Mahela's talent was spotted at Nalanda
By Ranjan Anandappa
Mahela Jayawardene's talent spotted early .... Among the few players
who could be identified as potential future Test players while
representing a school, Mahela Jayawardene was undoubtedly one of them
while playing for Nalanda College.
 Nalanda College cricket coach during Mahela's era Jayantha
Seneviratne said that Jayawardene developed himself to be a great player
through sheer perseverance, dedication and commitment.
He had all qualities of becoming a great player and a born leader.
"Mahela was first spotted while representing the Nalanda under 13
team at the age of 11 years while Leslie Narangoda was the coach. Those
days we did not have many coaches and the under 15 team was handled by
Narangoda, while I was the first eleven coach.
Mahela's natural ability and talent soon made him a member of College
first eleven team at the age of 15 and from that point onwards there was
no stopping Mahela who captained teams of all age categories and finally
captaining the first eleven in 1995." said Jayantha Seneviratne the
former Nalanda coach.
Jayawardene Technically sound
"Jayawardene is technically sound, but that alone does not make a
complete batsman. He could bat with a judicious blend of caution and
aggression as the situation demands and could shift himself in the
batting order according to the situation of the game. At school I was
keen to see Mahela being a batting all-rounder as I thought that it had
a better chance of Mahela finding himself a place in the national team.
Many knew that Mahela opened the bowling for Nalanda and had taken over
40 wickets in a school season. said Seneviratne.
Mahela Jayawardene first big 'break' as a youngster came in 1994 when
he was selected on an under 19 tour of Singapore and Malaysia. Both
countries were striving hard to establish themselves in the cricketing
world. Cricket wise, the tour lacked the competitiveness, but the Sri
Lankans discovered many young players who went on to represent the
country at the highest level and Mahela Jayawardene was one of those
players.
The team was captained by Royalist Gamini Perera after his heroic
efforts in a Royal-Thomian encounter and some of the other players were,
Mahela Jayawardene, Avishka Gunawardena, Chaminda Vaas, Russel Arnold,
Ravindra Pushpakumara, Mario Villaverayan, Indika de Saram, Saman
Jayantha, Peter Hamer and Jeevantha Kulatunga.
Jayantha Seneviratne was the Nalanda coach from 1986 to 2004, and
along with Mater-in-Charge and Prefect of Games Trevor Nugegoda formed
an effective combination and have been guiding the team on the right
direction which Jayawardene played a pivotal role even then with his
exemplary qualities on and off the field.
Selected for Board XI in 1996
In 1996 Jayawardene was selected to play for the Board President's XI
against a touring South African Under 23 team. The team included players
of the calibre of Shaun Pollock, Jacques Kallis, Lance Klusener, Roger
Telemachus, Nicky Boje and Clive Ekstein. Jayawardene struck a fine
century to impress everyone including the South African coach Bob
Woolmer at that time.
In the same year 1996 Jayawardene playing against the England Under
19 team scored a century. The England team was captained by Michael
Vaughn and had Marcus Trescothick and Richard Johnson to name a few.
Mahela made his Test debut against India in August 1997 at the R.
Premadasa Stadium where Sanath Jayasuriya scored a triple hundred.
Mahela scored an unbeaten 61.
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