It was not so easy as last year, says Navy SC head coach Sridhar

The champion Navy SC women’s team 

By Sa’adi Thawfeeq

Last year Navy SC carried everything before them to win the Women’s Inter-Club Division I (50-over) tournament winning all their matches to remain unbeaten throughout. On Tuesday they retained that title but it was not as easy as last year.

Their loss to Air Force SC A in a league match gave their opponent a chance to vie for the title as well and it was not until the last league game that the title was eventually decided.

“Losing to Air Force A was a wakeup call for our girls to bounce back. Our vision was to become champions again and we didn’t let it go till yesterday (Tuesday),” said head coach of Navy SC Ramachandran Sridhar. 

“We stopped our match against Army SC B at 1.45 p.m. after eight overs because it was raining. We knew Air Force A’s match against Seenigama CC had also stopped due to rain and resumed. It was very tough on us because till 4 p.m. we were not sure if our match could resume. Whoever was going to win, would win the title. Air Force won without the bonus point and we won with the bonus point so we became champions. It was a very tight tournament. We always wanted to retain the trophy and it was very challenging. We were the defending champions so we had more pressure than the others.”

Navy SC led by Harshitha Madavi Samarawickrama, the Sri Lanka Women’s team vice-captain fielded virtually the same side as last year except for two newcomers - one of them a former national player who is 21, Umesha Thimashini and the other a Sri Lankan Emerging player Rashmi Silva. 

“But it was the senior players like Inoka Ranaweera, Sashikala Siriwardene, Udeshika Prabodani and Prasadani Weerakkody who performed and carried most of the weight. Tharika Sewwandi performed well throughout the season. In the game against Air Force, she took four wickets. She is an upcoming girl and might be the ideal replacement for Udeshika in the near future. She is in the national squad.”

“Our strength has been our bowling and they did most of the damage with Inoka Ranaweera being the leading bowler of the tournament for a fourth year in a row. It is a remarkable performance and must be a world record,” said Sridhar, a former Isipathana College cricketer who played first-class cricket for Moors SC and SSC as a left-arm spinner but is little known in the field of coaching. 

What was so unique about Inoka’s bowling? 

“She is experienced and committed. Last year she was not focusing on taking wickets but on her economy rate. This year she was focusing on improving her economy rate as well trying to increase the number of maiden overs in her bowling. That was very good because by bowling so many maiden overs she built up a lot of pressure on the batters. She was guided by Dinuka Hettiarachchi (former Sri Lanka Test spinner) who is the national women’s spin coach. He has done some remarkable changes. More than last year she has improved a lot.”

Talking through how committed the girls were to win the championship Sridhar explained, “These girls had to sacrifice their New Year holidays. We were supposed to play the match against Army SC A on 11 April but it rained on the 10th and they postponed it to 17 April. What happened was that we lost to Air Force and Air Force lost to Army. We had to beat the Army with a bonus point to win the title. So, we practiced on 12, 15 and 16 April. 

The girls were given off only on 13 and 14 April. 

“We practiced smartly. We analysed the Army team, they had three fast bowlers and one of them was at her peak she took eight wickets against one of the teams. So, we planned for them, we went indoors and practiced using a lot of new balls to overcome the threat and finally we succeeded. That match we beat them with the bonus point.”

Sridhar said that Navy SC were planning to put out a B side as well with Sri Lanka Cricket expected to play the tournament in two divisions A and B with a promotion/relegation system which could make the competition more competitive.

Sridhar got the opportunity to coach Navy SC when he came under former Sri Lanka cricketer Sajeewa de Silva who was then head coach of Navy SC. After de Silva quit the post at the end of three years Sridhar took over and in the past four years has won three tournaments – joint champs with Army in 2018 and champions in 2021 and 2022 and runner-up in 2019. He has been assisted by Assistant Coach Lasanthi Madushani, Team Manager Anura Wedapola and Air Force SC cricket Chairman Rear Admiral APN Silva.

NAVY SC WOMEN’S SQUAD: 

Harshitha Madavi Samarawickrama (Captain), Hansima Karunaratne (Vice-Captain), Shashikala Siriwardene, Eshani Lokusooriya, Udeshika Prabodani, Lasanthi Madushani, Madhuri Samuddika, Prasadani Weerakkody, Inoka Ranaweera, Chandima Gunaratne, Hasini Perera, Tharika Sewwandi, Sathya Sandeepani, Umasha Thimeshani, Rashmi Silva, Nilakshana Sandamini, Nimalika Adhikari, Shanika Thilakaratne, Dilshani Hangawaththa, Ruwini Nawaratne, Chethana Vimukthi, Dilshani Kumarasiri, Menuka Herath, Harshani Wijeratne.