Bandara - the forgotten man

by Sa'adi Thawfeeq

Malinga Bandara is greatly indebted to the two seasons of cricket he played in the English leagues, which he says has helped him begin his comeback towards regaining a place in the national Test team.

The 25-year-old leg-spinner from Kalutara was a totally forgotten man after he was pushed into the Test fold rather prematurely at the age of 18 against Stephen Fleming's New Zealanders in 1997-98 and then dropped.

But in the past two years he has gradually worked his way towards regaining a place in the national side. The first step towards achieving that goal was when he was called up to represent Sri Lanka 'A' in the on-going series against England 'A'.

Shockingly not given a single match for Southern Province in the recently concluded provincial tournament, Bandara's effort in taking 18 wickets at 23.55 in seven matches for Galle CC in the Premier trophy competition convinced the selectors to include him in the squad for the unofficial test series against England 'A'.

He started impressively with figures of five for 96 in the first 'test' at the CCC last week and followed it up yesterday with a career best eight for 49 which has placed his team in a position to force a win and draw the two-match series.

"The last few years I didn't perform well, but going to play in the Surrey League for two years for Normandy CC has helped me improve my cricket overall," said Bandara. He performed the all-rounder's role by scoring 575 runs and taking 45 wickets in 2003 and followed it up with 525 runs and 43 wickets the following year.

Playing in the same league with him was Rickie Clarke, a member of the present England 'A' team and the Bicknell brothers Martin and Darren.

Bandara evidently happy with his performance yesterday, said that it was his best performance in the seven years he's been playing first-class cricket.

"I bowled a tight line and length and I got my basics right bowling leg spin and googly. There was a little bit bounce and a little bit of turn on the wicket which is good for spin bowlers," said Bandara.

He was more or less bowling on a ground, which he was quite familiar with having represented NCC for six years before moving to Tamil Union for one season and then to Galle CC.

"The English batsmen are struggling against leg-spin.

They are in two minds when they play leg-spin. I took full advantage of it," said Bandara. "Bell and Shah played me well. They have a good technique against spin."

"In the past seven years I have learnt a lot from experience. When I made my Test debut I didn't have any kind of experience at that level. I bowled 21 overs and did not take a wicket for 79 runs and was dropped," he said.

He was still a schoolboy at Kalutara Vidyalaya and had just broken into club cricket representing Kalutara Town Club.

Bandara said he owed it to two former Sri Lankan bowlers Asoka de Silva and Rumesh Ratnayake for getting him where he is today.

"I received a lot of help from both of them," he said. De Silva is a former NCC and Sri Lanka Test leg-spinner and ICC Test umpire and Ratnayake, a former NCC and Sri Lanka fast bowler and coach of the club for the past six years.