 
Chris Dhambarage
His career has never been stable despite turning out to be one of the
most consistent run getters in the domestic scene.
An explosive middle order batsman, he was never really given an
opportunity to express his potential to the fullest satisfaction. For
Samantha Indika de Saram (35) the next few months will probably be one
of the most eventful days in his career which began almost ten years
ago.
The aggressive right hander is back in the Sri Lankan team and with a
mission to help his country win the International Cricket Council (ICC)
Twenty20 World title in England. De Saram has already made an impression
in the shortest version of the game by guiding Sri Lanka to lift the
popular Hong Kong six a side tournament in 2007.
 This was certainly one of the turning points in his career and since
then he has been a strong contender to be a regular player in the
national one day squad. Even then De Saram believes that every match and
every tournament is a new challenge for him and is prepared to grab the
opportunity and make maximum from the opportunities given.
This year in particular has been a tremendous season for him where he
has scored runs in all forms of the game for his club and province. And
with a busy international schedule lined up for Sri Lanka this year, De
Saram is ready to take up the challenge and live up to expectations as a
natural stroke maker who is now approaching another landmark of
completing ten thousand runs in first class cricket.
De Saram broke into the limelight still as a schoolboy when he
plundered a massive 304 runs from just 149 deliveries for S. Thomas’
College against Sri Devananda College Ambalangoda at the Uyanwatte
Stadium in Matara.
Another highlight in his career was when he hammered a double hundred
in an Inter Provincial tournament match when he was just 19. From there
onwards he made it to the Sri Lanka `A’ team quite regularly and was
able to find a place in the national team in 1999 for the tour of
Zimbabwe.
In the meantime De Saram kept on piling up the runs quite freely at
all domestic and first class matches while representing Galle CC, Colts
CC, Tamil Union, Bloomfield and Ragama CC at which place he has turned
out to be a regular player since the 2004 season.He has scored more runs
for Ragama CC than any other player and has made those runs when the
team needed him most.
 The concluded season was a classic example of his commitment towards
his club where he accumulated nearly eight hundred runs inclusive of
four centuries during the Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) organized Premier
League
Tier `A’ tournament. The most striking fact is that he made runs when
his team was under tremendous pressure and made things look much easier
at the crease.
The twin centuries he scored against Moors Sports Club was no doubt a
fantastic effort but yet the innings that he will always remember would
be the century which he made against Bloomfield that helped Ragama CC
pull off a stunning outright victory after having conceded first innings
points.De Saram stated that this season he was able to make an impact
with a lot of extra hard work and was rewarded for his consistency with
the Best Batsman’s award in this tournament. He did not end at that
point but continued to impress with the bat with some superb
contributions for Ruhuna Province in the Inter Provincial Twenty20
tournament.
He was named the best batsman in this tournament as the highest run
getter with 94 runs from just 44 deliveries. De Saram believes that he
is in a good frame of mind to make a good contribution to his country in
this tournament in England. De Saram is also a Level Two qualified ECB
coach. |
