Romesh Kaluwitharana

- B.V.Swagath (In March 2004)

When I first saw Romesh Kaluwitharana, I felt he was a bit like Sachin Tendulkar in his approach towards batting. And that was a match against Australia at Melbourne under lights. Kaluwitharana played some memorable straight drives in that ripping innings of 77. Those straight drives and the way he stepped out and launched into the fast bowlers reminded me so much of Sachin Tendulkar.

Romesh Kaluwitharana along with Sanath Jayasuriya set the world on fire, when the two gave explosive starts for Sri Lanka in the 1996 World Cup. Both the openers were on the attack right from ball 1 and on few occasions even got Sri Lanka’s fifty in just over 4 overs. Kalu has been an integral member of the Lankan outfit both in Tests and ODIs, though Sri Lanka tried out other wicket keepers like Lanka De Silva, Prasanna Jayawardene and others. Little Kalu unfortunately has now lost his place to the immensely talented wicket keeper-batsman Kumar Sangakkara.

Romesh Kaluwitharana is although being played in the Test Squad to relieve Sangakkara of the double role of wicket keeping and batting in the top order. Since his International Debut way back in 1990, where he was a 21 year old till today, he has maintained the record of being one of the noisiest keepers ever in the game. Even today at the age of 35, same as his old opening partner Sanath Jayasuriya, Kalu is as chirpy as he was and doesn’t stop himself from cheering his bowlers and fielders behind the stumps.

Statistics of Romesh Kaluwitharana's Career :