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| Sunday, 26 January 2003 |
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Chamikara Mudalige - an untried off-spinner with performances to back talent by LESLIE FERNANDO Want a successor for Muttiah Muralitharan? Sri Lanka has quite a useful spinner in 25-year-old Chamikara Mudlige who has shown signs of being a top-class off-spinner, but, he has not been successful enough to be recognised to further his interest in the game of cricket. Mudalige has not been tried or tested and his talent is allowed to go down the drain. Former Sri Lanka skipper and Chairman of cricket selectors at a certain period - Michael Tissera in a newspaper interview had lamented the fact that nothing is being done to pick talented spin bowlers in the schools and groom them for the senior national side. Chamikara Mudalige hails from Mahinda College, Galle and he has performances to show that he is a off-spinner of much promise. He has been involved with cricket from the under 15 age group upwards and gradually sharpened his spin bowling in the under 17 and under 19 age group. In the 1995 'Big Match' against Richmond, he was picked as the best bowler and best fielder. While still at school, he represented Galle CC in the Saravanamuttu Trophy cricket tournament and while representing Galle CC in the Yellow Pages Under 23 Cricket Tournament, he captured 5 for 65 against NCC in the final. After three seasons with Galle CC, he decided to come over to Colombo and played for BRC in 1998 and he had a haul of 46 wickets in the Sara Trophy Tournament. He had eye-catching figures in matches against Bloomfield (6 for 94) against Panadura SC (6 for 95) and Moors Sports Club (4 for 34). He also excelled with the bat that season, scoring 361 runs with two half-centuries against Kurunegala SC and Antonian SC. Right now, Chamikara is with CCC, having joined the club in 1999. He has been averaging about 40 wickets per season in 1999, 2000, 2001 and 2002. At CCC, he has been well handled by skipper Anushka Polonowita and Chamikara has produced results - and last season had 9 for 110 against Panadura SC and a match-bag of 7 for 76 against the star-studded SSC. He had a spot of luck when he was picked to tour Abu Dhabi with the Sri Lanka 'A' team under Chandika Hathurusinghe for the Tri-Nation Tournament in 1999. But, he was not fortunate enough to play a single match on tour. Then in 2000, he was drafted into the Sri Lanka 'A' pool to meet Zimbabwe, but here again, was not fortunate enough to get a game. In the 2001-2002 season, Chamikara had a haul of 42 wickets, with 5 for 44 against Kurunegala SC, 6 for 64 against Police 5 for 71 against NCC, 7 for 29 against Sebastianites SC, 6 for 94 against SSC and 5 for 104 against Kurunegala Youth Sports Club. Now, aren't these good performances that merit selection to play big-time cricket? This season too-- that's 2002-2003, playing for CCC, he has captured 23 wickets in four games. The time is right to take note of this young cricketer's performances and give him a fair trial before putting him against international teams. Right now, Chamikara Mudalige is with East West Informatic System (Computer Section). |
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