The Common Man Speaks

Why Kaluwitharana’s stint in ’96 World Cup is overrated

May 4, 2022 by Keyur Seta 1 Comment

Note: The aim of this article is not to insult or badmouth Romesh Kaluwitharana. This is just an attempt to present some facts and statistics that are generally overlooked when it comes to the 1996 World Cup

The 1996 World Cup turned out to be memorable because an underdog team like Sri Lanka not only emerged victorious but played like true champions throughout. Aravinda De Silva became the hero for them in the final against Sri Lanka at Lahore where he scored an unbeaten 107 and picked up 3 wickets.

But a large amount of credit has been given to Sri Lanka’s openers Sanath Jayasuriya and Romesh Kaluwitharana. Both the batters were given the license to go after the bowling right from the word go and score as many runs as possible during the field restrictions (15 overs).

Both were known to revolutionize the role of opening batters. They started opening the batting in the series in Australia just before the 1996 World Cup and it worked during that tour.

Romesh Kaluwitharana
Romesh Kaluwitharana

Till today, Jayasuriya and Kaluwitharana are known as the destructive opening pair of the 96 cup. I have read numerous articles saying the same and heard commentators over the years glorifying both of them as dangerous batters of that series.

However, that is far from true. There is no doubt that Jayasuriya had a great world cup both with the bat and the ball and was rightly adjudged the man of the series. But to say that Kaluwitharana was also a success story in that series doesn’t sound logical.

While this might sound harsh, that isn’t my intention here. Just have a look at his scores in the whole series:

v/s Zimbabwe: 0

v/s India: 26

v/s Kenya: 33

v/s England: 8

v/s India: 0

v/s Australia: 6   

ESPNCricinfo in an article says “he [Kaluwitharana] was an integral figure in Sri Lanka’s astonishing World Cup victory that winter.” But his aforementioned performances tell a completely different story. He played 6 innings in that series and his total number of runs amount to just 73! His average comes down to just 12.16.

When you say that a batter had a good world cup, one would expect at least one score of 50 from him. If not this, there should be at least few scores in the 30s and 40s as that would have helped the team get a good opening partnership. But Kaluwitharana scored in double figures just twice.

He gave a good start to Sri Lanka in just two matches and one of them was against an associate team that was playing international cricket for the first time. On top of that, he had two golden ducks. He failed to score in all the three matches in the knockout stage where his total remained just 14 runs.

How can he be considered a ‘integral figure’ in Sri Lanka’s victory? You can’t be considered an important contributor to the team if you don’t contribute.  

Kaluwitharana’s overall career was surely much better than this. He was a good partner for Jayasuriya before and after the 1996 World Cup. But to say he was a part of a destructive opening pair in the 96 cup would be more than an overstatement.

Also read:

One of Wasim Akram’s biggest achievements is forgotten

Filed Under: Cricket Tagged With: Kaluwitharana 96 World Cup, Kaluwitharana and Jayasuriya, Kaluwitharana batting, Kaluwitharana record, Romesh Kaluwitharana 1996 World Cup, Romesh Kaluwitharana stats

When Kaluwitharana scored 0 in 70-run partnership

August 8, 2020 by Keyur Seta Leave a Comment

Long before the format of T20 came into existence, Sanath Jayasuriya and Romesh Kaluwitharana of Sri Lanka batted in the 50-over format just like batsman do in the shortest format of the game today. They started batting this way in the 1996 World Cup, which Sri Lanka won against various odds.

This was a rare sight then to see both batsmen attacking the bowlers. In those days such jobs were generally given to pinch-hitters. For those who don’t know, a pinch-hitter is a bowler who is sent up the order just to slog and increase the run rate. But in the case of the two Sri Lankan openers, both were proper batsmen who batted like pinch-hitters.  

In the 1992 WC, New Zealand’s Dipak Patel started a new practice of a spinner opening the bowling. The antics of the two Sri Lankan batsmen did the same in the 1996 WC.

Jayasuriya and Kaluwitharana soon became known for demolishing bowling attacks in their style. It is believed that the Indian pace bowler Manoj Prabhakar’s career was ended by the duo in the league match of the 1996 World Cup.

As expected, the duo continued their style after the ’96 WC too. The next series Sri Lanka played was the Singer Cup in Singapore which also had India and Pakistan. Jayasuriya was considered more destructive of the two. This was proved after Kaluwitharana couldn’t do much with the bat in the series.

Romesh Kaluwitharana
Romesh Kaluwitharana

In the first match of the Singer Cup, Jayasuriya blasted the Pakistani bowling line-up as he set a new world record for the fastest hundred in ODIs in just 48 balls [this record was broken in the same year by Shahid Afridi in 37 balls against Sri Lanka]. He broke the record of Mohammed Azharuddin by a long way who had reached the triple figure in 62 balls against New Zealand in 1988.

Sri Lanka won the match and it seemed they would clinch the series. The team met Pakistan in the final who were all out on just 215. It seemed the chase would be a cake-walk for Sri Lanka considering their form. I remember commentator Charu Sharma wondering if the match would end in just 30 overs.

When Jayasuriya was batting, it looked like Sri Lanka would reach the target even before 30 overs as the batsman, this time, broke the record of the fastest 50 in just 17 balls! The previous record holder was Simon O’Donnell who had scored half century in 18 balls against Sri Lanka in 1990.

While Jayasuriya was batting as if he the opposition is a school team, Kaluwitharana, his partner, was kept quiet and away from the strike as well. He was eventually out when the team score was 70.

Also read: When 2 part time bowlers opened the bowling for Australia

Strangely, Kaluwitharana’s contribution in the 70-run partnership was 0 in 11 balls! I am yet to see any such incident where two batmen, especially openers, had a partnership of well above 50 and the contribution of one of the two is nil! [In case somebody knows about any such occurrence, please enlighten me].

But there was more surprise in store. The match turned out to be a major surprise for everyone as Sri Lanka were all out for just 172 despite Jayasuriya scoring 78 in just 28 balls. None of the batsmen could do much and Pakistan made a dramatic comeback to lift the Singer Cup.

Additional reading:

The only time Sachin Tendulkar was NOT selected in the team, neither injured nor rested

When hearing issues stopped India from winning against England

Filed Under: Cricket Tagged With: Jayasuriya Kaluwitharana, Jayasuriya Kaluwitharana partnership, Kaluwitharana batting, Romesh Kaluwitharana, Sri Lanka Pakistan 1996 Singapore

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