SLC gives greenlight for Hasaranga, Chameera for IPL

Wanindu Hasaranga and Dushmantha Chameera appear in the video posted on RCB’s Twitter

• Players told to report to national squad by 10 October; unavailable for IPL playoffs

By Sa’adi Thawfeeq

Two of Sri Lanka’s leading white ball cricketers leg-spinning all-rounder Wanindu Hasaranga and fast bowler Dushmantha Chameera had been given the greenlight by Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) to participate in next month’s Indian Premier League second leg which will be played in the UAE.

SLC Secretary Mohan de Silva said that these two players were given the No Objection Certificates (NOC) to take part in the IPL as the matches did not clash with the white ball series against South Africa which commences on 2 September at the R Premadasa Stadium.

“After the South African tour they can travel to UAE for the IPL and then they will have to join the Sri Lanka squad on 10 October for the ICC Men’s T20I World Cup qualifiers,” said De Silva.

In fact, the two cricketers will travel from one bubble to another for the Men’s T20I World Cup which will also be held in Oman and the UAE where at the three venues the IPL matches will also be played.

For the first time in the history of the IPL, no Sri Lanka cricketers featured in the 2021 tournament, but thanks to COVID-19 the IPL had to be halted midway and by the time it resumed two Lankan cricketers Hasaranga and Chameera had performed exceptionally well for Sri Lanka in white ball cricket, to be selected to play for RCB in the second phase.    An SLC media release stated that permission for the players was granted by the SLC in consultation with the Technical Advisory Committee.

Sri Lanka’s six-match home series of 3 ODIs and 3 T20Is against South Africa ends on 14 September. The IPL second leg commences on 19 September and will go on till 15 October when the final will take place.

However, both Hasaranga and Chameera will not be available to play for RCB if the team enters the playoff stages of the IPL as they will have to report back to the national squad by 10 October, the day in which the IPL qualifiers commence.

In fact, the two players will also miss the two friendly warm-up games scheduled to be played by Sri Lanka in Oman on 7 and 9 October before heading to UAE for the T20 World Cup. Oman is also one of the qualifiers for a place in the T20 World Cup Super12 like Sri Lanka.

Hasaranga and Chameera have a maximum of seven IPL league matches to play if selected before parting ways with RCB.

RCB are currently placed third in the IPL standings with 10 points from even matches (5 wins, 2 losses) behind Delhi Capitals and Chennai Super Kings.

RCB posted a small video on their Twitter featuring the two Sri Lanka cricketers commenting on their selection. “Hello guys, this is Wanindu Hasaranga. I am excited to join RCB this year. This is going to be a fun ride. Join us and cheer for us. Stay safe,” said Hasaranga.

Greeting the fans with hello and namaste, Chameera said: “I am so excited to join Royal Challengers family for the upcoming IPL. Looking forward to playing alongside Virat, AB de, Maxwell, Chahal and other talented players. Will give my 100% to my team RCB at all times. Watch out for some fireworks. Stay indoors, wear a mask, and keep supporting RCB. See you soon all. Bye for now.”

Both Hasaranga and Chameera achieved career best ICC rankings in white ball cricket at the end of the home series against India. Hasaranga, Player of the Series in the T20I series against India is currently second to South African spinner Tabraiz Shamsi in the ICC T20I Bowlers rankings and Chameera 34th in the ICC ODI Bowlers rankings.

Former New Zealand coach Mike Hesson who will take over as head coach of RCB for the second phase of the IPL after Simon Katich decided to skip the remainder of the season due to personal reasons revealed that Hasaranga had been on RCB’s radar for quite a long time. “We have a scouting program that has been in place for the last two years where we know almost every player that is playing cricket around the world at a decent level. Wanindu had been on our radar for a long time. In fact, we needed a replacement in the last IPL, he was certainly the person we called upon. It’s not a recent factor,” Hesson was quoted as saying. 

“We are not surprised by his success in recent times, but he has been doing it for a while. We like his skillset, and we like the fact that he is a multi-skilled cricketer. So, he offers us the ability to bat a little bit deeper as well if we choose to play the overseas spinner along with (Yuzvendra) Chahal. And that gives us a lot of exciting options so the fact that he performed well against India in recent times is great, but certainly not surprising.”

“One thing we can say is we have replaced Adam Zampa with Hasaranga. Certainly delighted to have Hasaranga on board. He gives us some balance, obviously from a wrist spin point of view and also plenty of batting capability. Chameera, another [from] the Sri Lankan contingent, is bowling extremely well at the moment.  “I know him well, having coached against him. He’s got genuine pace and also his white-ball game has developed significantly over the last few years. With Finn Allen leaving, we have decided to strengthen our middle-order possibilities, in terms of options, so Tim David has joined our squad. 

“Wanindu, Chameera and Tim David are certainly some high-quality players that will add to the likes of AB de Villiers, Glenn Maxwell, Kyle Jamieson and Daniel Christian,” he said. Chameera replaces Daniel Sams of Australia.