Padma Karunaratne:

From teaching English to Cricket Coaching

by Upananda JAYASUNDERA - Kandy Sports Special Corr

WOMAN CRICKET COACH: From Teaching English to Teaching Cricket. This is the achievement of J.M. Padma Karunaratne, the first Level III, Woman Cricket Coach attached to Sri Lanka Cricket who is serving as the Women's Cricket Developing Officer.

Padma received the Level I Cricket Coaching Certificate in Sri Lanka in 2003 and got Level II and Level III in Australia in 2006 and 2011 respectively.

Before coming on to the cricket scene, Padma was an English teacher serving in the Anuradhapura District.

An old girl of Swarnapali Balika Vidyalaya, she was a self taught cricketer and she went one step further by forming a cricket team in Anuradhapura after leaving school, While playing cricket Padma became the Secretary of the Sri Lanka Women's Cricket Association. Being so very much attached to the game, she developed her skills into becoming a left-arm leg-spin bowler and was selected to the Sri Lanka National Women's Cricket Pool. Being so very keen on cricket, Padma was selected for the Sri Lanka Women's Cricket Pool. Then she was selected for the tour of India in 2000 and two of her team-mates were Rasanjalie Silva and Thilaka Gunaratne.

Padma who is an endearing girl and also did her examination as a cricket umpire and was successful in 1998 and upto now she has umpired nearly 200 matches. She has also been successful in the scorers examination in 2004.

That's not the end. Padma has also become a versatile personality became the coach of her old school Swarnapali Balika, Anuradhapura from 1998 to 2001. Then from 2002 to 2004 she coached the Youth Services Women's Cricket Team at Maharagama. She also coached Anuradhapura 'Shakthri' Cricket Team for some time and came to Colombo and coached the Colombo CCC Women's team in 2007 and 2008.

Colombo CCC women became runners-up in 2007 and emerged champions in 2008 at the Grade I Sri Lanka Women's Cricket Tournament. It is not only cricket that Padma excelled in, She was an all-round Sportswoman and she was successful in the Sports Diploma Course in the year 2003 and in the Sports Administration Course in 2004.

When she came into the cricket scene, she seemed thrilled at the idea of travelling long distances by train from Anuradhapura to Colombo. She had a word of praise for former Chairman of Interim Committee D.S. De Silva in helping her to catch on with cricket coaching.