De Saram is finally rewarded

“My only regret to this day is that having made it to the national team I did not get the opportunity to display my full potential. I was dropped after a few matches and I personally think for the kind of talent I had I deserved a lot better.”

“T20 does not mean that you have to start hitting right from the first ball. You have to select the loose balls to hit which is a must. If you miss out on the loose balls then you lose out.”

By Sa’adi Thawfeeq
There is a saying that some are born lucky whereas others have to grind hard to make it to the top of the ladder. Indika de Saram does not fit into either category. For him the battle to secure a permanent place in the national cricket team has been a losing one with the opportunities that have come his way being few and far between.

Thus it came as no surprise to the way he responded after being selected to the Sri Lanka team of 15 players for next month’s ICC World Twenty20 in England.

“My expectations of being selected were not all that high. Past experience had taught me good performances in the domestic sphere do not merit an immediate passport to the national team. I am happy to be selected once again to represent my country. I consider it a challenge and if picked to play I want to prove to myself how good a cricketer I am,” De Saram told The Nation. “I had a great ambition that before I ended my cricket career that I would one day make it again to the national team. The opportunity has come and my ambitions have been fulfilled.”

“Taking into account my unpredictable international career and my performances in domestic cricket for the past five to six years I consider it a big achievement to be selected once again. This selection is just another challenge for me. I will not stop here but I will try to make use of this opportunity to extend my international career if possible,” said De Saram one of the most delightful stroke-makers of the modern game who hails from the same town (Matara) as Sanath Jayasuriya.

What looked like the start of a promising career was shattered soon after a successful tour of Sharjah in April 2001 where De Saram was part of the Sri Lanka team that won the ARY Gold Cup one-day tournament beating Pakistan in the final. De Saram did not fare all that badly playing in all five matches to gather 90 runs with a top score of 38.

Soon after returning home the selectors decided to axe him, for no apparent reason, from not only the team but also the training squad. “I just couldn’t understand their reasoning for excluding me after I was part of a winning side. That was the most disappointing moment of my career.

“My only regret to this day is that having made it to the national team I did not get the opportunity to display my full potential. I was dropped after a few matches and I personally think for the kind of talent I had I deserved a lot better,” De Saram said. From that day onwards it had been a case of De Saram trying to catch the selectors’ eye with striking performances which unfortunately went unnoticed until this year when he was first picked to play in a Twenty20 international against India and now selected for the ICC World Twenty20 in England.

“If you take my performances in domestic cricket over the past five years I have been among the top run-getters in the country. This season I won the Best Batman’s award in the Inter-Provincial Twenty20 as well as the Premier League. I think that would have swayed the selection in my favour,” said De Saram.

In the Inter-Provincial Twenty20, De Saram, representing Ruhuna, was joint top run-getter with Chamara Silva scoring 254 runs (avg. 50.80) but what was most eye-catching was his strike rate which was 139.56.

In the process of scoring those runs De Saram also had the satisfaction of smashing Sri Lanka’s leading fast bowler Chaminda Vaas for two sixes in Ruhuna’s game against Basnahira North. Vaas had proved to be De Saram’s nemesis over the years and had always got him out lbw each time they confronted each other. But on this occasion the roles were reversed. “I thought to myself he cannot always have the upper hand and win.”

In the Premier League playing for Ragama CC, De Saram finished as the second highest run-getter of the season to Sajith Fernando with 796 runs (avg. 61.23) and scored the most hundreds by any batsman for the season with four. Even in the longer version of the game De Saram had a remarkable strike rate of 86.05 runs every 100 balls.

It is a remarkable feat of scoring for a batsman who dislikes Test cricket but prefers One-day, Sixes and Twenty20 versions of the game. “If you look at my scores you will see that I have made those runs at a much faster pace like in a one-day game from lesser number of balls.”

A powerful striker of the ball De Saram’s approach to the game is that the ball is there to be hit. He is not a batsman who is going to dawdle at the crease for long without striking a boundary. His style of cricket is ‘hit out or get out’ which has made him an exciting batsman to watch, one that spectators yearn to go the distance to perceive.

His penchant for hitting sixes is something that came to him quite naturally. “I don’t reserve six-hitting shots only for limited overs or T20 cricket. If the ball is pitched in the right area for the shot I will play it regardless of the type of cricket I am playing. Whether it is a shorter version or the longer version makes no difference to me. It could even be the first ball I faced.”

“From the time I played junior cricket I had this knack for hitting sixes, not just to clear the boundary but ones that go long distances. It is something that came to me naturally, maybe it had something to do with my physique,” said the slightly built De Saram.

Playing for St. Thomas’ College, Matara against Sri Devananda Ambalangoda in 1993, De Saram set the Uyanwatte grounds alight by smashing 304 off 149 balls inclusive of 25 sixes and 19 fours. It was a remarkable feat of batting by a 19-year-old and that innings shot De Saram into the limelight.

De Saram learnt his cricket from his father Keerthi de Saram and elder brother Chinthaka both of whom played for St. Thomas’ Matara. He played cricket at junior level with his brother. They were the only two children in the family. “There was a coach by the name of Major GWS de Silva. He was also my mentor. He did not teach me only cricket but also other aspects of life. I learnt a lot from him.”

When a player is overlooked for much of his career the general tendency is for him to ignore his fitness. But it has not been the case for De Saram. “When you go out of the national pool the fitness of a player can decline. It has happened to most players. I have kept myself in trim physical condition by training with my club team trainer. I also have about one hour’s fitness training at home and I ride a bicycle early morning. If you have fitness to last a fast paced game like T20 I don’t think age is a barrier,” stated the 35-year-old right-hander.

His personal views of T20 cricket: “T20 does not mean that you have to start hitting right from the first ball. You have to select the loose balls to hit which is a must. If you miss out on the loose balls then you lose out.”

“We have a good chance of winning the ICC World T20 if Sanath and Dilshan continue the form they are displaying at the IPL. I don’t know what role I will be called upon to play in the team but whatever opportunities that come my way I am prepared to take it and do well.”
For a cricketer who’s had a raw deal at the hands of the national selectors, there have also been a few moments of happiness to cherish. Captaining his country to win their first Hong Kong Cricket Sixes title in 2007 was one of the happiest moments of De Saram’s chequered career. “It was a personal best achievement to win an international tournament for my country. We beat Shane Warne’s All Stars team in the final and we remained unbeaten throughout the tournament.”

Married with two daughters De Saram, the sole breadwinner of his family has for the past four years played league cricket for Clacton in the Essex county. He was employed for a period at Fingara but presently he is on his own dividing his time playing cricket in Sri Lanka and in England.

De Saram’s club president Roshan Abeysinghe of Ragama CC, a silent campaigner for his inclusion in the national team for years once stated: “You have to give Indika all the credit for keeping himself motivated and continuing to score runs. He knows he is fighting a losing battle with the national selectors. You don’t need to pick Indika for a Test or ODI but he could surely fit into a Twenty20 side because he is 100% fit and is a clean hitter of the ball.” The selectors have finally heard his clarion call.