to the States on a fellowship program for a while with my mother. That's how I came to be born in Washington. He was there for about a year before he returned to Sri Lanka," said Mubarak. He's already had a brief taste of Test cricket having made his debut against Bangladesh in 2002 and impressed as replacement in South Africa with a classy 48. If he can curb his carefree attitude and start putting up some big runs on the board, Mubarak could become a permanent fixture in the senior national side like just what the doctor ordered. |
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