Hasaranga is a great package for franchise cricket - B-Love head coach

• First-class cricket essential to have strong basics

By Sa’adi Thawfeeq

B-Love Kandy’s head coach and former Pakistan leg-spinner Mushtaq Ahmed paid a big compliment to his team captain Wanindu Hasaranga describing him as a great package for franchise cricket.

Under Hasaranga’s inspirational leadership and contributions to the team with both bat and ball, B-Love Kandy find themselves within touching distance of the Lanka Premier League (LPL) title after dethroning three-times holders Jaffna Kings in the Eliminator played at the R. Premadasa Stadium on Thursday. They meet Gall Titans in Qualifier 2 today for a place in Sunday’s final. Dambulla Aura have already entered the finals having won Qualifier 1.

“Hasaranga is a good three-in-one cricketer. He can bat, bowl and field and his attitude is great,” said Mushtaq. “He is a good inspiration for the other cricketers and being a leader you’ve got to have that body language. We do discuss spin bowling, the angles of spin bowling, field positions because you attack with the fielders, not with the ball. He is very street smart. In this type of cricket you’ve got to be more proactive than the opposition.”

“The way he is batting now he can take the game away from the opposition in a couple of overs. That’s a good thing to have and obviously being a leg-spinner he is a wicket-taking bowler. Overall, he is a great package for franchise cricket, for us B-Love Kandy and for Sri Lanka cricket.”

Hasaranga is the current holder of the Green Cap being the leading wicket-taker of the tournament with 17 scalps. He is also the third highest run-getter with 231 runs and has the best strike rate of the tournament 197.43.

In the crucial Eliminator, Hasaranga destroyed the Jaffna batting with a dominant bowling performance finishing with 6/9 – his best performance in T20 cricket as well as the best figures in the LPL. Prior to that performance he had produced a stunning all-round display (52* and 3/9) to beat Jaffna in a league fixture and followed it up with a fabulous all-round exhibition scoring 64 and capturing 4/17 against Galle Titans.

Led by Hasaranga, spin has played a leading part in the tournament and Mushtaq said that he was very impressed with the spinners that he has seen.  

“Every team you have good spinners. Players are sitting out and they are not getting a chance, even the fast bowlers. Sri Lanka are sitting in a good position, to be honest. I was talking to one of my Pakistani team mates Wasim Akram and he said that Sri Lanka has got very good fast bowlers and spinners. Every team you see there are 2-3 good leg-spinners and mystery spinners. The left-arm spinner for Jaffna (Dunith Wellalage) he has great temperament. That guy can play, he can bat and he’s got great awareness of the game.” “From my experience of doing a lot of leagues LPL is actually helping the young local cricketers. When they are sitting and spending time with players like David Miller, Shoaib Malik, Babar Azam and all those big names like (Angelo) Mathews or (Dinesh) Chandimal or Hasaranga, they will believe in themselves that they can play international cricket and execute their talent very well. This league is very important. Yes, Sri Lanka has very good spinners. My advice to the local coaches is to do the right things right now with the young spinner. Do the actions right and if you can do that, the next 15 years they don’t have to think of how to get wickets.”

On a cautious note Mushtaq said for a cricketer to improve his game he must play first-class cricket.  

“If you want to improve your game for the next 15-20 years you’ve got to play first-class cricket. First-class cricket makes your basics strong, your processes become better. Why I am saying this is because the nations that are numbers 1, 2 and 3 in the ICC rankings have a better first-class system than other countries. That’s the difference. That’s why they stay in the first three. Whatever country that wants to improve its cricket and talent, first-class cricket is the key.”

Mushtaq said that Sri Lanka has very good talent, but when they play T20 cricket they sometimes get fast tracked. Therefore to have strong basics they will have to learn from playing first-class cricket at a young age.