Along with a friend, Pradeep Nishantha, a coach, was trying to find the home of Pathum Nissanka. He had heard about the batting talent of Nissanka, wanted to draft him at a Columbo school, but was finding it impossible to locate the small house. Nissanka’s house was one of the government-built homes for people affected by the tsunami.
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Eventually, they would make a call to Nissanka’s father and ask him to come to the famous temple Kalutara bodiya in the region.
That temple was not only well known in the area but that’s where Nissanka’s mother sold flowers to devotees. The father was the ground boy of Kalutara Esplanade, a cricket ground, watering the pitches and his desire to make his son play cricket. The family was poor, and going to Colombo – as that’s where a cricketing futures are made – was a dream too far to bridge.
Until Nishantha came calling.
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“Not too sure whether any other child has signed his admission papers at Kalutara bodiya. This is the greatest blessing you can get. You will have a bright future,” Pradeep tells The Island newspaper that he told a young Pathum Nissanka.
Soon there were other financial troubles, in meeting the living expenses in Colombo. Nishantha sought the help of the friend Nilantha who had accompanied him that day to the temple to sign up the kid. Nilantha, an employee at Jayaratne Florists coaxed his employers to pay a monthly allowance. So happy were they at Nissanka’s progress that when he made it to a tour of West Indies, the Island reported that they gifted him 250000 rs as allowance. On his Test debut there, he would hit a hundred.
All that goodwill has enabled Nissanka to develop his career. And at Sydney on Saturday, he stunned England with a knock reminiscent of Kaluwitharana. Similarly compact in stature and shot production, he pulled, upper cut, slog-swept his way to a fine 65.
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Just off the second ball of the game, he had swung Ben Stokes over backward squareleg boundary. Then off the final ball of the third over, when the fastest bowler at the world cup Mark Wood banged one in short outside off, Nissanka stirred. Both his feet were in the air even as he arched back to upper cut it over third man boundary.
Then Nissanka flicked Chris Woakes over a startled Harry Brook at deep square-leg for a six. The shot had seemed like a gentle flat flick that Brook had run in but to his surprise it kept flying over.
Jos Buttler tried spin to stop him. No luck. Down he went on his knee to deposit Liam Livingstone in the final ball of the 7th over long-on. But the wickets suddenly started to fall and he started to slow down a touch to see if he can lead a revival. In the 16th over, he went down the track to Adil Rashid but couldn’t clear long-on.
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For a while, he had made England fear they would be chasing 175 or thereabouts. Befittingly his name means ‘hope’ in Sinhala as he was not just Sri Lanka’s but Australia’s hope of making it to the semis.
