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Sri Lanka's fast bowling: are we on the right track?
By S.R. Pathiravithana
Since Sri Lanka gained Test status way back in 1982, it has taken vast strides to grow up from mere minnows to a force to be reckoned with. There was an era where the visiting cricketers set foot in this island with dreams of enhancing their individual averages be it bowling or batting, but, now they step out from their flight with an aura of uncertainty of what his future in the game is going to be. This is the respect that the Sri Lankan cricketers have earned for themselves in the last twenty-one years in the big-league.

At the same time through this short history we have produced batsmen who the whole cricketing world have raved on, we have produced a spinner who has taken the cricketing world by storm, but today the topic is that what is happening to our fast bowling department? Is it on an upward trend or are we heading towards the unknown?
But, never in the history of Sri Lanka cricket that Sri Lanka has come out with a battery of fast medium and medium fast bowlers like in the last five years. But, what have done with that wealth. Have we taken the maximum advantage of this situation or are we misusing it ?

Going through the history in Test cricket, fast bowlers have generally bloomed in pairs. Waqar-Wasim, Lindwall-Miller, Lillee-Thomson, Donald-Pollock, Walsh-Ambrose,Hall-Griffith, Statham-Tyson or our own Ravi and Rumesh Ratnayake came in pairs. They bowled in tandem, and that made them click. Some times these pairs extended to threes and fours especially in the West Indies and Australia like Michael Holding, Malcolm Marshall, Andy Roberts and Joel Garner (West Indies) or Dennis Lillee, Jeff Thompson and Max Walker (Australia).

In 1994 came in that young left-arm medium fast bowler from St. Joseph's and Colts CC Chaminda Vaas to join the regular Sri Lankan medium pacer Pramodya Wickremasinghe on Sri Lanka's tour to India. From that point onwards, the aging fast bowler phased out of the game after he too became a part of the historic World Cup winning squad in 1996 and was out of the game for a while before bidding adieu in 2002. At the other end Vaas was growing from strength to strength. His exploits on the field of cricket were many. But, in his growing years he became as loner at the top. In the last five years for Sri Lanka may be it was the unlikely combination of Muralitharan-Vaas, but, not another regular fast bowler at the other end support him and keep things tight.

In the past few years Sri Lanka have had more than a fair share of promising fast bowlers bowling at the other end with Vaas. There is whole host of them-- Sajeewa de Silva, Nuwan Zoysa, Dilhara Fernando, Prabath Nissanka, Akalanka Ganegama, Kaushalya Weeratatne, Hasantha Fernando, Sujeewa de Silva, Suresh Perera, Ruchira Perera, Chamila Gamage, Dharshana Gamege, Pulasti Gunaratne, Charitha Buddika and now we have discovered pair of Dinuka Fernando and Nuwan Kulasekera.
It is true that Dinuka Fernando and Nuwan Kulasekera made dream debuts.

The two youngsters bowled a total of 16 overs( from the 46.1 over England inning ) between them giving away a total of 32 runs bagging four wickets. Who could ask for more from two debutantes at any class of cricket let alone a one-day international, especially against England who thought us the very game of cricket. Now the million dollar question is that how long will these two proteges last?

Going through the recent past history of Sri Lanka cricket the chances of these two going on for a considerable time making it long enough to settle into something that one could call a combination and blossom into a force to be reckoned along with Chaminda Vaas may happen or not.

The names mentioned in a paragraph above are names who performed well and at times one thought that they were settling into a combination with Vaas, but, were proved wrong. Some factor or the other came between and and their careers were curtailed or they are out of the side right now. The only fact now remains how and when are they going to make a come-back.

Vaas is not getting any younger. We are very fortunate that we possess the nursery and at all costs we must make the maximum use of it.

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