Talent Is There…In The Provinces

Remember I spoke about training the next generation of players to step into the top level recently? I need to elaborate on that subject once more. It was a couple of years ago that I felt the time was ripe to search for untapped junior talent in the distant provinces.

Lasith Malinga

The seed was sown to search for talent which I was optimistic was lying untapped out there. It was with the blessings and support of Sri Lanka Cricket that this was possible and they stepped upto the plate to encourage me. Coca Cola Int. came up with the much required sponsorship and we were on our way.

We focused on boys not yet 17 years of age or who were thereabouts as the target group.

Within five years after training and with the resultant match experience they were going to form a fair part of the cradle that would feed the national squad. That was our intention.
The Aravinda de Silva Academy conducted talent spotting camps in far off districts and pruned the pool to manageable numbers and provincial teams were selected and encouraged to play in the Sri Lanka Cricket’s Junior tourneys. Remember cricket is now played and watched in every nook and cranny of Sri Lanka but the lads from distant areas are confined to playing in their geographical areas and the much required exposure of a more sophisticated set up available in the bigger cities is out of reach. The programme we set in motion takes them through provincial cricket to district level and then to club and hopefully to national level.

We were surprised at the raw talent that was lying out there. Let me assure you readers that the future of Sri Lanka Cricket is not bereft of quality in the years to come. Whole new vistas will be opened to these lads. Recall how players like Lasith Malinga was found. Now had a player like Malinga benefitted from a programme such as this when he was 16 or 17 he would have been honed very early in his fitness and psychological outlook to perform sans injury for a long period of time. This is only one example.

Within the next five to six years the Academy targets to infuse five to six players of high quality into the national team. We aim to take the programme dubbed Provincial Champion to International Champion forward in a planned and professional manner. I am quite confident that we would even surpass our targets.