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Nuwan Kalpage and Tarique Jeffrey excel

Two popular Sri Lankan cricketers Nuwan Kalpage and Tarique Jeffrey are making a name for themselves in club cricket here in Melbourne after clinching the Best Batsman and Best Bowler's awards respectively in the 'A' grade of the popular YCW Cricket Tournament which concluded for the 1998/99 season recently.

Twenty-seven-year-old Nuwan who captained St. Anthony's, Kandy and represented Tamil Union CC in Sri Lanka turned out for Cavaliers CC along with Tarique, a former Isipatana and Moors SC all-rounder.

Nuwan who is the brother of Sri Lanka's Test cricketer Ruwan Kalpage, scored 383 runs from 11 innings to end with an average of 47.88 and included four half-centuries, the highest being 97 not out, which was one of the three unbeaten innings he had against his name. Playing in his third consecutive season here, Nuwan who is looking forward to graduate in July after undergoing a Bachelors Degree in Commerce Management at the Monash University, also fared admirably with the ball, claiming 22 wickets with his off-spin bowling and averaged 11.18 to finish third best in the 'A' Grade competition.

He also represented Hyatt CC in the Victoria Turf Cricket Association Turf One competition as captain cum coach and accumulated over 300 runs and over 25 wickets. He also had former St. Servatius, Matara and Bloomflield CC cricketer Ruchira Palliyaguru as a Hyatt CC teammate. Nuwan had also represented Moorabin CC in sub-district tourneys before and scored tons of runs.

Meanwhile, twenty-six-year-old Tarique Jeffrey playing in only his second season here in Melbourne, fared brilliantly with the ball on both occasions and won the 'A' grade Best Bowler's award for the second year in succession with 26 scalps from 12 games and averaged an amazing 9.84. His best figures was 4 for 12 against Moratuwa CC. The leg-spinner had split a webbing during the beginning of the season but recovered to outbeat other fine Lankan bowlers in Lalithamanne Fernando and Nuwan.

Tarique who also represents Coomoora CC in the Turf One competition of the Dandenong District Cricket Association (DDCA) tournament played on Saturdays and over two days was instrumental in guiding his side to emerge champions with a solid all-round performance. In the Grand-Final, despite suffering a spinal injury, he claimed 5 for 66 with his deadly leg-spinners to bowl out defending champions and favourites North Dandenong for 249 and scored a patient 32 in his side's imposing 250 for 4 which enabled them to emerge worthy champions. Another two Sri Lankans who played alongside Tarqiue for Coomoora CC were former S. Thomas', Gurutalawa player Jude Fernando who is recognised as solid opening batsman and former Sri Jayawardanepura, Kotte captain and Old Antonians CC cricketer Vijayananda Perera who was also in the United Arab Emirates World Cup squad in 1996.

Tarique who stroked a gallant and stylish 109 not out during his side's 235 and bagged 6 for 35 in the semi-final match against Bewrick CC's score of 122 had claimed five wickets and over in an innings on three occasions.

Tarique who had claimed 38 wickets and scored 480 runs for the season for Coomoora CC is strongly placed to win the coveted DDCA Best Player of the season award for the 1998/99 season.

He was recognised for his outstanding performance and selected to represent the DDCA XI against a strong Dandenong District XI side recently which featured Australian cap Ian Harvey and Victoria Shefield Shield player Maddie Lawrence. Once again Tarique came off with a blistering inninigs of 55 off just 53 balls which contained nine fours and a six and earned him the Man-of-the- Match award.

Tarique is considering playing cricket in England this summer which begins next month and would return in September to continue playing cricket here in Melbourne which he enjoys.

As a result of the outstanding performances by players as Nuwan and Tarique, many clubs are showing interest in ``importing'' more players from Sri Lanka for the forthcoming season which kicks off in October.