Fresher Tharanga emerges hero

Richard Dwight

CRICKET: Gone are the days, when a prodigious cricketer or two, walked straight into the national side from a school, to live up to the trust and faith reposed in him.

Gone too, are the days when aspiring youngsters from clubs, playing at the national level did exceptionally well as freshers.

Not any longer now, for the newcomers making it to the Sri Lanka team are found to be hesitant and tentative in their play.

They sooner off later fizzle out, whilst the others comparatively require a longer gestation period, to come to grips with what international cricket in all about.

This is mainly due to the drop in standards of cricket played at the school level. Sadly schools lack star performers, who through their brilliance at crucial stages, could wrest the initiative to bring about decisive results at school matches.

Our domestic cricket as often stressed, is far bellow par where budding cricketers aren't stretched to the extent they would be when playing at the highest level.

And so its against this drawback and yet other cricketing odds here, that we consider the commendable performances of newcomer, upul Tharanga, to be most reassuring to be refreshing in the cause of Sri Lanka cricket.

We refer to him as a fresher in the Sri Lanka cricket team, for the reason that this is just his first year in the side. And what a start he has already made, notching 5 centuries beyond compare to be extraordinary, with little or no parallel.

At the height of his achievement in scoring a century against Bangladesh, he stoops low to be modest, to acknowledge the guidance and sobering influence he imbibed while batting along with Sanath, Mahela and Kumar.

This speaks much for Tharanga, and he will progress further if he continues.

However he will do well to be a bit more sedate in his batting, cutting out the flamboyant flourishes especially against the highly competitive Aussie and Pakistani bowlers, who are quick enough to read through the weakness of an enterprising batsman.

As for our cricket it was embarrassingly humiliating for us to have to qualify for the ICC Trophy Championship.

This is certainly not a reflection on Mahela's leadership, for it was decided upon earlier. Here's hoping that Mahela will get us back to the qualified fold.