Lasith Malinga : The new poster-boy of Sri Lankan Cricket

- Venkat

When I was in Colombo, I made sure that I visited the Sinhalese Sports Club, where the Sri Lankan ‘A’ team was scheduled to practice. Sri Lanka A regulars like Russel Arnold, Avishka Gunawardena and Saman Jayantha were around, but all fingers were only pointing towards one man, who they hailed as the next best thing to happen for Sri Lankan cricket – Lasith Malinga. The youngster from Rathgama (a village near Galle) had impressed many pundits of the game in the island nation with his performances in New Zealand with the Lankan A team. He notably becomes the first cricketer to play for Sri Lanka from the southern city Galle.

A product of the Mahinda College (a very famous college at Galle), this fiery speedster began playing softball at the age of 13 and cricket entered his life as late as when he was 17. The secret behind the unusual action that we see from Lasith is the fast yorkers he used to bowl during his softball days. After seeing the raw talent and youthful enthusiasm in this future star of Lankan cricket, Champaka Ratnayake (a former Sri Lankan paceman and a coach at the Cricket Foundation at Galle) presented Lasith with a chance to represent Galle CC in first class cricket. His returns of 8 wickets in his debut first class match reiterated the coach’s faith in his potential. Lasith never looked back after this debut performance. Read full article...

• Sri Lanka's Test and ODI Squads for West Indies' Tour
• Hopeless show from the Tigers again; Shot out for 62
• Murali, Malinga take just 31 balls to finish Bangladesh
• Malinga's hat-trick in vain as Proteas escape with a one-wicket win!
• Lankans win by 243 runs against Bermudian Uncles!
• New Zealand on a mission impossible chasing 504!
• Sangakkara, Malinga power SL back in the Series

Statistics of Lasith Malinga's Career : 

Test Matches : Batting and Fielding

 
    M    I   NO   Runs   HS    Ave    SR   100  50   Ct  St
   28   34   13    192   42*  9.14  36.50   0    0    7   0	

  Balls    M     R    W    Ave    BBI   5  10    SR    Econ
   4777   106  3076  91  33.80   5-68   2   0  52.49   3.86

    M    I   NO  Runs   HS    Ave    SR   100  50  Ct  St 
   53   25   11   92    15   6.57  50.27   0    0  11   0

  Balls     M    R     W    Ave    BBI    4w  5w    SR    Econ
   2525    33  2021   79  25.58   4-44     4   0  31.96   4.80