By Kartik Kannan
If ever the SLC(Sri Lankar Cricket) Board get down to honouring one of their players with a cricketing terminology, they’d be happy to replace the familiar “Howzzat” with “How-Vaas-Zaat”, given the yeoman contribution the Lankan pacer has unflinchingly given Sri Lankan cricket over the last 15 years.
Chaminda Vaas is a first of his kind bolwer for Sri Lanka, given that before his time, there was no pace bowler of repute who drew international attention. You had a Wickramasinghe, a Rumesh Ratnayeke, and a Greame Labrooy whose names you could rattle of as friendly bowlers who on their day could mildly trouble the batsmen. Sri Lanka was never known to produce fast bowlers traditionally until Chaminda Vaas showed that pace and swing bowling are two different tenets of the same religion which need to be used depending on the conditions that were presented to bowlers.
From the late 80’s the only buzz Sri Lanka had about its bowlers were always around its spinners who managed to hog attention from Don Anurasiri to Warnaweera, Kalpage and then to Murali, Dharmasena, Upul Chandana and now Mendis. In a nation that largely has spin friendly pitches and with so much attention was on spin bowling, Chaminda Vaas has managed to hold forte and get noticed for his cricketing acumen with the ball.
When he started off, Vaas was a military medium pace bowler who could bowl stump-to-stump line with a you-miss-I-hit philosophy. But soon he learnt the tricks of the trade and had a vicious in coming delivery to the right hander and started concentrating on swing. Vaas’ claim to fame came against the Kiwis in the 95 test series in New Zealand, where he bowled Sri Lanka to their first overseas victory with a rich 10 wicket haul on a Greenish pitch at Napier. He soon became the most penetrative bowler Sri Lanka ever produced at that time. More interestingly Vaas was largely responsible for creating the inroads into the opposition batting order, which opened the sluice gates for the Lankan spinners to weave a web of deceit strangulating the opposition. Just as McGrath put a foot in the door for Warne to attack, Vaas too did the same for Sri Lanka, allowing Murali to run riot by being a support bowler and yet creating a niche for oneself is a tough task, given the unresponsive nature of the sub-continental pitches, the humidity and the batsman friendly conditions.
From a single vicious inswinger, added to the menu over the years, are the reverse swing deliveries, the away going delivery, the disguised slower one in the form of an offcutter. With so many variations, Vaas has become an invaluable asset to the side in terms of getting early wickets and then coming back in the slog overs to curtail the runs. Why Vaas’s career makes interesting reading is because of his perseverance and unstinted effort to make it to the top. There have been days where Vaas’ bowling has been torn to shreds and made to look pedestrian, but the way he comes back at the batsmen have been admirable. Vaas was not really in the thick of wickets during the seasons of ‘98, ‘99 and 2000, but he persevered and came back with a bang in 2001, where he took 58 wickets which was more than what he had taken in the last three years and 23 of them came in a series against the West Indies where Lara literally tore the Sri Lankan attack. To come back strongly is one thing, but to come back with a bang against the likes of Lara and Chanderpaul at the height of their careers is another, and that makes Chaminda Vaas an unsung hero.
In one day cricket Vaas operates with alacrity, and for a frontline bowler who bowls in the initial 15 overs and the last 10, his economy of rate of 4.05 in the subcontinent takes the cake. Very few bowlers have such an economy rate in the subcontinent after playing 200 one day matches. To simply put it, the Sri Lankan cricket fan would have loved being a spectator to Vaas’s gladiatorial conquests, and wouldn’t mind shouting How-Vaas-Zat!
