da apostaganha： Sri Lankan Board XI batsman Michael Vandort stole the limelight on the firstday’s play of a three-day practice match against India with a brilliant centuryand, by doing so in front of the national selectors, became a seriouscontender for a place
Rex Clementine08-Aug-2001Sri Lankan Board XI batsman Michael Vandort stole the limelight on the firstday’s play of a three-day practice match against India with a brilliant centuryand, by doing so in front of the national selectors, became a seriouscontender for a place in the Sri Lankan Test squad.He was delighted after the match: “It was a great achievement. I am reallyproud of myself and hoping to get more and more hundreds in the future.”Well aware that the selectors are looking out for young talent he said: “It’s up to the selectors whether to chose me or not. I am just glad that Imade the most of the opportunity.”The rest of the players contesting for places in the national side – AvishkaGunawardene, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Hashan Tillakaratne and KumarSangakkara – failed to impress. The only man to rise to the occasion wasVandort.”The wicket was damp in the morning,” he said. “All what I wanted was tospend some time in the middle. There were some rash shots. I thought themost important thing was to concentrate and select your shots.The batsman reached his hundred with a well timed sweep off left-arm spinnerRahul Sanghvi two balls after surviving a confident leg-before appeal.”There was a quite a bit of pressure when I was on 99,” he admitted. “Ihave never felt that amount of pressure, but Thilan (Samaraweera) took thepressure off me and I felt so happy after reaching my century.”Having reached the milestone the tall left-hander stroked a flurry ofboundaries off medium-pace bowler Harvinder Singh, but was eventually wellcaught in the gully.”The boundaries were hittable balls and I was pretty much set by then, so Iwent for the shots, but I was very disappointed to be dismissed all the same,”he said. “After getting the hundred I should have gone for something like 150-160.”In fact, that’s just what he normally does. Just 21 years old, he scored acentury on his first-class debut three years ago and has converted two of his five first-class hundreds in double centuries.Strangely Vandort, unlike many other Sri Lankan cricketers who shoot toprominence in school cricket, did not even play regularly for his First XIat school. In fact, he played in just one First XI match for St Joseph’sCollege in his entire school career.”I didn’t play much school cricket as I was never selected,” he said. “Iwas never happy with their selection policy. I made a half-century in myonly game, just before the Big Match, but was then dropped. I wasdisappointed, as there were some players who failed right throughout theschool season, but I was the one left out.”That was where I decided to give it a go at club level after consulting myparents,” he reveals. “I decided to leave school and things worked for meat the Club.”He made a name for himself playing for Colombo Cricket Club (CCC) where hestarted off playing Third Division cricket, but quickly progressed into thePremier League side and then into the Sri Lanka A team this year.Vandort gets lots of encouragement from his father Patrick Vandort, a formercricketer for Nomads Cricket Club in the 1970s, who was watching proudlyfrom the sidelines today.His late development has attracted interest: “People were wondering as tohow I could play consistently without playing proper school cricket. Top-level school cricket can be important, but I honestly don’t feel that itmakes that much of a difference. It depends on your application.”Early this year, Vandort was chosen to tour Kenya with the Sri Lanka A team andfor the series against Pakistan A at home a month ago. In the series againstPakistan, Vandort impressed as a classy top order batsman and a quiteexceptional slip fielder, attracting high praise from Pakistani coachMudassar Nazar.Now though he faces the possibility of national team selection and it is nosurprise that his one current ambition is to play for Sri Lanka. If hecontinues to bat like he did today then it’s a question of when rather than if.For Sri Lanka’s sake, let’s hope it’s sooner rather than later.