Sri Lanka's U15 stars prepare for World Cup

Ten years ago the concept of international tournaments for 15 year olds would attract much derision and little serious consideration within traditional cricket circles. Times have changed now and, under the evangelical umbrella of the ICC Development Programme, international cricket now involves younger age groups and ever more nationalities.

Fresh from hosting the U19 World Cup, Sri Lanka will be sending the U19 team on a tour of England, an U17 team to Pakistan, a side to the U15 World Cup in England and to an U15 Asian Tournament in Malaysia.

The professionalism, that so recently infiltrated the senior side, is now spreading downwards to school children from all corners of the country. Feeding from the noble endeavors of the Schools Association, Sri Lankan coaches and selectors have combed there way through thousands of schoolchildren in an effort to identify the future of Sri Lankan cricket. Its all part of the big picture: the quest to become the best side in the world.

The selectors have just selected the squad for the forthcoming Asian U15 Championship, which is due to be played in Malaysia later this month (June 28th to July 9th)

The most heartening feature of this squad is that 14 of the 22 members come from the outstation areas. From Kalautura to Dharmarajah, from Thudella to Kotte the future of Sri Lankan cricket is emerging. The habitual dominance of Colombo is now well and truly over and Sri Lankan cricket is surely the better for it.

CricInfo went to speak to the Sri Lanka U15 coach, Bandulla Warnapura, last Thursday to discover more about U15 squad.

Q : How were the players selected ?

A: We first wrote to about 250 Schools requesting them to nominate five players each according to the ICC's given date of birth. Secondly we had the District Tournament in which district coaches were involved, and then a regional tournament where the regional coaches and selectors were involved. Later we organized trial matches and we also invited boys from international Schools and Private classes (cricket) which left us with about 1500 boys.

Q: You now have a final squad of 22. So who were actually behind the selections ?

A: Initially it was the district coaches and then the regional coaches and finally the national selectors. From now on it would be the national selectors only.

Q : How many participating teams are there in this tournament ?

A : Well India, Pakistan and Malaysia are definitely taking part but I'm not very sure as how many teams have confirmed their participation.

Q : What is the state of the team at present ?

A : Well physically the boys are around 60 percent fit and now the main idea is to get them fully fit. As for the batting we have some good talent and in bowling there are some good spinners and pace men. Now we have to improve our fielding and physical fitness as I mentioned earlier. The physical training is handled by a qualified trainer from the Sports Ministry and Ruwan Kalpage is in charge of the fielding. Rumesh Ratnayake and Champaka Ramanayake have been helping the fast bowlers and Roger Wijesooriya takes care of the spinners. Apart from that we have Oshadhi Weerasinghe who is the head coach and my-self as the consultant coach. There are a lot of people behind this because this is the lowest degree of Cricket and there is a lot of hard work put in to it.

Q : Are the boys familiar on playing in grass tracks ?

A : Most of the school matches are played on matting but during the trials we used turfs and it has paid off well. After all the matches are going to be played on turfs during the tournament.

Q ; How many boys are from out-station Schools

A : 60 percent of them are from out-stations and they are mainly bowlers with a majority of the Batsmen from Colombo. I think it is because of the lack of facilities in outstations that there is a problem in developing good batsmen.

Q : What are your plans for the world cup ?

A : We are talking of a totally different game and we will have to include more fast bowlers. Once we come back after the Asia tournament, and depending on how well we have done, the squad might change.

Q : How would you select your squad for the world cup ?

A : We will look into selecting our squad from the 44 boys we already have and also see if there are any new boys who have performed well in the School arena.

Q : When will you announce your final squad ?

A : By the end of next week.

Q : How when and where has the team been training ?

A : We have a residential camp at Premadasa Stadium from Monday to Friday, and apart from the sport we have workshops on various other things like how to talk in English and adapt to the country's system and so on and so fort .We have to be confident mentally and there are a lot of different lecturers happening.

Q : How many of these boys have been out of the country before ?

A : Not more than two or three boys who have been to India with their School side.

Lastly I would like to state that we are not looking for 11 players but at least 3 or 4 boys to represent the S.L National side

Squad for U15 Asian Championship:

Farviz Mahroof (Wesley), Damindu Kularatne (Ananda), Gehan de Silva (St. Peter's), Kanchan Gunawardana (D.S. Senanayake), Sudeera Soysa (D.S. Senanayake), Charith Rajapakse (Susumyawardana, Borella), Danushka Abeykoon (Sri Jayewardenapura, Kotte), Kavinda Silva (Prince of Wales), Amila Sanadaruwan (Prince of Wales), Sandun Dias (Maris Stella, Negombo), Ramesh Nishan (Christ King's, Tudella), Amal Peiris (Mihindu, Ratnapura), Manoj Chanaka (Royal, Panadura), G.A. Ratnayake (Royal, Colombo), Shamika Ruwan (Holy Cross, Kalutara), Upul Tharanga (Dharmasoka, Ambalangoda), Chandima Prasad (Vidyaloka, Galle), Mohamed Suraj (Rahula, Matara), Thilina Masmulla (Thurstan), N.P. Nawala (Kalutara Vidyalaya), M.B. Weerasuriya (Dharmaraja, Kandy), Isuru Perera (Joseph Vaz, Wennappuwa).