|
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
| Saturday, 20 November 2004 |
 |
|
 |
Sports | |
| News Business Features Editorial Security Politics World Letters Sports Obituaries
|
'Little Kalu' - a legacy created by Renuke Wijayawardhane
The Sri Lankans were always regarded as a bunch of exciting players who were capable of pulling off that occasional odd win. But they were never considered to be a serious threat to the other more fancied teams. In this particular game the West Indies, batting first, had run up an imposing score of 333 for 7 in the 50 overs, thanks to a monumental 169 scored by Brian Lara. Unlike today, chasing such massive totals was never considered to be possible. But the Sri Lankans refused to give up- Sri Lanka's reply was 329 all out in 49.3 overs with Hashan Tillekeratne scoring a brilliant 100, before he was the last man out, caught at deep square leg, trying to hit a six. It was a wonderful chase where Sri Lanka came up with an innovative plan to achieve the huge target set by the Windies. The batting order was changed completely with Romesh Kaluwitharana being promoted to No. 4. The decision proved to be an instant success as Kalu hammered 31 runs facing just 20 balls hitting 3 fours and two sixes, which brought the total up to an astonishing 101 in the 10th over before he was out. The Sri Lankans had finally started believing in themselves and the new-found confidence was beginning to show. Although Sri Lanka lost the game their innovative approach to batting - where the batsmen carried an all-out onslaught against the bowling attack from the start- dawned a new era for Sri Lanka cricket, and probably to the entire cricket world. The end result was the emergence of a rejuvenated Sri Lanka team, trying to explore new horizons. And of course, Romesh Kaluwitharana was beginning to show his true potential. For Sri Lanka it all started in Sharjah. And the battle was taken to Australia immediately for the Benson & Hedges World Series 1995/96. The results were getting clearer. The world started to look at Sri Lanka in a different way. They were no longer the nice blokes who were simply pushovers or a team which 'also ran'. If one player deserves a big chunk of this credit it has to be Romesh Kaluwitharana. Little Kalu was a smashing success during the Aussie tour in 1995/96 and was a genuine crowd puller. His batting was awesome. Through a few unbelievable knocks he was able to create the kind of authority which had not been displayed by a visiting player to Australia for a long long time. Sri Lanka beat Australia in Melbourne in a first round match and Kalu blasted 77 runs with 12 boundaries to set up the win. Kalu had already taken Australia by storm. Prior to this game Kalu's record as a batsman was pretty ordinary. A total of 301 runs in 34 matches with a top score of 31, at an average of just 11.15 sounds far from being convincing. That innings at the MCG signaled the transformation of Kalu. From that point onwards he went on to make 3711 in 189 matches with 2 centuries and 23 fifties at 22.22. Kaluwitharana was in terrific form during the Australian tour. He hit two more half centuries during the tour and each of these innings had an aroma of excellence written all over it. Take the 50 he scored against the West Indies, on a bouncy, green-top at Perth under extremely tough conditions, for an example. The Windies attack contained pace bowlers in the calibre of Curtly Ambrose, Curtney Walsh and Ian Bishop, who initially troubled Kalu with a barrage of rib-breaking bouncers. But Kalu remained undeterred as he plundered the Windies pace attack hitting five fours and a glorious pull for a six, whilst being involved in an explosive 80 run opening partnership with Sanath Jayasuriya. The best was yet to come. 2 days later a near capacity MCG crowd looked in awe as Kalu knocked the daylights of the Aussies in an amazing display of clean hitting. Sri Lanka was set a target of 242 by Australia and how well 'little Kalu' took the attack to the Aussies was beyond one's imagination. The 'little dynamo' hit an epic 74 in just 69 balls to take Sri Lanka into the World Series finals for the first time. This time the casualty was none other than Glenn McGrath. He was smashed for 76 runs in 9.4 overs- his most expensive bowling figures in a one-day game todate- as Kalu simply punished him to all corners of the huge MCG. Kalu was not as successful in the two final matches, mainly due to the horrific umpiring of Stephen Randell. But the bottom line was that as a makeshift opening batsman, within the space of a few frantic weeks, Kalu had taken the art of batting to a new level. And in doing so he introduced to the cricket world its newest phrase ? 