Naveed Nawaz and Maharoof gained a lot from cricket contests

by Leslie FERNANDO

Farveez Mahroof - Observer Schoolboy Cricketer of the Year 2003 - great asset to Sri Lanka Cricket.

Naveed Nawaz - Observer Schoolboy Cricketer of the Year 1993. Now Sri Lankan U.19 coach.

CRICKET: Naveed Nawaz, former D. S. Senanayake College elegant left-hand batsman and lanky versatile allrounder Farveez Maharoof of Wesley College who won the coveted Observer Schoolboy Cricketer of the Year Contest in 1993 and 2003 respectively were of the view that winning the prestigious award was a great honour while being a schoolboy cricketer. Both Nawaz and Maharoof have represented Sri Lanka and Maharoof still continues to be in the national cricket squad.

Both of them thanked the ANCL and Sunday Observer for organising this contest for over three decades and hoped it will be continued for many more years to come as the schoolboy cricketers will greatly be benefited.

Nawaz who has been appointed as the Sri Lanka under-19 cricket coach from last month in preparation for the 2010 World Cup to be held in New Zealand, said that about 90 per cent of Sri Lanka cricket team has won awards in this contest.

The game of cricket is now confined to the popular schools. The game has spread throughout the length and breath of Sri Lanka. It is indeed happy to note that more outstation cricketers gained selection to Sri Lanka `A’ team, Development Pool, Under-19 squad and the National team. He said that the Observer Contest has been well received as the selections made by the umpires have been good throughout.

The selections have had the desired results as those selected for awards have gone on to represent Sri Lanka.

Maharoof who won the award in 2003 said that hard work at school level enabled him to win the prestigious award. The schoolboy cricketers who show much promise are bound to climb to the top of the ladder and can vie to play for the national team.

He said that would be the dream of any schoolboy cricketer to be crowned the Observer Schoolboy Cricketer of the Year - now sponsored by Mobitel.

The new sponsor of the contest Mobitel has opened a new chapter in the 31-year-old contest introducing a special segment - The Best Behaved Team. The nomination of each school in a month will also receive a desktop computer with M3 high speed internet connection in addition to the Mobitel Mobile Phones to weekly winners on the coupon draw.

Nawaz - five years cricket

Naveed Nawaz, born 20th September 1973, started school cricket at the age of 13 years at D. S. Senanayake College. He played in all age categories and went on to captain the school 1st XI in 1992-1993. He was a very promising batsman and scored 1560 runs and claimed 68 wickets with his off-spinners during the season. He played for five years in the 1st XI side. Nawaz has represented Bloomfield for seven years in the top division before going over to NCC where he has been playing for six years. He was one of the most talented young batsman, but unfortunately, got the chance only to represent the national side in patches. Most of the time it was not lack of form or talent that led to his inability to make it to the national team, but luck didn’t seem to be with him. The 36-year-old Nawaz, made his debut for Sri Lanka in the last one day international against Zimbabwe in 1997.

An innings which is in his mind always is his knock of 111 scored against Zimbabwe in the three-day game at Matara. He was representing the Sri Lanka Board President’s XI. He also scored a fine century against West Indies `A’ when they toured Sri Lanka in 1997.

He played his only Test against Bangladesh at SSC in 2002. scored 26 in the first innings and 73 not out in the second innings to have that eye-catching average of 99.

Nawaz has led the Sri Lanka `A’ team against New Zealand, West Indies, England and South Africa `A’ sides.

After big-time cricket, Nawaz took up to coaching. He was the NCC coach 2004-2005, coach of Moors SC 2006-2007 and 2007 to 2008 was the SSC coach. SSC became under-23 champions and lifted the Premier League Trophy and the four-day championship tournament under his coaching. Nawaz’s aim is to build up the Sri Lanka under-19 team to be a force to be recognised at the 2010 Youth World Cup in New Zealand.

Maharoof - early promise helped greatly

Farveez Maharoof - the Wesley College boy, put his early promise as a schoolboy paceman to good effect and climbed the ladder of success in big time cricket. He was Observer Schoolboy Cricketer of the Year in 2003.

He was also picked as the Best Batsman All-Island and also figured in the final round of the Best Bowler, Best Allrounder and Best Captain contests. Getting on to the bigger fold, he was somewhat unfortunate to be injured and has not played in a Test since October 2007. He was a member of the Sri Lanka team that toured England last month for the Twenty20 World Cup Tournament. Maharoof played in the 200 IPL tournament in India for Delhi Daredevils.

Farveez Maharoof, born on 7th September 1984, is a right-hand bat and right-arm fast medium bowler. He captained Wesley in 2001-2002 and went on to represent Sri Lanka Schools under-19 side against the visiting England Academy side in 2003 and slammed a quick-fire century (100) off 99 balls. He was also in the Development Cricket Squad run by the BCCSL. He had the distinction of playing for the BCCSL Board XI led by Romesh Kaluwitharana against the New Zealanders in 2003 and scored 22 runs and he claimed the wickets of Kiwi skipper Stephen Fleming and Scot Styris.Maharoof had a good run in England, playing for Stanmore in the Middlesex County League. He figured prominently with the bat and ball, scoring heavily and capturing many wickets.Altogether Maharoof has played in 20 Tests, scoring 538 runs batting average 19.92. He had three half centuries with a top score of 72. He took 24 wickets after bowling 2,628 balls, best bowling 4 for 52 and he has taken 6 catches.

He played 75 one-day internationals and scored 751 runs at an average of 19.96.