In cricket, there are no short cuts, play hard to win - Kumar Dharmasena

By A.C De Silva

CRICKET IN FOCUS.... Nalanda College’s star cricketer of the past – Kumara Dharmasena now one of the leading cricket umpires in the world, made it a date to be at the Sunday Observer-Mobitel Schoolboy Cricketer of the Year as Chief Guest on Wednesday night at the Oak Room of Cinnamon Grand Hotel to be associated with awards ceremony of the School Cricket Awards.

Kumar Dharmasena stayed very close to Nalanda where he did his schooling from a very young age and cricket caught his fancy. He used to go to the grounds and play. He used to get all the encouragement and he learnt a lot watching first eleven cricketers play.

Then one-day Mr. Cecil Gamage his coach who had been watching him play gave him all the encouragement one-day asked him to come for under 13 practice. He was a guidance force to Dharmasena’s cricket as Nalanda.

Many golden opportunities

Coming into first eleven cricket gave Kumar Dharmasena plenty of opportunity. He got selected to play first XI cricket for the school at the age of 14 years. On two occasions in his school career he achieved the feat of scoring 1,000 runs and capturing 100 wickets. Then overall his runs exceeded 3,000 runs and 300 wickets.

He captained the school team and also toured England in 1988 and played in the Youth Asia Cup.

Dharmasena said that in the game of cricket there are no short cuts to get to the top. One has to devoted his heart and sole to the game to climb to the top and thereby win. He said that while he was student of Nalanda Vidyalaya, he learnt many lessons to get tot he top and success came his way because he put his heart and sole to the game and success came his way. While he was at Nalanda, he went flat-out and his hard and perseverance towards cricket brought him good results.

He said school cricket is a very interesting game and the young cricketers must concentrate nad play to get the best results.

‘No short cuts’ in game

There are no ‘short-cuts’ in the game and batsman must be careful and choose the correct strokes to play having studied the bowler. The bowlers will try all sorts of tricks to win over the batsman, but the batsmen will have to watch carefully before venturing out to play attacking strokes if they are going to have it their way.

Speaking to the young cricketers, he signated a somewhat of a warning. Don’t miss practices unless for a valid reason. Play a honest game of cricket when you in the middle and in front of many spectators. He advised the young cricketers to build up personality that will be respected give your best to the game and the game will back plenty of rewards. Getting on to the schoolboy cricketers present, he said that the young cricketers must learn to gather the correct technique in both batting and bowling and they must learn that there are no short cuts in the game and players must learn to have patience and then they will eventually come on top. Speaking in lighter vein, Kumar Dharmasena said that he was somewhat sorry that there are no Nalandian cricketers in the first eleven Sri Lanka cricket team right now.