Himesh Ramanayake, Sri Lanka’s youngest shining star of cricket

On Aug 19, 2021

Former Sri Lanka Under-19 fast bowler Himesh Ramanayake made a strong claim for a place in the national team with an outstanding performance in the SLC Invitational T20 League Cricket Tournament, now in progress at the Pallekele Stadium in Kandy.

The 23-year-old right-arm seamer returned career best T20 figures of four wickets for 31 to help the SLC Reds cruise to a six-wicket victory over the SLC Blues in a second-round fixture on Wednesday.

“I am really pleased with this performance and I think all my hard work and the training during the last few months have brought the desired results,” Ramanayake said after winning the Man-of-the-Match Award.

“I started this tournament with a good frame of mind and a perfect game plan, which I was able to execute to the maximum in my last outing,” he explained. “I think I did all the correct things throughout my spell and it worked well for me and I hope to maintain the same kind of form throughout this tournament.”

“We were handed different game plans by our coaching staff before the start of the tournament and I think I have done extremely well to make them feel happy.”

Himesh of course, is the son of former Sri Lanka fast bowler Champaka Ramanayake, who has groomed several promising young bowlers to reach international standards. Himesh is no exception and he seems to be heading in the right path towards attaining his ultimate goal and dream of representing the country at the highest level.

He had limited success with the Sri Lanka Under-19 Team but took a four-wicket haul against Bangladesh in a Youth Test at this same venue in 2015. Two years later he made his First-Class debut for the BRC against the Sri Lanka Ports AuthorCity and scored a fighting 28 while batting at number eleven although he managed only a solitary wicket.

Ramanayake also had the opportunity of playing in the Lanka Premier League (LPL) T20 Cricket Tournament where he represented the Colombo Kings Team. Ramanayake is the joint leading wicket-taker so far in the tournament along with his teammate Seekkuge Prasanna, with both having captured six wickets each.

However, Ramanayake’s performance is more significant considering the fact that he has played in only three games whereas Prasanna has appeared in four outings.