Kamileen- first schoolboy cricketer to crack 1,000 runs

Chris DHAMBARAGE

His career almost came to an end when he fractured his toe having failed to negotiate a lightening delivery from Sri Lanka speed star Lasith Malinga while practising for the Under 19 team at the NCC nets.

After more than three months from that horrifying incident Mohamed Shihan Kamileen has emerged as a hero becoming the first schoolboy cricketer to complete the magical one thousand run mark in the current inter-school cricket season.

The stylish right-hand middle order batsman and the captain of Thurstan College reached this milestone with a magnificent knock of 116, his third century this year during the match against Maliyadeva College in Kurunegala.

Fourth year

Kamileen a fourth year coloursman was really determined to achieve this milestone from the start after having missed out during the last two seasons. In fact last year he ended up with a tally of 720 runs and the previous season he missed out 12 games with an injury after having collected 400 runs.

This time however the setting was absolutely perfect as Kamileen was appointed captain of the First Eleven team. That certainly gave him the licence to make the maximum from the opportunities while also concentrating on his team's overall performances.

With more responsibilities thrust on his shoulders he decided to drop to the number three position in the batting line up having been a regular opening batsman from the under 15 stage.

Nevertheless the change of position in the batting order seems to have worked well for Kamileen who reached his goal in the 16 th match of the current season.

Until then he has been really hungry for runs having made two big hundreds against St. Joseph's College and D. S. Senanayake College in addition to four other half centuries against St. Anthony's College, Royal College, Dharmaraja College, Kandy and Zahira College.

Early promise

Kamileen showed early promise of turning into a top schoolboy cricketer while representing Dharmapala MV Kottawa in the under 13 and under 15 inter-school junior tournaments while functioning as the vice captain of the team.

Like all young schoolboys he received plenty of support and encouragement from his parents and the three elder sisters who were always behind him in both victory and defeat. In the beginning of course he was selected to play for the side purely for his capabilities as a good close-in fielder.

But as time passed he decided to concentrate more on the game and soon learnt the art of batting through the guidance of coaches Duminda Gunasekera, Gamini and Galappathy.

From there onwards he has never looked back and has always moved in the right direction to emerge as one of the brightest prospects for Sri Lanka cricket. But unfortunately he was left out from the Under 19 squad for the recent ICC Youth World Cup despite making a couple of good half centuries in the trial matches.

Dramatic change

Even then it was after he joined Thurstan College that his career took a dramatic change while performing under the supervision of Coach Dinesh Weerasinghe who was really impressed with his batting from the inception.

The pair had the experience of meeting each other for the first time in Kurunegala when Kamileen was representing Dharmapala MV in an Under 15 inter-school tournament fixture.

Coach Dinesh Weerasinghe who is also an oldboy of Dharmapala MV then had the opportunity of meeting this exciting prospect who was keen to join Thurstan College as there was no First Eleven Cricket available at Kottawa.

Kamileen a close follower and a fan of Kevin Pieterson was able to make a significant impact with the bat in his very first season at Thurstan College which emerged as the Best Cricket team during the 2007/08 inter-school season.

He of course had some difficulties in adjusting his style of batting from a matting wicket at Dharmapala MV to a turf wicket at Thurstan College. But thanks to the valuable guidance of his coach, Kamileen soon picked up the finer points of batting and matured into a solid middle order batsman.

The other drawback for him was the difficulty in handling quality spinners at the beginning of his career. But now he has mastered the art of playing the slow bowlers to a great extent that he could even control any match situation quite effectively.

His strength is of course the ability to collect runs quickly when needed and could also play the sheet anchor role and settle to play a much longer innings. These are some of the qualities which he exhibited this season to the maximum that has brought great results for him and his team overall.

Potential

Coach Dinesh Weerasinghe highly acclaimed the talent and potential of Kamileen who is capable of playing a straight bat similar to former Sri Lanka opening batsman Marvan Atapattu. He could also accelerate and attack the bowling when required while making him the ideal choice for a 50 over contest.

The Achievements:

Full name: Mohamed Shihan Kamileen

Born: September 30, 1990, Colombo

Age: 19 years

Parents: Mohamed Akram Kamileen, Fatima

Sheema Kamileen

Batting style: Right hand

Bowling style: Right arm off spin

Major teams: Dharmapala MV Kottawa, Thurstan

College, Seeduwa Raddoluwa CC

First Eleven debut: 2007

First Eleven matches: 16

Innings: 24

Not outs: 3

Runs: 1053

Highest score: 120, 100's: 3, 50's: 4,

Average: 50.1,

Wickets: 40,

Catches: 18

Landmarks: Man of the Tournament and most

number of sixes at Old

Wesleyites Sixes, 2007

Coaches: Duminda Gunasekera, Gamini,

Galappathy, Dinesh Weerasinghe,

Aravinda Amarasekera,

D. Gurudeniya

How he fared this season:

45 and 24 v Mahanama

35 and 31 n.o, v Ananda

0 and DNB v S. Thomas'

10 and DNB v Wesley

71 and DNB v St. Anthony's

6 and 84 n.o, v Royal

0 and 28 v Prince of Wales

109 and 29 n.o, v St. Joseph's

98 and DNB v Dharmaraja

73 and DNB v Zahira

28 and 120 v D. S. Senanayake

13 and 25 v Dharmapala MV

46 and DNB v St. Sebastian's

25 and DNB v St. Benedict's

2 and 35 v Nalanda

116 and DNB v Maliyadeva

43 and 9 v Mahinda