Padma off to Melbourne

Padma Karunaratne of the Women's Cricket Association of Sri Lanka left for Melbourne, Australia to qualify as a Level 2 Coach. She will be away for a period of six months.

She started her cricket career with the WCA way back in 1996 when she secured a place in the national pool, but failed to make it to the final team for the World Cup 1997 in India.

She gave up serious playing to concentrate on umpiring and qualified from Sri Lanka Cricket and stood for Division I School Matches, Division 1 Mercantile Matches and was promoted to Level 2 in umpiring in 2001, scoring the highest marks at 198 out of 200.

Shifting to coaching, Padma passed the Level 1 Coaching Exam conducted by the Sri Lanka Cricket.

Padma went on to coach the Rajarata Ladies Team who emerged champions in B Division Tournament of 2005 conducted by the WCASL. Her club was promoted to Division I. Padma was also the district organiser for WCA in the schools programme in 2005.

An English teacher by profession attached to Swarnapali Balika MV, Anruadhapura, she also plays netball and other games.

Passionate about cricket, she has a bright future, all of which she says are due to the pioneering and dedicated efforts of the President of WCA, Gwen Herat as well as the encouragement given by her principal, director and coach of the Youth Affairs Ministry of the North Central Province.