‘Being dropped so often helped my career’
Rangana Herath enters his farewell Test telling Nick Hoult how he took his last chance in 2009
In 2009, Rangana Herath was playing league cricket in Stoke-on-trent and thinking his international career was over. Now, nine years and 394 Test wickets later, he is preparing for his valedictory Test in Galle tomorrow – living proof that you must never give up on your dreams. Short, thicker around the middle than any strength-andconditioning coach would want, and with two dodgy knees, Herath is an unlikely phenomenon. Now 40, he is the qualified bank teller who has cashed in to the tune of 430 career Test wickets, an embodiment of cricket’s pretwenty20 era. He is the last active Test player who played in the 1990s, a bowler who counted two giants of that era, Steve Waugh and Shane Warne, among his victims on his debut in 1999.
He is not a mystery spinner like Muttiah Muralitharan, the man who kept him out of the team for a decade. By his own admission he has only two deliveries: his stock ball that turns away from the right-hander and an arm ball that skids on. Apart from that, he relies on changes of pace and trajectory, angles on the crease and sheer cricketing nous to take wickets.
It works. England must not underestimate this smiling middle-aged man – particularly not in Galle, as it is his stage. He has 99 wickets at the ground, and Paul Farbrace knows how dangerous he will be. “If he played every Test in Galle he would have 2,000 Test wickets,” says Farbrace, whose job is to try to help England keep Herath out this week.
It has been quite a journey. Herath played 14 Tests in 10 years before 2009, failing to make a mark and fading into the obscurity of league cricket in England. But then, in July 2009, Muralitharan hurt a knee in the nets preparing for a Test against Pakistan in Galle and Sri Lanka, then coached by Trevor Bayliss and Farbrace, needed a replacement fast.
At the time, Herath was struggling to take wickets for Moddershall in the South Cheshire League. Unsurprisingly, he found early-season, damp northern English pitches not to his liking. But he took the call from Kumar Sangakkara, then Sri Lanka captain, scrounged a lift to Heathrow and made it to Colombo just in time to drive to Galle and make his Test return.
“On that flight from Heathrow to Colombo I thought, ‘This is going to be interesting, as it looks like my last chance’. So I had to take it,” he says, as we sit down to chat in his apartment in Colombo. “The experience of being dropped for 10 years helped me. I got a lot of information and knowledge about my game. I am not saying you have to fail – but if you fail, you learn lots to improve your skills and prepare mentally. Until now I just keep going.”
We are chatting just hours after Herath has announced he will retire after the Galle Test. In the bare, sparse apartment he uses as a bolt-hole while training in Colombo, Herath talks over his career wearing a shirt with the logo of the bank he still works for, his name and Test record used to attract investors.
The second half of his career has been remarkable. In 78
Tests since his recall, he has 394 wickets at an average of 26.90.
Only James
Anderson (438) has taken more in the same period.
Anderson, a fast bowler whose body might be expected to carry more wear and tear than a spinner’s, is vowing to carry on. So why is Herath finishing now, especially given how popular he is with the Sri Lankan public, who warm to his cheery demeanour and decidedly unflashy lifestyle?
“It is the right time. I am carrying injuries; both my knees have been operated on. And there are a few guys waiting behind me, so they will get their opportunity. It will be sad. I started at Galle, so I am planning to finish there. I would be lying if I said it was not sad,” he says.
Farbrace describes Herath as the most organised cricketer he has ever met, his bank training setting him apart. “He always dresses smartly, always has pens in his pocket. When we were on a flight and they came round with the landing cards, the lads would always be up looking for pens. We just used to ask Rangana and he would get one out of his top pocket and pass them down the aisle.” Herath laughs at this, but does not disagree. His bowling matches that methodical mind. There is no doosra or carrom ball, just orthodox left-arm finger spin. When he bowls around the wicket, his low arm skids the ball on – and the lack of bounce in Sri Lanka, particularly in Galle, makes it hard for batsmen to use any leverage to hit him. He bowls at the stumps, bringing bowled and lbw into play at all times.
Changes of pace are impossible to pick up from the hand. He grips the ball tighter for more turn, looser for the one that straightens. When he bowls wide of the crease batsmen think they can hit him through the off side, but if he turns the ball he beats the outside edge, or the inside edge if he skids it on.
“Luckily I have a very good, strong action. Not perfect. But
‘I would be lying if I said it was not sad, but it is the right time to go. Guys are waiting behind me’
technically, when you have a good, strong action you have something to fall back on,” he says.
“I have changed some things, like my run-up, and I have built up my variations, like arm balls and variations of pace. Most of the time I believe that when I bowl the stock ball, it is normal left-arm leg-spin.
“If you take percentage-wise my whole career, 70 to 80 per cent are wickets with my stock ball. In my case, there is no secret to spin bowling.”
Sri Lanka were World Cup holders when Herath made his debut in September 1999. There was no T20, no Indian Premier League or day-night Test cricket, and Sri Lankan players like him relied on jobs with banks to help fund their cricket.
Herath joined Sampath Bank, for whom he still works in the marketing division.
“I joined the bank from 2000 and the financial support was essential. I came from an out station that is 100km away from Colombo. You need to find a place to live, you have to live alone. The bank helped me a lot. I started in the HR division, then the cardcentre division and now I am working for marketing.
“While playing international cricket, I did not work for the bank much. But once I got dropped, I always used to go back to the bank and work.”
He believes cricket is much better now than when he started. “Definitely. There have been so many changes. The game is so much faster. You see more talented players now because of T20 and ODIS.”
Any advice for Moeen Ali and Adil Rashid, two England bowlers who will have huge respect for Herath? For once the nice guy clams up, not wanting to give anything away.
“They have been here almost a month. I am sure they have learnt a lot of things. They have learnt the secret. I don’t have to tell them. They are doing well, especially Moeen Ali. He gets a lot of bounce with his orthodox action, which is very good. He has already proved he is a top-class spin bowler. The Sri Lanka pitches will suit him.”
What is his last wish? A hundredth Test wicket in Galle would be a fitting farewell. But he will want more. “Winning. That is more satisfying than anything else.” England have been warned.