Vaas - Sri Lanka's unsung hero
Chaminda Vaas may well be seen as one of the great under-rewarded players in cricket history, because he was so innocuous, writes Richard Dickinson in Cricket Web
Kanishkaa Balachandran
25-Feb-2013
Chaminda Vaas may well be seen as one of the great under-rewarded players in cricket history, because he was so innocuous, writes Richard Dickinson in Cricket Web. He tended to do his job quietly and only rarely crept out of the shadow of the ubiquitous Muttiah Muralitharan. His ability to outsmart batsmen was wonderful to watch.
It is difficult to describe Vaas as "maddening", a description which has been applied to many bowlers far less inconsistent than he. But when he is possibly your favourite bowler ever, it was sometimes difficult to not get a little frustrated with the extremes. A bowler who was capable of destroying most of the ideals typically associated with seam bowling - that the most effective perpetrators of all have to propel from considerable height and\or at substantial pace - was easy to love, however. Vaas' bag of tricks were a joy to watch when they were working.
Kanishkaa Balachandran is a senior sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo