Sports

County cricket is not for bowlers, says Vaas

by Sa'adi Thawfeeq

Sri Lanka's pace ace Chaminda Vaas fighting to be fit for the opening match of the one-day tri-series against India at Dambulla on Saturday spoke against bowlers playing county cricket in England. For a batsmen it's okay playing county cricket. You learn a lot of things and get a lot of opportunities.

(from left): Kumar Sangakkara receiving the Man-of-the-Match Award from Ozman Faizan, CEO Standard Chartered Bank. (Centre): Chaminda Vass receives the Man-of-the-Series Award from H.D. Prabath Dammika Regional Sales Manager, Ceylinco Ultra Tech Cement and Marvan Atapattu receiving the Union Assurance Test Series Trophy from Rukman Weeraratne, General Manager Marketing and Distribution, Union Assurance.

People like Kumar (Sangakkara), Mahela (Jayawardene) and Marvan (Atapattu) will benefit a lot if they can go there. But for a fast bowler it is not an easy job. Two or three months is okay, but more than that I wouldn't recommend," said Vaas, man-of-the-series of the two-Test series against West Indies, which Sri Lanka won by a margin of 2-0.

Vaas said he wouldn't recommend bowlers like (Lasith) Malinga, (Nuwan) Zoysa, Dilhara (Fernando) going and playing county cricket. "We need to look after our young fast bowlers. Otherwise they will pick up some injury."

Sri Lanka’s spinner Muttiah Muralitharan with the ball that helped him take wickets, along with Marvan Atapattu and the Sri Lanka team returning to the pavilion after the match. - (Pictures by Herbert Perera)

Vaas who played a short season for English county side Worcestershire said: "Out of seven days, we play five days of county cricket. I couldn't train at all at Worcester. That's the reason I picked up the injury."

The strain of bowling 285.4 overs for Worcestershire in the county championships besides a good many in the one-day competition within a period of two months seemed to have taken its toll on 31-year-old Vaas. He took 28 wickets at 27.82 in seven matches.

Vaas is nursing a hamstring strain in his right leg, an injury he picked up while bowling in the West Indies first innings of the second Test at Asgiriya. It is an injury, which prevented him from bowling in the second innings and adding to his impressive tally of 13 wickets, which he had already captured in the short series. Nevertheless he had done enough to merit the man-of-the-series award.

In Vaas' absence off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan swept through the West Indies batting taking eight wickets for 46 to bring about an overwhelming 240-run victory.

"I am happy with the six wickets in the first innings but a little disappointed that I could not bowl in the second innings.

A target of 378 is easy to defend with Murali around. That's why the captain and the physio adviced me not to take any further part in the Test. If we had got a target of only 200 runs I would have to bowl," said Vaas.

The left-arm seamer who is his country's second highest wicket-taker in one-day internationals with 323 wickets from 250 matches was optimistic of being fit for the opening match against India.

"I am looking forward for the one-day tournament. At the moment my injury is very minor. In seven to eight days I should be able to recover," said Vaas.

He said that he was planning to play till the 2007 World Cup and had not given a thought on whether he would concentrate on playing one version of the game.

"I want to play for my country for as long as I can. I will plan my future after the World Cup," said Vaas who also has 290 wickets from 86 Tests.