Sebastianite Amila Aponso - good prospect for the future

by Ranjan ANANDAPPA

OBSERVER-MOBITEL: In an era where there is a dearth of left-arm spin bowlers, Sebastianite Amila Aponso who was picked the Best Bowler (All Island ) in the Sunday Observer/Mobitel Schoolboy Cricketer of the Year show is a good bet for the future.

The left-arm leg-spin of Aponso has earned him a place at junior level to represent the country, when he was selected to play for the Sri Lanka Under-19 Team against their English counterparts early this year. He also had a place in the recently concluded limited overs series held in Visakapatnam, India. Aponso was a regular member of the team and was an automatic choice as the leg spinner.

Born and bred in Moratuwa, a cricket crazy town in the suburbs of Colombo, Aponso entered St. Sebastian's College and was a regular member of the school teams from the junior level and showed promise as a left-arm spinner. Like former Test spinner Roger Wijesuriya and right-arm leg-spinner Nimesh Perera who became the Schoolboy Cricketer of the Year in 1996 and won the Best Bowler's Award, Aponso is sure to follow the footsteps of his predecessors.

Both Wijesuriya and Perera were products of the Moratuwa School.

Aponso will be captaining his school team this year and playing in his fourth year. In the last season Amila had to miss several matches due to being involved in the Under-19 National Team.

But in the 12 matches that he played, Aponso has taken 68 wickets and scored over 200 runs. He had a match bag of 12 wickets against President's College, Rajagiriya. Playing in seven matches as a member of the Under-19 Team in a limited overs series in Visakapatnam, India he took nine wickets.

Like any other aspiring cricketers Amila's one and only ambition is one day to be a Test cricketer.