The drought-breaker
Sri Lankan all-rounder a catalyst
WITH just seven wins in three seasons — and without a victory in eight rounds this summer — the outside perception that Waurn Ponds-Deakin Cricket Club was making up the numbers was looking water tight.
The Eagles needed a spark. In Round 9, Sri Lankan-born Mayuka Perera provided it.
He may later describe it as “just one of those days”, but it was anything but.
After he made 130 and took five wickets, Waurn Ponds had its maiden win.
“That game was just my kind of day,” he laughs.
“There are days like that, I guess, but sometimes I don’t even get a bowl in the field. It was just one of those days.”
Perera is on a mission to change perceptions and concedes it’s “been tough at stages”.
“Once the players get to know the game and how to play the game, that is when we improve,” he said.
“It can be challenging, but that’s cricket.”
Perera’s own journey hasn’t always been plain sailing.
In Sri Lanka he didn’t play for a club, instead opting to play school cricket under the captaincy of now Sri Lankan limited-overs skipper Dinesh Chandimal.
He made the big move to Australia in early 2015 to complete his university studies, with the support of his mother and uncle. And after an afternoon of study, peering out a classroom window he spotted Jarvis Oval just down the hill of the Waurn Ponds campus.
Almost 1200 runs have flowed since.
“We are still a growing team,” Perera said.
“We need myself, Darcy (Southern) and the other senior players to teach the other players. Most of the guys here haven’t played cricket all their life, they have played footy in all the seasons.
“It’s tough, but interesting at the same time.”
Waurn Ponds has been largely anonymous over the past three seasons, which Perera describes as “a bit of a chal- lenge”. But on the brink of a second win against Corio today, Perera is optimistic about the future.
“It’s not all about just playing the game, it’s about strat- egy and bowling according to the field and batting is a very thinking game,” Perera said.
“It’s a bit of a mental chess game that gradually everyone is learning.”