'the pinch-hitter'. Pinch hitter is a phrase borrowed from baseball. It is generally used when all the bases are filled and a striker is sent in, on a suicidal mission, to tip-and-run. However the pinch hitter, in a cricketing sense, is the 'non-batsman' who is sent in up the batting order with a licence to carry out an attack on everything. True, batsmen such as Krishnamachari Srikkanth and Mark Greatbatch had previously shown the cricketing world glimpses of the art of pinch hitting at the top. But no team in the history has ever been able to demonstrate the pinch hitting tactics more effectively than the Sri Lankans. Romesh Kaluwitanana and Sanath Jayasuriya were the pioneers at that. Of course credit must also be given to the then team management, which gave the duo a free hand to attack, which went a long way in maintaining the confidence of the dashing opening pair. By the time the Sri Lankan left Australia in 1996, Kalu had already made quite an impact. The hallmark of his success was that he was able to convert balls that were just short of a length into long hops using his little height. And as a result the entire Sri Lanka team had been transformed to a confident outfit, ready for any challenge. And it was a matter of time before they conquered the world with the kind of pinch hitting which had never been used by a team as part of its game plan in such an effective manner. The 1996 Wills world cup victory was the crowning glory. Every time little Kalu walked to the middle with his more dominative partner Sanath, adrenaline was flowing high. As for Kalu, the general expectation was that he would dispatch boundaries in such regular manner, more often than not with a neat pull over square leg or mid-on, and the sight of an opening bowler shaking his head in shear frustration. Kaluwitharana scored only 73 runs in six innings during the 1996 World Cup. But the figures can, sometimes, be misleading, as it does not tell the true story. One has to look beyond the figures and consider the impact the man made to each game. He had faced 52 balls for the 73 runs he had made and 52 of these runs were scored in fours and sixes. It was inevitable that pinch hitting could go horribly wrong sometimes- as amply demonstrated in Sri Lanka's opening game in the 1996 world cup against Zimbabwe (first round) and India (semi-finals), where Kalu was dismissed off the very first ball he faced on both occasions. But pinch hitting is not really measured by the number of runs you score; it is all about setting the pace for the innings, attacking the opening bowlers from the word go. Kalu's success lies here. One only needs to understand how Javagal Srinath and Manoj Prabhakar, India's new ball pair, would have felt when Kalu and Sanath took the attack to them at the Feroz Shah Kotla stadium in New Delhi in a first round game. Kalu hit six fours in the first 15 balls he faced before being out for 26. India set Sri Lanka a target of 272 to win and thanks to the heroics of Sanath-Kalu combination Sri Lanka achieved the target with comfort. Then came the massacre of innocents against Kenya in Kandy where Kalu smashed 33 off 18 balls, including four fours and two sixes, whilst sharing a partnership of 83 in less than 8 overs. Against England, Kalu hit 2 boundaries off the first 2 balls he faced against Richard Illingwoth's spiners but succumbed to the next. Sanath, on the other end sent the English attack on a leather hunt as he plundered 82 runs in 44 balls to set up a famous win for Sri Lanka. Kalu failed in the semi finals and the finals where he faced only a total of 14 balls. But he, together with Sanath, had already created an environment which, more often than not, upset the game plan of the opposing side. Few would disagree if one suggests that Kaluwitharana had failed to live up to the promises he had shown during the mid '90s. Just as much as he was successful with his aggressive pinch hitting tactics against pace bowlers, Kalu was equally vulnerable against them. 80% of his dismissals have been achieved by pace bowlers. Kalu's retirement may have come a shade too late, but his contribution to the game cannot be realistically measured by the number of runs he scored in his career. The impact made by 'little Kalu' to Sri Lankan cricket, especially during the 1995-96 golden era, has been immense. It was he and Sanath who always set the tempo during an initial blast which helped other batsmen to complete the finishing touches. The inevitable result was the transformation of the Sri Lanka team from a talented but inconsistent side to a world-beating outfit. This, perhaps, is the greatest legacy Romesh Kaluwitharana left to Sri Lanka cricket. |
|
News | Business | Features
| Editorial | Security
Produced by Lake House |
Not
many may be aware that the one-day international match played by Sri Lanka
against the West Indies in the Singer Champions Trophy held in Sharjah on
16th October 1995 was, arguably a turning point of Sri Lanka cricket.
