Bawwa-Sri Lanka’s loss is India’s gain

There is an unknown Sri Lankan with Indian cricket team .He is none other then Indian throwing coach Udenaka Nuwan Seneviratne better known as “Bawwa”.

Virat Kohli who reached the milestone of highest number of ODI centuries (50) remembered three men for his success .One man is Nuwan Seneviratne ( Bawwa) the throwing coach.

When the writer had chance to cover the India – Sri Lanka match and India – New Zealand semi final both in Mumbai there was an active msn behind the boundary line always with a water bottle , Energy drink or with the towel and used to help players and we spotted when Virat comes to the boundary line Bawwa always follows him. This is is extra duty apart from throwing coach. When the India team trains Bawwa is very busy man. He is throwing the ball to batsmen and also assists in fielding practice.That is why Virat always says Bawwa played a key role in his success. Bawwa can throw the ball at top speed and those days Mahela Jayawardena and Kumar Sangakkara got his service to build up their batting skills.

Bawwa is today vey popular among Indian team and he is well looked after by India Cricket Board ( his one months salary equal to ten months salary from Sri Lanka and when India team sing the National anthem before the match Bawwa also joins the team singing Indian National anthem.

He hadn’t good history in Sri Lanka.After leaving school ( Wesley College ) Bawwa left for UAE for a job .But that was not successful and he had to return home.

He was very keen to play cricket and he got chance to play division two cricket at CCC in Maitland Place. He got chance to play only two first class matches and his cricket journey was not successful .First he started as an office van driver and his duty was to bring officials to office in the morning and in the evening drop them at home. When he worked as van driver he used to park his van near the NCC grounds close to Sri Lanka Cricket headquarters.At his free time he used to go to NCC grounds and watch the Sri Lanka A team practice At that time Manoj Abeywickrama was the Sri Lanka A team fielding coach and was promoted as National team fielding coach.

Bawwa started to give assistance to Manoj Abeywickrama. At that time everyone realized Bawwa ‘ s talent .Bawwa did very well and he was throwing ball to batsmen and his skill was very important to all batters that time. Bawwa ‘ s left arm is very strong and he has ability to throw the ball 145-150 kmph. After this success Bawwa got chance to enter the Sri Lanka A team as throwing coach and this was his turning point.

In 2016 Sri Lanka – England tour Bawwa got chance to enter the National team as (Assistant fielding coach.At that time Sri Lanka head coach Graham Ford used Bawwa as Throwing Specialist. He worked hard to do his duty and one time he can throw 150kmph speed. Some times Bawwa’ s throw hurt batsmen and some players feared facing Bawwa.

When Bawwa worked with Sri Lanka A team he had a clash with Sri Lanka A coach and that was way back in 2017. At that time he lost his SLC job and luckily former India Batting coach Sanjay Bangar invited Bawwa to join them with a higher offer and Bawwa got that chance and from 2018 Bawwa is doing great service to India and Sri Lanka lost his service.

Today Bawwa is proud team member of India and he is looking forward to do well M.S Dhoni ,Rohit Sharma,Suresh Raina,K.L Rahul ,Virat Kohli trained under Bawwa.

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