Nilushan, dedicated young cricketer

Chris Dhambarage

He had the rare distinction of representing the First Eleven cricket team at the young age of 13 years. He never looked back from there onwards and went on to captain his school in all age categories.

After a prolific inter school cricket season with De Mazenod College Kandana, Nilushan Nonis is well poised to extend his form and dominance into the Sri Lanka cricket domestic scene.

The 23 year old dashing right hander is now targeting the upcoming SLC Premier League tournament where he is set to turn out for Bloomfield as a wicket keeper cum opening batsman.

His role as a wicket keeper is of course something new as he had never stood behind the stumps during his seven year school cricketing career. But he seems to have found his new task quite exciting with some fantastic contributions for his club in the recent past.

In fact Nonis first took over the task as the wicket keeper batsman while turning out for Baduraliya CC during the 2009 inter club season.

He had a decent start to his new career with 28 victims and also struck four fifties including a top score of 77 not out against Bloomfield.

In 2010 Nonis switched to Bloomfield and stamped his class and authority with a total of 364 runs from seven matches in the SLC Under 23 Division One tournament.

It was in this tournament that he scored one of his best innings while cracking an unbeaten 138 in the game against Moors Sports Club. He followed up this with half centuries against Tamil Union and Kurunegala YCC and was the runner up in the Best Batsman category.

But more than the total number of runs he showed a great amount of maturity in his approach towards the game proving that he has come out of his age to become a solid dependable opening batsman.

It was sometime back that he threw away his wicket when he was well set to score a big hundred or when he is about to complete a half century. The situation has completely changed now as he has concentrated a lot in occupying the crease as well.

That may not sound well for the bowlers because Nonis is also an accumulator of runs and he could perform that part in a most destructive manner. In fact he was considered as one of the most aggressive batsmen in school cricket where he was able to destroy even some of the best at that time.

His magnificent knock of 138 runs which he made against St. Benedict’s College is still in his memories as the best ever contribution with the bat in the 2007 inter school cricket season.

This was the period where Nonis was on song where he tore the bowlers apart whether it may be pace or spin.

He was equally brilliant against the fast bowlers as well as against the slow bowlers and went on to complete the magical one thousand runs that year.

Reaching the landmark of one thousand runs is of course the dream of every schoolboy batsmen and Nonis achieved his goal in a remarkable manner scoring three centuries and compiling eight half centuries.

As a former captain of De Mazenod College he was an asset to the team and also had the opportunity of contributing with the ball where he captured 17 wickets that season.

Although keeping wickets may be something new for Nonis he had the talent and the potential to take over that role as he held on to record 54 catches as a fielder mostly in the slip cordon.

Nonis was able to conclude his school cricket career in style as he was named Schoolboy Cricketer runner up and also was selected as the Best Batsman in 2007.

In the previous year too he was named Best Batsman when he was the captain of the team and took the same award during the 2006 season.

Incidentally Nonis had the honour of playing in a champion outfit in the 2007 season where De Mazenod College had a wonderful year with outright victories against some of the top teams including St. Benedict’s, S. Thomas’ Mount Lavinia, Raddoluwa MV and Maris Stella College Negombo.

But tragedy struck soon after he had completed his school cricket career and was sideline for more than eight months having fractured his left hand. The injury really took a heavy toll on his career prospects and was forced to restart his campaign despite the earlier performances.

Nevertheless Nonis was prepared to relaunch his career having fully recovered from his injury and also took over the role as the wicket keeper which has brought a new dimension to his game.

He turned out for Wayamba Province in the Under 23 inter provincial cricket tournament under the captaincy of Dimuth Karunaratne and was able to make his presence felt with the bat and behind the stumps.

This season he represented Antonians Sports Club and experienced mixed fortunes with the bat and behind the stumps while competing in the Sri Lanka Cricket Premier League Tier ‘B’ inter club tournament.

Nonis of course is yet to represent the country and the closest he has come was when he was named in the 20 member squad for the ICC Under 19 World Cup. But he had the opportunity of representing the Academy side against the touring Bangladesh Under 19 team in 2008.

He was inspired to start his cricket career and was guided at the beginning by his father Nihal Nonis who had turned out for St. Anthony’s College Wattala in mid 1970’s.

But it was under the guidance of Malcolm Fernando and Vernon Senanayake that he learnt the basics of the game that helped him to improve on his technique and the skill level later on.

Nonis further mastered the art of batting under his First Eleven coach Prasanna Vishwanath with the backing of dedicated Master in Charge Malik Keerthi.

He rose to great heights at Ragama CC under the guidance of Vipula Sittamige and through the inspiration of Roshan Abeysinghe.