Prabath Jayasuriya – from unfit, overweight, lazy spinner to record breaker

by Rex Clementine

Last year when Lasith Embuldeniya was injured, Prabath Jayasuriya was next in line to make his Test debut against Bangladesh. The news was leaked that he had failed the two kilometer fitness test and had become ineligible for selections. The press went to town. Quietly, Prabath reached out to reporters to inform them that he had not failed the kilometer run, but in fact his skin folds were over the limit. He didn’t twist the knife in anger in telling reporters that they had got it totally wrong. He gently passed on what had taken place. The reporters had failed to adhere to Tyron Devotta’s golden rule in journalism, ‘check, double check and check again.’

Prabath was never able to fix his skinfolds problem. The selectors were on the war path. He was ineligible for selection. Their policy of our way or the highway had served little purpose with quite a few players quitting early. It was a crying shame as the likes of Dilruwan Perera and Thisara Perera had so much to offer the game.

Sometimes no matter how arrogant and resentful you are, there are forces that are more powerful than you. When COVID hit the Sri Lankan camp forcing the team to isolate four players, the selectors were left with Hobson’s choice but to turn back to Prabath Jayasuriya. Their much publicized fitness regime has become a laughing stock. It’s as good as Gota’s one country one law.

In the first Test, when the pitch offered much assistance for spinners, Lasith Embuldeniya and the rest were wayward. Sri Lanka suffered a heavy ten wicket defeat.

Jayasuriya is a veteran in First Class cricket. While among the left-arm spinners, the overwhelming favourite to make his debut in the second Test was Dunith Wellalage given his brilliant start in international cricket. But skipper Dimuth Karunaratne backed Jayasuriya as he knew that here was someone who could keep things tight.

That’s exactly what Jayasuriya did. Australia had swept and reverse swept to good effect in the first Test against the wayward Sri Lankan bowling. But when the bowling was accurate in the second Test, the sweep was going to backfire and it did. Jayasuriya finished with a new Sri Lankan record for best figures by a debutant in Test match cricket. His 12 for 177 is also now the fourth best figures in the history of Test match cricket. A remarkable achievement.

Many of our spinners be it Dilruwan Perera, Rangana Herath or even the great Muttiah Muralitharan have matured after 30 years. Age should not be a factor to determine whether a player is good enough to play at the highest level. Jayasuriya did it when chips were down and that too against world’s number one ranked team. You just get the feeling that he’s going to win you a lot more Test matches moving forward.