Dilshan scoops out irritating incidents – by Sunil Thenabadu in Brisbane

Tillekeratne Dilshan former TEST,ODI and T 20 captain upon his retirement was interviewed by Sirasa TV sports journalist, Manju Thenuwara ( now a Buddhist Monk ordained on 8^th June 2020 goes by name Matara Vijaya Seeha thera) in an exclusive television interview.These details were captured accurately by the writer.

Just after the illustrious cricketing career which spanned for nearly two decades performing yeoman service as an all rounder in all formats of the game to the country, TM Dilshan the architect of the “Dilscoop” cricket stroke that embossed his patent on the most talked about new stroke in cricket was interviewed in an discussion over a popular TV channel for 1 ½ hours. This had been eagerly watched my millions of his cricket fans with utmost passion. The presenter aptly added that Dilshan is the most talked about and trendiest person in the country subsequent to quitting the game.

Even Dilshan himself may not have known that he had such abundant crazy fans scattered island wide. The fans thronged to the Pallekelle International stadium as well as the R.Premadasa International stadium in their colossal figures to accord him a supreme exit. The style the fans behaved at these grounds with placards was ample testimony to his gigantic popularity. The fans gave him a reception hitherto no other player had received in the annals of our cricketing narration.

During this long discussion Dilscoop discussion several bombshells were uncovered which may dumbfound many who did not get the opportunity to listen to his discussion over the television.

As all cricket fans would know that there was no sponsorship from the Sri Lanka Cricket for his farewell unlike given to some senior cricketers who quit in the recent past?. His said he does not need to hoist flags in Colombo and such similar fanfares. But he was contented to get a warm send off by his huge number of passionate fans. Many former players before quitting were kept lifted by the media but he quipped that he is a cricketer who does not require such facelifts, also does not like to resort to such low strategies as he was confident that during his tenure he had performed to his utmost to uplift the image of the country and had not performed for personal gains winning the hearts of so many fans.

Dilshan said that he was instrumental in bringing many talented youngsters like Thissara ,Chandimal, Lakmal Senanayake, Prasanna and others who were performing well in domestic tournaments into the squad. At that moment the seniors then had not liked it. He said he was very happy to have played under the captaincy of Chandimal whom he had brought in, in his farewell appearance.

Dilshan when questioned whether he was happy during his tenure in the Sri Lanka team the answer was that he had a lot of annoying and bothersome times. For reasons not disclosed he said that with a number of senior players he had not spoken with for a number of years. He had dealings with them only when discharging duties for the country on the field inside the boundary line only. He says to play the country one should have lucid psyche in focus particularly when facing a bowler hurling at 150 kmh. Hence he was more concerned in performing his best in the middle and not interested in taking such qualms on to the cricket field.

Dilshan says he was asked to take over the captaincy abruptly in the year 2012 for only a short while although he did not fancy it. He had no option but to accept it as he was pleaded to take over by the then Chairman of the SLC, DS De Silva. He was reluctant as at that time both captain and vice-captain had resigned Muralidharan had retired while many players were on the casualty list.

After accepting the captaincy, he was determined to perform at his crest as he was adamant to serve his motherland. He hunted to build a new unit by bringing in raw talent. Even when his name was proposed as skipper senior players had questioned how Dilshan could captain as he is sporting ear rings a peculiar beard. After a couple of years after a successful reign as captain when he was on a tour of England a new Chairman of selectors Ashantha de Mel then had called him and told to resign from the captaincy for no special reason. Without challenging Dilshan had within an hour sent his resignation letter to the SLC. He had been surprised as once again Mahela Jayawardena was appointed as the skipper. To his astonish and dismay after six months the captaincy had been handed over to Angelow Mathews. This too Dilshan had said were underhand conspires. Angelow Mathews had not bowled during the tenure of Dilshan’s captaincy but had opted to bowl under Mahela.

The innovative Dilscoop stroke,that was inscribed to the cricket books as a new stroke, was not applauded by many senior players. They were obviously jealous as Dilshan’s name was to enter the cricket books. They had said only people who have no brains play such strokes and starfish etc.

During the T/20 World Cup the International Cricket Conference had wanted to suggest some names for the stroke invented by Dilshan. The former England captain Nassar Hussein had asked Dilshan if he likes to name it as “Dilscoop”. Dilshan without the least pause had said he likes.

These are some of the countless frustrations that Tillkeratne Dilshan had to facade and trounce during most part of his flourishing cricketing career. Dilshan had quipped that it was his mental robustness that allowed him to accomplish well in spite of all these conspiracies.