Tharanga leaves with unfulfilled promises

by Rex Clementine

You can see why some of the finest brains in our cricket are pushing for Tom Moody to be Director of Cricket. Moody is pretty good at spotting talent and once he picks a player, he backs him no matter what. He has this ability to convince all concerned – selectors, board, captain, media and even fans that someone is worth investing on. Upul Tharanga was one such. What a start he had to his career. The elegant left-handed batsman announced his retirement from cricket yesterday. His 6941 runs in ODI cricket is the most by a current Sri Lankan batsman. Only seven other Sri Lankans scored more runs than him.

Tharanga hails from Ambalangoda and made his First Class debut at the age of 15 for his native Singha Sports Club. Later he moved to Colombo and represented NCC with whom he has stayed for 18 seasons now and could go on for a few more.

No Sri Lankan player had the impact that Upul Tharanga had in the first year of his international career as he scored hundreds in places like Christchurch, Lord’s, Leeds, Ahmedabad, Mohali and Bogra. Tharanga’s ability to excel in tough conditions was hailed as a hallmark of a player who would go onto make a big impact in the game. Moody’s theory was that anyone who scores runs overseas is going to be a vital cog in the wheel.

But Tharanga didn’t go onto have a prolific career and should have averaged more than 33. When The Island met Moody a few years ago when he had landed in Colombo on a commentary assignment, he pointed out that leaving Tharanga out of the side was a blunder. He went onto add that once you identify talent you needed to persevere with them giving them assurance that they are being well looked after.

Tharanga was so pleasing to the eye like most left-handers. There have been hundreds scored by him when he did not score a single boundary in the on-side. In fact, the on-side was used only to rotate the strike. The boundaries came through exquisite cover drives, powerful cut shots and the occasional straight drive.

Viv Richards’ favourite opposition was England. So was Upul’s as he averaged 48 against them. Some of his knocks against England attacks had a telling impact on the game – like during the quarter-final of the ICC Cricket World Cup in 2011 at RPS.

England were so horrible in one-day cricket those days. They managed only 229 in their 50 overs batting first. Sri Lanka responded by chasing down the target without losing a wicket with more than ten overs to spare. That was some beating. Both Tharanga and T.M. Dilshan finished with unbeaten hundreds.

When Sri Lanka completed a 5-0 whitewash in England in 2006, Tharanga scored two hundreds in the series. One at Lord’s and the other at Leeds. The second one was special as this was the game that completed the 5-0 drubbing. England had posted a highly competitive 321 batting first and were confident they could avoid the humiliation of a whitewash at home. But Tharanga and Sanath Jayasuriya were devastating that day adding 286 runs for the opening wicket in some 191 balls. Sri Lanka won with 12 overs to spare and so brutal was the attack that Kabir Ali and Vikram Solanki never played for England again.

Tharanga also had a brief spell as Sri Lanka’s captain and unselfishly went lower down the order to accommodate young players top of the order. His stint was troubled by slow over rate offences with allegations emerging that a senior fast bowler slowed down the over rate deliberately in order to get the captain suspended. Crooks are everywhere in cricket. Poor Tharanga suffered in silence. He was a gentleman par excellence.