Hilal Suhaib
The three best fast bowlers were rewarded at the end of the Airtel Fastest pace bowling program at a ceremony held at the Marino Beach Hotel on September 27.
Eshan Malinga, who competed in the under-19 category set the pace in the entire contest recording a scorching 141 km/h.
Following closely behind was over-19 winner Malindu Shehan who maxed out the speed gun at the finale at 140 km/h, while crowd favourite who has been dubbed ‘the Female Slinga Malinga’ by fans, Shayani Senaratne from Kandy hit a speed of a blazing 104 km/h to take the champion’s title in the Open female category.
This kind of good work of Airtel must be appreciated by everyone who wants SL cricket standard to be improved.
Another aspect of the white ball game where SL is lacking badly in resources is the absence of proper Power Hitting Batsmen. This new terminology must be first introduced into the minds of our selectors first. They still do not have any clue on how to identify a Power Hitting Batsmen for three different stages of the white ball game. That is Power Hitting opening batsman. PH middle order batsmen & PH lower order batsmen.
Now that SLC is going to hire a Power Hitting Expert Coach in parrallel we must start a Talent Search Programme country wide to pick the most appropriate batsmen who can be converted into specialized Power Hitters for each stage of the white ball game.
We all cricket fans should now start thinking on this very important aspect of the white ball game to study every aspect of it.
Good points Susantha! This competition was well planned and also organised well it seems. It has produced some good results for the nation!