Mahesh the unsung hero yet to be rewarded
Mahesh Weerasinghe a giant among coaches
Mahesh Weerasinghe is a prolific cricketer in his hey days and later became a giant among cricket coaches in Sri Lanka, be it schools, clubs, mercantile, ladies level and he has the proud record of having produced 63 champions and 30 runners-up titles.
To set the record straight of his champion winning titles in his three decades of coaching career thus far, at school level he has produced ten champion teams in all age group from under 13 with the best being of President’s College Rajagiriya where he turned it into champion team from scrap in 2002, 35 champion teams at club level with most being when he was coach of Chilaw Marians, nine in the Mercantile Division ‘A’ category, three each in the Ladies and State Services, two at Provincial level and one in the Nationalised tournament.
Mahesh has been a cricket fanatic since he began wielding the willow at his alma mater Dharmapala College Pannipitiya from the under 13.
Some of his highlights at school and club level was that he was a member of the team that was adjudged the best outstation in 1987 and playing for Old Dhamapalians where he cracked two double tons a knock of 262 against Kalutara PCC and 265 against Matara SC in which he was involved in a record 495 runs for the second wicket.
Speaking of his early cricket career he pays respect to his junior coaches Upali Somasiri, S.B. Senanayake and T.K. Palitha as they were responsible in fine tuning him and A.M. Jayatissa the master in charge at Dharmapala who played a major role by supporting me financially and by providing cricket gear when he lost my father when he was six years old.
But the eagerness of becoming a cricket coach made him discontinue his successful cricket playing career and today Mahesh does not regret the decision he took and the question to be asked is whether he has been rewarded for the unprecedented titles he has under his belt as a coach.
“The involvement at club level was no doubt with the coincidence meeting of Godfrey Dabrera in 1998 when I was coaching Nomads. He offered me the coaching stint at Chilaw Marians and I took up the new challenge and fortunately in the very first year I tasted success by guiding the team to win the Division Two qualifying tournament and then steered them to bag the Under-23 Segment ‘B’ title too.
“The wins saw Chilaw Marians being promoted to the Sara Trophy tournament and we became joint champions. From there on it was success as in the millennium year I guided the Chilaw Marians to win two titles — the league and the limited over titles which earned them promotion to Premier division. The Premier division campaign with immediate success as we bagged the Under-23 title in 2002 and retained it for two more years and later in 2004 Chilaw Marians were guided to lift the first ever Twenty20 champions title which saw them earn a place to compete in the first ever Inter-Club World Twenty20 Championship which was held in England in 2005,” said Weerasinghe.
Mahesh has produced numerous numbers of players who have gone to represent the national junior and senior level cricketers like Hasantha Fernando, Ranil Dhammika, Janaka Gunaratne, Malintha Gajanayake, Tharanga Paranavithana, Gayan Wijekoon, Dilruwan Perera, Dhammika Prasad, Mahela Udawatte, Milinda Siriwardena to name a few and at present Lahiru Milantha and Nishan Peiris are under him playing for Ragama CC.
Mahesh is no doubt disappointed and even way back in 2006 he was interviewed by Sri Lanka Cricket and even though they saw my qualifications and having said that I was the most suitable candidate it ended in only my assistant been selected for the post.
So Mahesh a man who has undergone coaching and training under top cricket personalities in the likes of Terry Oliver, Bob Woolmer, Barry Richards and Tony Greig and as mentioned earlier as being the giant among coaches in Sri Lanka but unfortunately has yet to be rewarded despite coacing top provincial sides. He is hoping that someday he will catch the eye of people concerned and in conclusion he says “If I am given an opportunity I will definitely produce the desired results.”