Arul Prakash a fiery paceman-Dilwin Mendis

Arul Prakash

Source:Dailynews

Right hand opening bat, wicket keeper and occasional right arm medium pace bowler Anthony Arul Prakash brought honour and fame to his Alma Mater Hindu College, Bambalapitiya, Colombo 4.

He entered Grade One in 1999 and at the age of nine years he attended the school under 11 cricket practices under Anthony Manuel and played for the team for two years

In 2004 he was appointed as the captain of the under 13 team and in the following year too he captained the team and performed well and in 2006 and 2007 he captained the under 15 teams and in 2007 they came up to semi finals. Peterson player Anushka Dilshan noticing his talents requested him to attend practices in the Daily News Trophy and played for them for three years as an opening bowler and in the final year captaining the division two Donovan Andree team he captured 33 wickets with five 5 wicket hauls.

Then he was invited to play for Nugegoda Sports Club in the under 23 division two tournament and captured 13 wickets. Same year he joined Singhalese Sports Club and in 2015 he played for the Daily News Trophy and they came up to quarter finals and he bagged 18 scalps and in 2015 and 2016 he played in the Premier Trophy Twenty20 Tournament under Dasun Chanaka. From there he played for three successive years in the Premier First Class Cricket Tournament.

In 2019 Derana Airtel selected medium pace bowlers through out the countries and later it was reduced to 5000 and tested the fastest bowlers by giving four deliveries to bowl and his speed was 128, 131, 131 and 133 kmph. From there he was selected for the ten bowlers who are over 19 years. Again they tested 180 players and he was included in the 15 member squad of under 19 and they were given a five day training camp at Colombo Cricket Grounds at which Chaminda Vaz and Anushka Samaranayake were the coaches. There his speed was the highest with 145 kmph and later at Kettarama he came under Mr. Pushpakumara and Chamila Gamage for batting and bowling aspects and were looked after by Hashan Tillakaratne and Upul Chandana respectively.