KEEP IT NATURAL
Lanka’s middle-order batsman Thilan Samaraweera gives credits to school coaches and the local set-up. “After our 1996 World Cup win, the Sri Lankan board did the wise thing of concentrating on the school cricket. The emphasis was to continue the supply of natural cricketers and that’s how it has been since then,” he says.
Post Murali, the first unconventional cricketer to make an impact on international cricket was Malinga. The pace bowling coach at the academy Anusha Samarnayake talks about the subtle changes that he made in Malinga’s style. “I changed his run-up a bit and altered his wrist position but never asked him to stop bowling with his slinging action. Players tend to get confused when you change too many things,” he says. Malinga acknowledges the role of the coach. He says that it may not happen every other day, but Sri Lanka will never be without a bowler who people call a “freak”.
“After every three to four years, we are bound to get an unusual player. First there were Sanath and Murali. Now, when I am out, there is Mendis to take my place. With so many successes around, young players aren’t afraid to develop their own style,” he says.
While the world is waiting to crack the code of Mendis, a boy who wasn’t afraid to be a leggie and offie at the same time, another freak is waiting in the wings. Mendis’s spin partner in the Army XI, Seekkuge Prasanna, is someone who bowls his leggies with the arm-movement of a spinner delivering a flipper. Prasanna has just been drafted at the academy and those in the know speak of his terrific wrist and amazing rip. Another star ready to roll out from the assembly line at the freak factory?