Lasith Malinga may not be everyone’s darling or cup of tea, but he delivers.
Even at 36 when most fast bowlers have dropped in pace and lost their effectiveness and had thoughts of retirement in mind, Malinga seems to roll back the years and come up with some outstanding bowling spells that defies his age.
How many times have people simply tried to write him off and bring his career to an end, but each time he has bounced back and proved everyone wrong.
Malinga it can be stated is the last of a genre of legendary cricketers Sri Lanka has and once he goes out of the game the country will struggle for a match winning bowler as they are now with the batting when players in the calibre of Kumar Sangakkara, Mahela Jayawardene and Tillakaratne Dilshan quit.
Legends are not born but over a period of time earn that name by their deeds on the playing field that makes an impact on the spectators and brings forth results that project the image of the country as a competitive nation placing it amongst the best of the best.
But over the last three years the country has struggled to be competitive on the playing field in all three formats and whatever success they have had in white ball cricket has come largely due to the efforts of Malinga.
There is no doubt that Malinga falls into the category of great fast bowlers in one-day cricket. He quit Test cricket early because of a recurring knee injury so that he could extend his international career playing only fifty-over and twenty-over cricket. It was a wise decision to make at the time or international cricket would not be hearing his name today.
Fast bowlers are not the gentlemanly type for they are a rare breed and come from various stocks. They are no doubt temperamental and that is what helps them to produce match winning spells as Malinga proved that Friday night at Pallekele.
There are days when they will be thrashed around the park and people tend to write them off, but the bowler himself knows of what his capabilities are.
“I always come to every match thinking that I can turn things around in my favour. The skill that I have in taking wickets, considering the experience, is more than any other player. I don’t care who believes or not about it but I believe in what I can do. I want to control the game as soon as I get the ball in my hand,” was how Malinga assessed himself as a bowler after his match-winning five for six bowling performance against New Zealand.
Those figures don’t tell the entire story for it does not reveal that Malinga performed a hat-trick by taking three wickets off consecutive balls and added a fourth out of four to make his performance more unique because no bowler in cricket history has taken four wickets in four balls twice and in two different formats. His first performance came in the 2007 World Cup match against South Africa at Guyana in the fifty-over format where he prized out Shaun Pollock, Andrew Hall, Jacques Kallis and Makhaya Ntini. Last Friday his victims were Colin Munro, Hamish Rutherford, Colin de Grandhomme and Ross Taylor. All eight were victims of his yorker delivered at searing pace with pinpoint accuracy at the batsmen’s toes.
If anyone thought Malinga at 36 had lost his pace they were in for a real surprise for he was firing in his lethal deliveries at around 140 plus and when a bowler is in his element as Malinga there is not much the opposition can do to stop him. Sri Lanka were looking down the barrel of defeat and facing a 3-0 whitewash at the hands of New Zealand when they could muster only 125-8 off their 20 overs. But Malinga as captain had other ideas and brought forth his entire arsenal on display to route the Black Caps for 88 and give his young team a 37-run victory.
It was a victory Sri Lanka would savour because these days they seldom come. In fact it came after seven consecutive defeats over a 12-month period.
“When you are playing with a set of youngsters even one win counts a lot because you learn how to win and, then you can build your mentality for winning. For a young cricketer when you win a match only he understands the value of a win, the admiration they receive from the spectators, the media publicity all play a big role in their career. We have another 17 T20I to go before the World Cup, the youngsters will learn how to handle different situations at different times and come up winners. In that aspect I think this win for the youngsters is of great importance in T20 cricket,” Malinga said.
Entrusted with the T20I captaincy Malinga is hell-bent on forming a balanced combination by the time the next World T20 comes (it’s in October 2020 in Australia) regardless of whether he will be the captain. He’s already led his country to win the World T20 in 2014 in Bangladesh and with his accomplishments with the ball on the field Malinga does not have many goals to achieve.
“What I want to do is to bring the better players to the fore and show them the way forward. I have no more desires or big targets to achieve,” he said.
Sri Lanka Cricket should make use of a bowler in the calibre of Malinga to nurture future fast bowlers. Malinga has already shown what he can do with his knowledge and experience by helping Mumbai Indians and India fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah become the no. 1 ranked in ODI cricket and not so long ago in Tests also.
“On any day, if Sri Lanka Cricket wants to get something back from me, I am prepared give it. There are specified people for relevant areas therefore I cannot poke my finger into those areas. That's not upto me. If any player comes to me and asks for advice, I will help him 100 percent,” Malinga said.
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