Lahiru Kumara enumerates interesting hockey story that made him take up cricket

Although 19-year-old Lahiru Kumara made his Test debut for Sri Lanka in their tour of Zimbabwe, he would become a sensation only after his exploits against South Africa in the second Test match of the series where he was privy to six of the South African wickets that fell.

While all of this is certainly impressive for one and all to understand, Kumara would have never made it onto a cricket field if not for the accident he suffered while playing hockey for his high school team. Speaking to journalists at the end of the first day’s play, Kumara said that he had been struck in the neck with a hockey stick, an incident that had provoked his mother to get rid of all the hockey equipment in their house.

However, after taking up cricket, he was picked for the junior sides and toured overseas as well. “One day I was playing a hockey game for my school and got hit in the neck by the hockey stick. I was in the hospital and by the time I returned home, my mom had thrown out all the hockey equipment. That’s the end of my hockey dream and then I randomly started playing cricket. Eventually, I got picked for the school team. Then I went onto to tour Malaysia with the Sri Lanka youth team and that was the real start of my cricket career,” Kumara told journalists yesterday.

In spite of the fact that the Lankans were bundled out for a paltry 110, he was quite pleased with the impressive bowling efforts. “I am pretty pleased with the effort. The pitch was outstanding and the fielders were superb too snapping up all the catches. So, really pleased with what I did today,” Kumara added.

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He concluded by stating that the wicket of Hashim Amla is the one he would treasure the most. “Hashim Amla’s wicket is the best of all the wickets because it was a very good delivery and to beat him all ends up was really sweet,” the young Sri Lankan added.