Published: Sep 10, 2016, 11:10 AM (IST)
Edited: Sep 10, 2016, 11:10 AM (IST)
In what turned out to be the last international encounter in cricket for Sri Lanka‘s one of the most prolific batsman Tillakaratne Dilshan, it wasn’t a heroic outing for him, as Sri Lanka scummed to another defeat to the Australians in the second and final Twenty20 International (T20I) at the R Premadasa Stadium in Colombo, he came up with a good praise for Dhananjaya de Silva to be his possible successor with great contribution to Sri Lanka cricket, as he batted at No.3, and has gained immense success as an opener in the entire series. Being Tamil Union Cricket Club’s highest wicket-taker, he has had a glorious year so far, while he also fields at the backward point for Lanka in Tests. Full Cricket Scorecard: Sri Lanka vs Australia 2016, 2nd T20I at Colombo
“I think Dhananjaya will be a good example to others. He can bowl and he fields well. With the style that he batted with today, and the way he opened in the one dayers, you can tell he’s a player with a future. He opened with me for the Tamil Union team last year. I saw his talent about a year ago, and I told the coaches to look out for him. He and Kusal Mendis are two good young players for us. We can go a long way with them if they’re shown the right path. I think they’ll serve us well for years,” said Dilshan, reports espncricinfo.com.
Although Dilshan was upset about the lack of support he gained during his captaincy reign, he was happy and confident of Lanka cricket to attain immense success under the leadership of Angelo Mathews. “Angelo has a lot of young players in the team, and I think it will be easy for him to control it in future,” he said.
“Only Chandimal is there as an experienced player. I don’t think he will face too many obstacles. He will just have to develop the young players and move forward. I wish him well in that. If he can pick the right players for the job, based on their talent – that’s what any captain should do. He won’t have many problems then,” he added.
Dlishan will leave an empty space in the Lankan fielding department, and also in the opening batsman slot. Although he hadn’t performed much in the later stages of his career, but was a sound player until his 40s. “Our young players have to work hard to become great fielders. When I came to the team I came in as a wicketkeeper, but Romesh Kaluwitharana was already there. So I gave up the gloves and did a lot of work, by myself, on my fielding,” he said.
“Former fielding coach Trevor Penney helped me a lot with that. I remember back then we weren’t allowed to leave until we got 10 direct hits. The first time it took me more than 100 attempts. But within about a month I was able to get 10 direct hits in 12 – even 10 – attempts. The youngsters we have are good. They’ve got a good fielding coach from South Africa now. Our fielding is a bit low at the moment, so they need to improve that. I have the confidence that they will – and I’m more than happy to help them with that,” he added.
Dilshan finally bid adieu to his international stint by saying that he was taking along with him loads of memories, with the special one being his 193 knock at Lord’s, which he scored despite having a broken finger. “There are many moments I won’t forget. I will never forget my debut, because I got there with a lot of difficulty. And any player loves to do well at Lord’s and get a hundred as well,” he concluded.
