From Murali’s shadow to slot number two
Living in the shadow of a great like Sri Lanka’s champion spinner Muttiah Muralitharan is not the easiest thing to do. During the one and a half decades that the champion reigned over the rest of the world and bagged eight hundred wickets many a Lankan spinner just melted into oblivion. But, this plucky left arm spinner Herath Mudiyanselage Rangana Keerthi Bandara Herath performed and survived
Pic by Nilan Maligaspe
with the legend for eleven long years and then came into his own in the post Murali era, and now has come to be the No. 2 bowler in the ICC rankings. A feat only a man with nerves of steel and the determination of an Edmund Hillary could achieve, Herath has almost scaled the bowling Everest of international cricket.
At the age of thirty four Rangana still has not even given thought about his last day in international cricket. Yet, he does not state an exact time frame like the next world cup. What he presumes is that when the clock strikes and starts the chime of time he will call it a day.
Like many other performers at international level, Rangana also started his life in a tiny hamlet in the Kurunegala district. He began his story by saying, “I hail from a village called Vaduwava in the Polgahawela area and I began my schooling at the St. Bernadette’s Primary School. However I started hardball cricket at Narammala Mayurapada MV. There for two seasons I played junior cricket before I moved to Maliyadeva, Kurunegala.
“I remember when I was a junior member of the Maliyadeva team it was the last year of Jeevantha Kulatunga, but then my contemporaries in other schools were the likes of Mahela Jayawardena, Kumar Sangakkara and Chinthaka Jayasinghe. Then while I was playing for Maliyadeva I made a schools tour at the Under 17 level to Malaysia in 1994. On that tour Kumar Sangakkara was a teammate of mine. The team was led by Indika Konara. I played one year of top division club cricket for Kurunegala SC in the 1996/97 season and then moved over to Kurunegala YCC. Then I was still playing for my school, which I captained in 1997. However, at Kurunegala YCC I came under the influence of veterans like Ajith Ekanayake – a left arm spinner of many a season and Ranjith Madurasinghe, who even played national cricket. I learned a lot during that period.”
Then Herath explained that he moved to Colombo and played one Under 23 season for Colts and then the next year played the Under 
23 tournament with NCC. Then he added, “After NCC I joined Moors Sports Club. While playing for Moors in 1999 I bagged 50 wickets in the Premier League tournament and there I got a break to make a tour of England with the ‘A’ team. In that tour I bowled well and on that merit I was chosen to play against Australia. In that game Murali and I both played and I did well in my debut match, bagging four wickets while Murali took five. (In that rain-affected match Sri Lanka made 296 in the first innings and limited Australia to only 228 runs in their first innings. When the game ended Sri Lanka were 55 for no loss in their second innings.) I did not play the first Test, but played the second and the third.”
Then we inquired as to what was going through his mind while playing in the same team as a bowler in the calibre of Muralitharan. What was it like to be Muralitharan’s shadow? Herath replied, “It was like this. While playing at home the team always went in with two spinners. Then I had the opportunity to play. However, while on tour it was a different proposition. While on tour we go in with only one spinner and sometimes I did not get a chance of playing at all. Once on a tour of Zimbabwe I did not play a single match and so was the case on another tour to Pakistan. Then once in way when Murali was out with injury I took over the mantle. But it was always a task.”
Then we asked Rangana what it was like to be made to take over as Sri Lanka’s number one spinner – a position that Murali filled for so long. He said, “Yes, it was a huge task and a challenge. But I was lucky that I had played about fifteen Test matches. So I felt that I was ready to take over. I knew that I would be having a huge responsibility, but I never put myself under undue pressure just because of that. I took it on the stride. I just told myself that I have to keep performing well.”
He then explained that his stock ball is his leg spin delivery. Besides that he uses the carrom ball, the arm ball, the slider and the faster ball as his main weapons.
Then when asked whether he has found his lack of height a disadvantage at this level of bowling, especially when taking into consideration bowlers like Daniel Vettori and Harbhajan Singh, Herath said his height does not hamper him. He explained, “My height was never a bother in my deliveries. I feel my bowling action helps me a lot. I try to keep my body straight at the point of delivery and place my feet properly. I may not get bounce off the wicket like Suraj Randiv, but with my action I see to it that I get bite off the wicket.
“At the same time I do not fear any batsman and single them out. Every team has a set of good batsmen. But we go into the game after analyzing video and studying their strong points and weak points. But I always try to keep to the batsman’s vulnerable point and exploit that. When you bowl at the right places, even the best batsman in the world begins to respect you.”
Herath then explained that even though the conditions were alien to the Lankan spinners he managed to bowl well during the recent series. “Especially in the game that Sri Lanka won, initially we made a good score. Both Kumar and Thilan Samaraweera got hundreds and we had runs on the board. Then in the first innings, besides my four, left armer Chanaka Welagedera bagged five wickets and in the final day when I got five wickets I could exploit the rough that the bowlers had made. I feel that win against South Africa was a superb team effort.”
Then we posed the point that he is making this tour of Australia in spite of it being a country that does not give spin friendly wickets – he is setting foot there as the number two bowler in the world. Herath said, “Right now I was watching the Test match and looking at the Australian spinner Nathan Lyon in action. I saw him getting some assistance. If he can get that assistance I am wondering why I can’t. Besides that what I have achieved has come through hard work. I do not think I should worry so much about it. If you are willing to work hard and keep to the right lengths the batsmen will not take that risk against you. Maybe I will not be as successful in Australia as I have been in the subcontinent, but I will try to do the right thing and bowl in the right places.”
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