27 Facts about Chaminda Vaas – The greatest Sri Lankan pace bowler

Chaminda Vaas was the pioneer of pace and swing bowling in Sri Lankan. He rose up the ranks as soon as he made his international debut. He spearheaded the Sri Lankan bowling attack for almost 15 years. A true legend of the game, Chaminda Vaas, continues to inspire the league of new generation bowlers not just in Sri Lanka but across the globe. Here are 27 most amazing facts, about the man born on January 27, Chaminda Vaas – the greatest Sri Lankan pace bowler:

1. Early Life

Chaminda Vaas was born on 17 January 1974 at Matumagala in Sri Lanka. Born into a Catholic family, Vaas was a highly spiritual person since his childhood. He made an early start to his cricket career and made his First-Class debut at the bare age of 16. He is a graduate of the Prestigious Boy’s School in Colombo,

2. Towards Priesthood

As a young kid, Chaminda Vaas had given serious thought of becoming a priest. He admitted that he wished to be a priest, but it was God’s decision to make him play cricket. Vaas is a Roman Catholic who always prayed before playing any match.

3. The Big Name

Chaminda Vaas is known to have the biggest name in the Cricket World. According to Bill Frindall, scorer and statistician for BBC Radio’s Test Match Special, Chaminda is actually his penultimate given name, therefore, his initials should read WPUJC. Warnakulasuriya Patabendige Ushantha Joseph Chaminda Vaas is his full name. However, his name has 52 characters, which is exceeded by other Sri Lankan players like Hemantha Wickramaratne and Sachithra Senanayake.

4. The Nick Name

Well, the big name certainly didn’t go well with most of his fans who couldn’t remember it properly. Vaas was fondly nicknamed as Vasy.

5. First Class Debut

Vaas made his first-class debut for Colts Cricket Club against Galle Cricket Club in December 1990 aged just 16 in 1990-91 season. Having played just 13 matches, he was soon called to the national side in 1994.

6. Playing Style

Vaas is known for swinging and seaming the ball with skill, and his trademark delivery was the late indipper. His disguised offcutter was yet another ball that often fetched him wickets, and he also added reverse-swing to his armoury, a skill that made him a consistent wicket-taker even on belter subcontinental pitches.

7. ODI Debut

Chaminda Vaas made his ODI debut against India at Rajkot in 1994. He picked up the wicket of Navjot Singh Sidhu, the centurion in the match. He ended up with figures of 1/40 in his 8 overs, in a match that India won by 8 runs.

8. Wicketless Test Debut

Having the reputation of swinging the ball both ways, Vaas was drafted into the Test team for series against Pakistan in 1994. He made his debut against Pakistan at Kandy and went wicketless in the match.

9. Quick Success

Soon he picked up two four-wicket hauls against Zimbabwe in the home series to be a fixed member in the side. The big moment arrived when he made a great impact guiding Sri Lanka to their maiden Test Match away victory against New Zealand at Napier, taking 5–47 & 5–43 and scoring 33 & 36 and being nominated Man of the Match.

10. Two Hat-tricks to his name

Chaminda Vaas has two hat-tricks to his name in ODI cricket. His first hat-trick came against Zimbabwe and he repeated this feat against Bangladesh during the ICC World Cup in 2003.

11. The Best-Ever ODI bowling figures

Chaminda Vaas picked up 8/19 against Zimbabwe in 2001, as Zimbabwe bundled out for a paltry 38. This remains to be the best bowling figure in the history of ODI cricket.

12. A perfect birthday gift?

Incidentally, the day when Vaas picked up 8/19, 8 December 2001, was his wife’s birthday. His wife asked him to pick 7 wickets and finish the match soon to spend time with her. Vaas responded with even better figures to finish the match quite early with 8 wickets to his kitty.

13. 200^th Wicket: To be or not to be?

Chaminda Vaas had the habit of maintaining a diary during his playing days in which he noted the wickets he took. While his tally reached the 200 mark and players congratulated him in the dressing room, the statistician informed him that he was still on 196. Vaas had to pick 4 more wickets to reach the milestone.

