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| Sunday, 27 June 2004 |
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There is 'Marvan the marvel' as he is known for his batting versatility in a chat with the Sunday Observer days before taking wing reflecting on the game. From Muralitharan's loss to the taste of 'ducks' which takes us to Bradman. Certainly, he says, he has put behind him the bad taste of some six successive ducks as a debutant which nearly ended his career. The Arena by Srian Obeyesekere
Enter Marvan Atapattu and for a start it is like a ship's captain without the rudder to its sail. Of course that vacuum is Muttiah Muralitharan. But huge as the loss of not having Muttiah Muralitharan in the team to Australia, Marvan Atapattu, is not willing to let the vacuum be a damper. And what is more it is Atapattu's first big outing in the saddle since taking over from Hashan Tillekeratne. The tour before that hardly even a month ago against a second string Zimbabwe away which was his baptism at that level was a mismatch. Monumental A 16-member Sri Lankan squad is reduced to 15 when its trump card, Muttiah Muralitharan withdraws. The side is badly in need of new oxygen. No team can afford to miss the services of a player who is the greatest bowler in the world. A fact best manifested in that monumental highest number of 527 Test wickets achieved by the magician with the ball recently overtaking West Indian Courtney Walsh's longstanding record of 519. So not to have Muralitharan, who has been invariably the team's anchor man against cricket's world beaters, Australia is quite a setback. Indeed, Muralitharan's announcement of his withdrawal in the wake of his 'doosra' related controversy is heightened by the delivery of a massive number of letters in support of the Sri Lankan to the Australian High Commission that their local hero is 'not a chucker.' His decision though attributed to personal reasons, must also have been influenced by the opinion of a huge slice of Muralitharan fans who were not in favour of him making the tour to a country where even its Prime Minister, John Howard had called the best bowler in the world a 'chucker'. But huge as his loss is, there is a captain, Marvan Atapattu not letting that handicap be a damper. There is 'Marvan the marvel' as he is known for his batting versatility in a chat with the Sunday Observer days before taking wing reflecting on the game. From Muralitharan's loss to the taste of 'ducks' which takes us to Bradman. Certainly, he says, he has put behind him the bad taste of some six successive ducks as a debutant which nearly ended his career. "Even the great Don Bradman went for a duck", I remind him, and Marvan acknowledges saying, 'of course.' "So how was it to be making ducks and drakes of bowlers today ? " The fair complexioned, mustachioed former Ananda College schoolboy, who was the scourge of bowlers in those fair days, now in his 32nd year and looking rather bald for his age, smiles at it rather than answer the question. Batsmen The loss of hair is more to do with the helmet like it has done for other batsmen. "At your savage best today you treat the best of world bowlers with disdain like the century in a one-dayer against South Africa when Aravinda (de Silva) in that last year of his on the other end hammered a 60-odd?" "That was an innings of my life," he acknowledges as he does unassumingly that his straight drive is a bowler's nightmare. And he comes back to the all important job of captain as he says,"To think that we are touring Australia who are the world beaters and be negative is not cricket. I'm looking at the tour as just another tour and on a very positive note." Of course, his theming is reminiscent of former World Cup winning captain Arjuna Ranatunga. Brother-in-law to Ranatunga whose younger brother, Sanjeewa is married to his sister, Atapattu, like how Arjuna voiced says, "We have to go into each of the two Test matches just like any other Test against any other country. "We can't afford to be overawed by the fact that we will be playing against the Aussies," and hastens to add, "Much as it is a loss not having 'Murali', still we must look to achieve not less than our 100 per cent." Of course, he quickly sets to reflect on big 'Sana.' "Sanath is a great asset upfronting with me in the batting order. You know I derive much inspiration when he gets going," he says. But in the same breath he adds that he is depending as much on young Kumar Sangakkara when he says, "You know, Sangakkara is the only batsman who can fit into the all important No. 3 slot. He means so much in that position. That is why we have given him the option of not having to keep wickets and thought of Kaluwitharana." Experience For a Lankan squad, a mixture of experience and youth, a 2-Test tour at Cairns and Darwin in Northern Australia, must certainly be a new experience as Atapattu dedicates the series to Muralitharan in a series which will be without the glamour of the champion Sri Lankan bowler and Australian spin twin, Shane Warne who withdrew through injury sustained to his hand turning out for his county side Hampshire. Indeed, Lankan fans will be looking to Marvan to lead from the front. Leading the Test team will be a new test for Atapattu whose induction had been held back while having been christened in the captaincy of the one-day team sometime ago since the national selectors felt he needed to be groomed at Test level with experience as a learning curve. |
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| Editorial | Security Produced by Lake House |
To Australia, which has ballooned to be 'the' land of cricket over its
old English masters and a one time bastion in the game, the mighty
calypsos - the West Indies, it is that a Sri Lankan side, entering a phase
of transition, has taken wing to. The transition is the baptism into Test
captaincy of Marvan Atapattu as much as several new future hopefuls.
Atapattu's appointment as it is was a long expected move by the local
cricketing fraternity, but which has come rather belatedly.
