Memories are usually short in this topsy-turvy world we live in and it would be pertinent to recall the severe injustice done to one of the most talented cricketers to emerge out of Trinity College, Kandy – Niroshan Dickwella who has on the current tour of South Africa given the national cricket team a lifeline for the five-match One-Day International series with his courageous and aggressive batting.
The Lankan team looked a dejected lot after being whitewashed 0-3 in the Test series and having lost the first T20 of the three-match series. Skipper Angelo Mathews kept the team’s chances alive in the series when he put up a brave front limping his way to an unbeaten half-century in the second game to give Sri Lanka their first win of the tour.
In the deciding match of the series after South Africa had run up a challenging total of 169-5, Sri Lanka were left with the daunting task of chasing down the target without their most experienced batter Mathews who was forced to leave for home.
It was then that Dickwella took up the challenge posed by the Proteas and batted like a champion to steer his team to a series clinching win – their first in any format in South Africa. Of course he was aided by a cameo knock by Seekkuge Prasanna who put the finishing touches to a thrilling chase, but it was Dickwella who laid the foundation for the victory with a maiden T20 international half-century – 68 off 51 balls.
This match winning knock that followed scores of 43 off 19 balls and 22 off 15 balls giving him an impressive strike rate of 156.47 earned Dickwella the Man of the Match as well as the Man of the Series awards.
What a comeback for him when one rolls back the months and recalls the World T20 in India when Dickwella after being selected as a member of the team was left high and dry with an air ticket in his hand and the team took off for the world event without him. In fact Dickwella got to know that he was not going just 24 hours before the team’s departure. Along with Dickwella, another young talented cricketer to suffer the same fate was leg-spinner Jeffrey Vandersay. Eventually Vandersay was recalled to the team after being left out (to replace injured Lasith Malinga) by the adhoc selection committee headed by Aravinda de Silva which Sri Lankan Cricket so overzealously appointed overnight to replace the one led by Kapila Wijegunawardene to carry out selections to suit their own agendas.
Just imagine the damage SLC which boasts itself of promoting young and talented cricketers did to the budding careers of Dickwella and Vandersay by their imprudent thinking.
Dickwella also went through some frustrating and rough periods on selections after that incident and there was a time that he was contemplating on throwing in the towel and quitting from the game altogether for the unfair treatment that was being meted out to him.
But as the saying goes “you can’t keep a good man down” Dickwella has somehow managed to surface and display his extraordinary talents as an aggressive top order batsman suited mostly to the one-day game. It’s not that he cannot play Test cricket for on his debut against South Africa at the SSC in 2014, he emulated Mahela Jayawardene, another schoolboy prodigy by scoring a fifty (72) on debut against the likes of Dale Steyn, Vernon Philander, Morne Morkel and Imran Thahir.
“Dickwella has improved a lot in the last two years, since he’s left school. If he’s got the attitude and the appetite to improve, then that’s something we’re looking for in the national team. He’d be a great asset,” said Jayawardene who batted alongside him for most of the debutant innings.
“It just shows the maturity in the guy. He came to bat yesterday to face 10-12 overs, and he handled that. I played a game against him last year and he batted against us and he played well. He looked a composed player that knew his strengths and weaknesses.”
Dickwella (23) arrived on the first-class cricket scene following a stellar school cricket career at Trinity College as an attacking left-hand wicket-keeper batsman. He won Sunday Observer/Mobitel Schoolboy Cricketer of the Year award in 2012, having hit over 1000 runs in the previous season, and led Trinity College to become school champions.
Joining NCC, Dickwella became the club’s regular wicketkeeper across all competitions when regular wicket-keeper Dinesh Chandimal was called up for national duty.
Since graduating to senior cricket, he has been particularly impressive in limited-overs cricket, hitting a memorable 104 off 91 balls in the final of the Inter-Provincial One-Day tournament in 2013.
Dickwella was a regular fixture in the Sri Lanka A team since 2013, and was called back from an A tour in England in July 2014, to take Chandimal’s place in the Test team where he made his memorable debut.
Dickwella has shown by his performance that Sri Lanka has enough talent at its disposal to fill the ranks in all three formats provided it is handled properly and selections are done strictly on merit without any interference.