Test cricket will be less colourful without Prasad

A familiar sight: Dhammika Prasad takes a wicket playing in his final Test series against West Indies in 2015 

One of the most colourful characters to grace the cricket field, Dhammika Prasad has announced his retirement from international cricket at the age of 37.

Prasad’s 25-match Test career spanning seven years was overshadowed by injury that has finally taken its toll and made him eventually hang up his boots.

Being a fast bowler he was prone to injury and although he went through several of them throughout his career the most telling of them all was the one he suffered during the tour of England in 2016. He was ruled out of the tour before the Test series began injuring his right shoulder bowling against Essex.

Being his bowling arm, Prasad struggled to recover from it and by the time he was well again he was never the same effective bowler he was. 

He tried briefly to return to the national side by playing for SSC in the Premier competition and then for Colombo Kings in the Lanka Premier League last year, but his returns were moderate and he failed to convince the selectors that he was ready to return to international cricket. Age was also not on his side and in the years he was away recuperating from his injury the fast bowlers’ slot in the national team had been filled by several younger and quicker bowlers.

It is indeed a sad end to what looked like a promising career ahead of him when he kick-started his cricketing career by picking up two wickets off consecutive balls in his first over of international cricket in the third ODI against Bangladesh at Chattogram in 2006. That success was short-lived when he suffered a back injury and was out of cricket for two years. 

He made his comeback playing for Sri Lanka ‘A’ and in the absence of Lasith Malinga he was picked for his first Test cap in the home series against India in 2008 becoming only the second player from De Mazenod College, Kandana to represent his country at cricket after another fast bowler Dilhara Fernando. Prasad’s accuracy and pace proved a handful for the Indians. 

He creamed up the top order with the wickets of Virender Sehwag, Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar and followed it up by dismissing Gautam Gambhir and Sehwag in the second innings to hand Sri Lanka a win by eight wickets at the P Sara Oval.

Prasad’s best performance was achieved at Headingly, Leeds in 2014 when he bowled Sri Lanka to a historic series clinching 1-0 win over England. Thereby hangs a tale what fired Prasad to bowl the way he did returning a career best 5/50 – the only five-for he achieved in international cricket. England chasing 350 fell for 249 as Sri Lanka won by 100 runs and with it the series 1-0, the first and only time Sri Lanka had won a Test series in England.

What took place before Prasad’s fiery spell was when he went out to bat at 277-6 and Sri Lanka holding onto an overall lead of 169 with three second innings wickets in hand. Prasad was no greenhorn with the bat – he had a top score of 47 in Tests and a first-class hundred to boot. When he joined Angelo Mathews at the wicket he was asked to hold up his end while his captain who was batting with a hundred against his name would do the scoring.

Mathews recalling the incident said: “I can very well remember I was batting at the other end and we got to a decent lead. I said to him they are going to bowl short at you just leave it alone, you just try and stick at the other end because I was batting quite well. The very first ball he played a lapshot over the keeper’s head and it went straight into the third man’s hands. 

“I was furious at the time and when we went in for tea I had a ‘go’ at him. That really spurred him to bowl well because he was upset about the way he got out. It was just the heat of the moment. He came out and blasted the English batting line up and gave us the opportunity to win a Test series in England.”

Prasad played his final Test against West Indies in the inaugural Sobers-Tissera trophy series in 2015, the year he was probably in the form of his life capturing 41 wickets (avg. 24.95) in 9 Tests. He ends his career with 75 Test wickets and 32 in ODIs.

Mathews paying tribute to Prasad said: “He bowled some really good spells to win us a lot of games. He was so accurate with his line and length nipping the ball around. The stock ball that brought him a lot of wickets was the ball nipping back into the right-hander he has taken a lot of wickets from that delivery. 

“He hardly misses the length and with that length if the ball nips around it is very difficult to face him. He was a seam bowler more than a swing bowler. He was a great team man and a fantastic player. He got everyone together and he will help out with the youngsters by rallying around them. There was no real senior-junior whatsoever. He worked extremely hard even recently, he tried to make a comeback. He was always willing to help and that was one quality I’ve seen of him.” (ST)