Kalutara Vidyalaya lad becomes 11th SL captain:

Dilshan to lead in all forms of the game

Elmo Rodrigopulle

The new Sri Lanka Test and one-day Cricket Captain is Tillekeratne Dilshan. The Sri Lankan Cricket Selectors comprising Duleep Mendis (chairman), Brendon Kuruppu, Ranjit Madurusinghe, Don Anurasiri and Chaminda Mendis who met yesterday were unanimous in their choice and gave Dilshan the nod. Dilshan replaces Kumar Sangakkara. Sangakkara who resigned as the one-day captain after the 2011 World Cup debacle in Mumbai, had said that he was available to lead the country in Test cricket if required.

But the Selectors after careful consideration, settled for the dashing opening batsman who has shown good all round form in recent times. Dilshan thus becomes the 11th Sri Lankan captain.

First fling

Dilshan’s first fling as captain will be against England which tour begins on May 14th with a three day game against Middlesex in Uxbridge. The Lankans will play Three Test matches and five one-day Internationals on their tour of England.

After the England tour the Lankans will be up against Australia who will tour here for a Test and One-day series. The Aussies too have a new captain in Michael Clarke.

Dilshan 34 plays in the colours of Bloomfield and has 66 Test matches under his belt and has scored 3,990 runs with a highest score of 168 against Zimbabwe. He has scored 11 hundreds and 16 half centuries.

In limited over cricket he has played 203 games with 5,456 runs, a highest score of 160, 10 centuries and 22 half tons.

Experience

Dilshan has experience in leading Sri Lanka. On a tour of Zimbabwe he proved his credentials and served notice by winning the series. After that tour he was tipped to sport the vice captain’s cap. But the selectors preferred to let former Sri Lanka Captain Mahela Jayawardena do that job.

A former Kalutara Vidyalaya cricketer, Dilshan showed good potential for his school and continued to blossom when he broke into big time cricket.

Early in his career he tended to be reckless going for his shots from the first ball. But coming under foreign coaches, he began to settle down and make big scores which made him a permanent member of the Sri Lanka team.

Brilliant fielder

As a fielder Dishan was in the class of former South African brilliant fielders in Colin Bland and Jonty Rhodes. His catching and ground fielding sure and has the gift of arrowing the ball from whatever position he fields on to the stumps or over it to the wicket keeper.

He has also been a more than useful change bowler pitching and turning his tantalizing off breaks and not all batsmen have been comfortable facing him.

Dilshan if he hopes to become a successful Sri Lankan captain must believe in himself, lead by example and be able to get the best out of each member of the team. Forging a good rapport with the players, the selectors, Sri Lanka Cricket and Sports Minister will be to his advantage.

We wish Tillekeratne Dilshan lots of runs, wickets, catches and a ship load of success in his new and exciting journey in the game as a proud captain of Sri Lanka cricket.