Chamara Kapugedera

Born in Kandy, Chamara Kantha Kapugedera was regarded as one of the brightest young talents to have come out of Sri Lanka in a long time. He was the first Sri Lankan national ODI cricketer to emerge from his school, the Dharmaraja College in Kandy, which is one of the leading schools in the island. He has captained all the junior school sides from the U-13 to the first XI. With the selectors willing to invest in young blood, he soon made his Test debut against England at Lord's in 2006, aged just 18. The match was not memorable for Kapugedera as he got out for a golden duck. He made his ODI debut soon after too, playing against Australia at Perth in 2006.

Kapugedera impressed everyone with a power packed innings of 38 runs from 21 balls, in the first final of the VB Series against Australia held in 2006. This innings bolstered Sri Lanka's total and ensured that Australia lost their first home final in 9 years. But a sudden dip in form, post that series ensured Kapugedera missed out on the World Cup in the Caribbean in March 2007. Despite his inconsistencies with the bat, Kapugedera was recalled to the ODI side and he began to churn out some fine performances. One such innings was the 95 he made against West Indies when Sri Lanka were 49/5 and he walked in and unleashed his full array of strokes against a strong pace attack that included Taylor and Edwards.

That innings gave him confidence and what followed was a string of consistent scores in ODIs. Just when everyone expected Kapugedera to make the transition from being an average performer to a better batsman his inconsistency came back to haunt him as he had a poor 2009. With young players like Mathews and Kandamby coming up the ranks, Kapugedera continues to be in and out of the side. A batsman from the old school, Kapugedera has a nice high backlift and presents the full face of the bat when playing forward. But a tendency to be a little sluggish with his footwork and also appearing to be a bit aloof at times has cost him dearly. This lack of discipline in his batting has led people to question his temperament, although there is no doubting his vast talent.

One of the better fielders in the Lankan side, Kapugedera mans the cover and the cover point region and is quite electric in the field. He also is a safe catcher. Kapugedera was picked up by the Chennai Super Kings to play for them in IPL 1 but after a poor show in IPL 2, he was put up on sale. However, no team came forward to purchase him despite the very low bidding price.

He pipped Thilana Kandamby for a slot in the 2011 World Cup but failed to produce performances of note. He was flown in for the 2012 Commonwealth Bank Tri-nation series in Australia as an emergency replacement for the injured Mathews and Thisara. He was also picked for the subsequent bilateral ODI series versus India. Instead of cashing in on the long rope stretched out to him, Kapugedara was guilty of flittering away the opportunities.

Tired of the Kapu conundrum, the selectors finally axed him in search of consistent players. The Kandy-born right-hander, however, continued to shine in the domestic circuit and had earned a recall in the T20 side for the 2016 World T20. His tale is another case of talent failing to marry sound temperament.

by Srivathsa