It wasn't exactly the day me(Sinura Sasvidu) and my friends at the Debby's Academy of Cricket were looking forward to.Kashyapa Senanayaka, the owner of our academy had invited the student all-rounder of the whole island under 16 category Tharushi Hansika for a conference with us. He thought it was good to have her here to convince us that education is of priority than anything else we do we in our lives, like Cricket. We don't think it's cool. How can he do such a thing? He is the owner of our academy! He must be encouraging us towards Cricket, not taking us away from it! This was all a result of complaints from our parents for watching Cricket matches without studying. The worst thing is our parents are participating in this conference as well. By the time we get home, who knows what will happen. My mother is sure to start quoting her words. Well, not only at Cricket, we are trying our best at studies too. But our parents never understand. After all, we don't have to be so bright at studies if we expect to start our career as a Cricketer! Do we?
We all took seats at the conference hall. After about 15 minutes, the guest arrived. We were expecting a tall girl, who flashed her studiousness with her hair and spectacles,which means she didn't even care how she looked. But the answer was totally different. There arrived a girl with a moderate height, beautiful hair and she wore a "dress to impress". I must admit, just looking at her impressed us. She did wear spectacles though. But they didn't make her look studious, only good looking. We expected her to mumble her speech. But she just walked up to the chair in the middle of the table with a dignified look, while the other officials of our academy sat on either sides of her. Mr. Senanayaka gave us an introduction about her and invited her to start her speech. She gave a warm welcoming smile towards us, which effortlessly made us smile back. Then she stated her speech.
"Thank you for the great introduction Mr.Senanayaka. Good morning everybody. I'm Tharushi Hansika and thank you for inviting me for an occasion like this. I'm honestly privileged to have a little talk with you today. Mr.Senanayaka told me all about your parents' complaints. So I hope my speech will provide answers for them dear parents and friends. I, myself watch Cricket matches quite often",
I looked around. There was an expression of surprise on everybody's face.
"You wouldn't believe me, but I do.For one thing I watch Cricket matches as an entertainment mode.As another thing I watch them Because there's a lot to learn from them. I don't play Cricket.So I don't mean the movements or how they bat or how they do the fielding. I mean there are other things that you can learn from Cricket.
For an instance, in SLPL I saw a new player from the team Nagenahira Nagas , once when he batted he fell. But as immediately as he fell, he got up. Without wasting a second he got up so quickly, so actively. That reminded me, if I was him, I wouldn't have done that. That reminded me that I'm a lazy cat and that I need to liven up myself a little more. I figured out that my active nature has dissapeared as I stopped sports a few years ago. But I can't let that stop me! Can I? I have to be active like a good Cricket player. After all there must be some positive results for all those hours I spent infront of the TV amidst all those lengthy lectures from my mom!"
There was a helpless crack of laughter across the hall. With a gentle smile she started again.
" And again in SLPL, Milinda Siriwardana of Wayamba United was quite an inspiring player. And he did such a good job for his team. I remember at the match they had with the Kandurata Warriors, which they lost by just two runs, I remember Milinda was the last batsman to come to the field. But he turned the match around. He managed to reduce the gap of score from a very large difference to just two runs together with his partner Abdul Razaaq. All were 4s and 6s. But at one instance he sent the ball right into the hands of the wicket-keeper. He was still at the line, so it was not out. Then he took the risk to run between the matter of time that it takes the wicket-keeper to break the wicket and he succeeded. If the batsmen who played for his team before him took the same risk to play hard without being afraid of getting an out, they could have won the game. You know, they say "Never let the fear of striking out keep you from the game". My point is, if you are afraid of loosing, you can't gain anything. With the fear of loosing you can't have the spirit of gaining. Sometimes we have to to take some risk to make our future successful. You never know what miracles that could bring.That's not all. I have learnt many things by just watching the Cricket matches. How you can succeeded when you ignore your tiredness and carry on with a great commitment towards one target like Angelo Maththews did at Pakistan Vs Sri Lanka test match.He turned the match around with a great commitment and the lead the Sri Lankan team to the trophy at the last match. Anyone watching him could see that he's exhausted But he didn't seem to care much. Or how to act with good leadership skills like Kumar Sangakkara at the 2011 ICC Cricket World Cup. Even seeing that we are about to loose, he didn't let the team down. Until the last moment he was encouraging the rest of his team. Not a glance of anger at Nuwan Kulasekara when he lost the very easy catch. And when they came back to Sri Lanka, he always took great care to defend his team from the rude accusations they got from the media conferences. Or to heed the example of Mahela Jayawardana, who naturally gets a little smile crossing his face so helplessly even when a team member of his has done a mistake. He just puts his arm around the player's shoulder and wisely advices him about what he has to do to make his team win the match. Both Sangakkara and Jayawardana have great leadership skills which had made them my favourite cricketers.
There are many more qualities that you can learn from Cricket. Team spirit, Obeying the leader, taking the success and failure moderately, working in harmony with other teams, to fight for success till the end, being grateful to the people who support you and also (with a little chuckle) learning the international language. Waste your time to make your future successful. But from all the things you learn, the education is the one which should get the priority. There's no value to any of these qualities if you are weak at your studies. You must have already heard the numerous number of extra-curricular activities I did. But somehow I managed to be the 1st of the province at O/Ls. Didn't I? Do your best to reach your goal. You will have to make commitments,you will have to make sacrifices. But you should triumph. There's one thing I must say. From the never-ending list of qualities that you can learn from Cricket, the number one thing is "NEVER GIVE UP". Life is a long journey my friends. I know that you all are great Cricket fanatics. So I thought of ending my Cricket lesson, comparing our lives to a game of Cricket. Life is not a lost game. It's a never ending cheerful game. The victory or defeat depends on the way you play it. That means the way you live. Life's too short dear friends. You can't make too many mistakes. You know the spirit of Cricket. Now make it the spirit of your life. Play your best and do a self-satisfying job. At the end of the match when you turn towards the crowd you will see happy cheers going on and on and eventually you will know that you are the man of the match. Then you can receive the great, big trophy of a successful life."
A big round of applause filled the hall.I didn't look at anybody during the speech. I think I just concentrated to each and every word of hers and forgot about the rest of the world. She made us smile, she took us to serious moods.... Most of all, I think she got all of us int her speech.
Before her speech started, I expected her to speak on and on about the importance of the education. But the very opposite thing happened. She was a fountain of Cricket. In fact, she said that she once wrote an essay on a Cricketer at an examination when all the others wrote about wrote about heroes such as Mahathma Gandhi and T.B. Jaya. She talked fairly both on our point of view and our parents' point of view. I think we all understood each other's points then. It was amazing how she explained everything so simply by taking the thing we were mostly interested in - Cricket, and comparing it with everything we learn.
At the end she received a little gift from Mr.Senanayaka. No one knows what it was. Then she came to watch us play,which made us all nervous, because we all tried to play to impress her. She got friendly with us very easily and as a result we taught her how to bat and ball. We had some serious fun! We were all very satisfied and confident by the end of the day and decided to invite her by, on another day too. I've got to admit, we loved her company. And we all agreed that the student all-rounder's award has been certainly a well-deserved one.
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