by Reemus Fernando  

Many are the school cricketers whose hopes of excelling in their beloved sport were dashed due to the Covid 19 pandemic during the last one and half years. Junior cricketers aspiring to play their schools’ Big Matches and do well during the cricket season had to abandon their hopes after the pandemic prevented all school sports. The Under-19 schools cricket season is the steppingstone to the junior national team. Every season new talent is identified by Sri Lanka Schools Cricket Association and Sri Lanka Cricket officials and once in two years some of country’s future prospects get the opportunity to compete at the ICC Youth Cricket World Cup. When Sakuna Liyanage was picked in the 75 member Under-19 cricket pool many were optimistic that the left-hander would go on to secure a place in the final team though he was yet to play a major role for his new school Lumbini College. However, the cricketer from Moneragala was not lucky to get a place in the final squad.

Generally, Sri Lanka Cricket nurtures a pool of junior cricketers for more than two years. Some are selected from the Under-17 level. While those who are not committed get dropped, players who excel during the school seasons are selected to maintain a continuous pool until the Youth World Cup. Such a pool was not maintained during the last two years due to the Covid 19 pandemic. There had been times when cricketers who were not even in the pool have been selected for Sri Lanka Under-19 teams on merit of their performances during the schools season.

At a time (due to Covid 19) when junior cricketers hardly get a second chance to prove their potentials in a tournament, it is doubtful whether the cricketers in the caliber of Liyanage had enough opportunity to display talents. The selectors may have assessed their talents during practice matches but Liyanage has credentials from a Sri Lanka Cricket conducted tournament that deserves selection. He was one of the top performers with the bat during Sri Lanka Cricket conducted Under-23 Premier Cricket tournament 2020.

Liyanage took to cricket at Royal College, Moneragala before he was introduced to cricket on a turf wicket in Colombo. Lumbini College coach Dinesh Weerasinghe invited him to join his school and soon got him a place in the Nugegoda SC Under-23 team as well, as Weerasinghe was the coach there. Liyanage paid back with impressive performances and was among the top scorers. He had an aggregate of 243 runs at an average of 60.75 in six matches and was the fifth-highest scorer behind Kamindu Mendis (249). No Under-19 cricketer had scored that many runs in that tournament.

Hailing from a not so well to do family from Moneragala, Liyanage would not have certainly come this far hadn’t he been introduced to cricket on turf wicket. Unfortunately, there is no other tournament in the immediate future for him to prove his worth and even if schools cricket restarts this year it would be too late as the team for the Youth World Cup is selected before the year ends. If selectors stick to their original squad it will be a huge opportunity lost and his exploits would be missed at the Youth World Cup.