14. Whitewashing the Windies

In 2001–02, he took 26 wickets in a series win against the West Indies. This included one match-haul of 14 wickets, a feat only achieved by two fast bowlers in the subcontinent, the other being Imran Khan. Sri Lanka won the series 3-0.

15. Leading Wicket Taker at the World Cup

Vaas picked up 23 wickets in the 2003 ICC World Cup and ended the tournament as the leading wicket-taker. This included a best of 6–25 against Bangladesh, where Vaas also took a hat-trick with the first three deliveries of the Bangladesh innings.

16. Sachin is the Bunny!

Vaas has had the privilege of dismissing the batting legend Sachin Tendulkar on 9 occasions, the most by any bowler in world cricket.

17. And so are Gayle and Gibbs

Chaminda Vaas has dismissed both Herschelle Gibbs and Chris Gayle for ducks 7 times in International cricket. No other bowler has dismissed a single batsman for more ducks in International Cricket. Gibbs’s average against Vaas is 2.33 and that of Gayle is 6.50

18. Successful County Stint

Vaas initially played for Middlesex before signing up for Northamptonshire. During the 2011 season, he was named as the Player of the Series, having topped the bowling averages by taking 70 first class wickets at an average of 21.44 apiece and also scoring 403 runs at an average of 26.9.

19. One Match Captain

Chaminda Vaas led the Sri Lankan side in just one ODI. The match was played at the WACA (Perth) against Australia. Having won the toss, he elected to bat and Sri Lanka posted 233/8 which the Aussies chased down with 6 wickets to spare.

20. 400^th Wicket in his Last ODI

During his last ODI, Vaas dismissed Yuvraj Singh to pick up his 400^th scalp in ODI cricket. He became the second Sri Lankan bowler, after Muttiah Muralitharan to accomplish this feat. He became the 4^th bowler in the history of the game to take 400 wickets, after Wasim Akram, Muralitharan and Waqar Younis.

21. The Test Ton!

On 26 June 2007 at Colombo, Vaas made his maiden test century against Bangladesh when he scored 100* in a total of 577–6 declared. This occurred in his 97th Test Match, which at the time was a record for the most number of Tests before scoring a maiden century (since overtaken by Anil Kumble).

22. Teams he has played for

Although Vaas ended his career as T20 cricket came into existence, he still did play for quite a few teams in his career. The teams that he has played for during his illustrious career are: Sri Lanka, Asia XI, Basnahira North, Colts Cricket Club, Deccan Chargers, Hampshire, Marylebone Cricket Club, Middlesex, Northamptonshire, and Worcestershire.

23. IPL Career – Wicket on the First Ball

The only T20 league that Vaas featured in was the Indian Premier League. He represented the Deccan Chargers in the IPL. During the 2010 edition of the IPL, Chaminda Vaas dismissed Manoj Tiwary on the first ball of the tournament.

24. Retirement from all forms of the game

Vaas retired from all international cricket on 27 August 2008 with the ODI against India and ended the fourteen-year great service in cricket.

25. Backup Player in 2011

Vaas retired in 2008, but was still called up as a backup player during the finals of the ICC World Cup 2011 against India. Vaas didn’t play the match.

26. Coaching Assignments

Vaas has had a good career as a bowling consultant and bowling coach. During New Zealand’s tour to Sri Lanka in 2012, he was named as bowling consultant for New Zealand Team. The following year he took up the bowling coach role of Sri Lankan team. Recently, he was named as the bowling coach for the Ireland Team for the ICC World T20 2016 to be held in India. He is also slated to be the coach of one of the five franchise teams in the inaugural Pakistan Super League (PSL).

27. Honors

In 2004 Chaminda Vaas gained international recognition when he was selected for the World Test and one-day XI at the inaugural ICC Awards. He was once again selected for the World Test XI at the 2005 awards.