Ajith de Silva the best left-arm leg-spinner we ever had

I travelled all the way to Ambalangoda to trace Ajith. He is having a flourishing business in the heart of the town.He was gracious enough to give me some of his time, whilst delegating work to his subordinates. Ajith was candid about his views on local cricket, right throughout the interview.

His raw talent was spotted by the Ananda talent scouts even while playing for Dharmasoka College Ambalangoda. Subsequently Ajith was offered a place at Ananda. Although he refused vehemently at the start, he was persuaded by his parents to go to Ananda College which paved his way to the international arena.

Ajith did well at Ananda and he then joined NCC, he was a tall left arm bowler who was naturally gifted he had large hands which fitted the bill perfectly for a slow left arm orthodox bowler. He bowled a perfect arc and had a classical follow through and by now he had mastered the ‘dipper’ which hung in the air to deceive the batsmen and also how to use the width of the crease as well.

I can recall way back in 1975, how we travelled up to Nottingham,Trent Bridge to watch Sri Lankan’s play against Pakistan. However, Ajith did not take the field that day, when inquired from him for the reason he said he was bemused being made the 12th man. I remember Javed Miandad playing in that match it was his debut year and was young, fresh and rosy cheeked completely different from the brash mustachioed street fighter he was known to be later.

Ajith recalls the 1979 World Cup tour to England again and he regrets that he was side lined due to his poor fielding. He mentions that the wickets were turners and the other two left armers S. Jeganathan and R Wijesuriya were incapable of using those conditions. He states that he cannot still find an answer as to why he was made 12th man in that match if he was a poor fielder, to cap it all when he was summoned to the field to replace an injured fielder, he took a blinder at either mid-off or mid-on, this certainly would have put egg on the face of the selectors mainly because when Ajith returned to the dressing room after showing his colours as a fielder, he then in no uncertain terms said to the selectors where they have gone wrong, and there was pin drop silence thereafter. That was not all recalls Ajith, he was not allowed to bowl in the nets thinking that his prodigious turn and steep bounce would be dangerous to our batsmen. Certainly the selectors have made a major “cock up,” laments Ajith.

When inquired about the 1996 World Cup winning team, Ajith was of the view that there were batsmen who were capable of scoring from 1-11 and also had many all-rounders and a team like that comes only ‘once in a blue moon’.

Rangana Herath he says is a heady bowler but his lack of inches is a major drawback because he cannot extract a lot of lift and bounce.

Another major concern of Ajith is the lack of continuity in our cricket. He quotes several examples such as Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara and Muralitharan; there were no players groomed to take over from these legends.

Ajith has no qualms about the captaincy of Angelo Mathews, he points out that although Mathews is not so demonstrative on the field, he has a good cricket brain and during breaks in play he must be liaising with the players and the support staff trying to get the maximum from the players.

Ajith was also instrumental in bringing Dinesh Chandimal from Dharmasoka Ambalangoda to Ananda College. Although Chandimal was reluctant to move, Chandimal’s parents persuaded Ajith to contact with Udayananda Perera the then coach of Ananda and there began Chandimal’s road to stardom.

Ajith himself had to curtail his career at the young age of 30 years, due to several reasons. He joined the rebel tour to South Africa, and according to him there contract was for two years and he was to get approx. Rs 200,000/= after the completion of one year. Unfortunately their contract was terminated says Ajith because their performances were not up to expectations. They had to play against the South African top team and their pace bowlers were tall and strong and bowled with a lot of zip and steep bounce. In spite of that Ajith says Anura Ranasinghe and Bernard Perera got hundreds and Ranasinghe’s one in particular was sparkling. Ajith was full of praise for Ranasinghe because after getting past 30 runs he treated the bowlers with equal disdain. After coming back from that tour Ajith settled down at Ambalangoda and he runs his own business apart from dabbling in politics as well. His late mother was the first ever woman to be a mayor in Sri Lanka.

When inquired about the future of Sri Lanka cricket, Ajith was emphatic that the continuity of selected players at top level should be persisted with. He said that there is no need for foreign coaches since people like Anura Tennekoon, Bandula Warnapura etc could do a better job since they know their products from grass root levels and their pulse. However much expensive quick fix solutions one brings into the picture at the last moment will not hold water, concluded Ajith.