Leggie Prasanna finding his feet after life’s harsh turn
AHMEDABAD: Cooling down after batting in the nets, Seekkuge Prasanna sits erect on the chair. The firm handshake provides proof of his army background.
The leg-spinner is the second player from the Sri Lankan army, after mentor and fellow spinner Ajantha Mendis, to represent his national side.
It was more job security than keenness to play cricket that prompted Prasanna to enlist as an 18-years-old in 2003. He hails from Balpitiya in southern Sri Lanka where fishing is the primary source of income, but the 2004 tsunami destroyed all his family property.
The Army job ensured a steady income, and the calamity motivated him to pursue the game. “Thankfully my family was safe and we had started to rebuild again. I had started to play well in the Army and gradually made the first team in 2006,” says the 29-year-old after a long pause.
It was from here that he built a partnership with Mendis that made them the most feared attack in the Sri Lankan domestic circuit. “Mendis was like a mentor to me, we always used to pick the bulk of the wickets bowling continuously at either ends,” says Prasanna.
Having struggled to speak in English, he asks teammate Ashan Priyaranjan to translate from Sinhalese.
It was a pround moment for Prasanna when he made his Sri Lanka debut in 2011 as Mendis also played that game. “It helped calm nerves and get three wickets against Australia.”
Priyaranjan then speaks about the duo “who hunt in a pack” in first class matches. “There has not been such a potent attack in a long time in Sri Lanka. All teams were puzzled how to play them, you either get confused with the carrom ball or the conventional leg breaks got you. It will be five wickets apiece for them or six for Mendis and four for Prasanna.”
A staff seargant, Prasanna wants to emulate Mendis in the Army too. “I hope to be promoted as an officer, if I perform well in this series it could happen,” he says. Thursday’s three wickets won’t do any harm.