Chaminda Vaas may have achieved his best bowling figures in his Test career against the West Indies at the SSC grounds on Monday, but coach Dav Whatmore for one believes that we haven't seen the best yet.
"Performances like that don't happen by accident. We haven't seen the best of him yet," said Whatmore after Vaas had demolished the West Indies batting by ending up with the second best bowling figures by a Sri Lankan in Test cricket with 14 wickets for 191.
"I think Vaas had the ability all along, but it is only slowly coming out now. He does a lot of work which a lot of people don't see; in the weights room, on the running track, and the nets, where he rarely takes the new ball. He always works with the old ball.
"To me, there is always some sort of purpose for his training in any of those areas. The results are what we all see at the moment. Results come from hard work and not by magic. A few years ago Chaminda wasn't as focused from time to time at training, but clearly you can see that every-time we have a session, that there is always something that he needs to achieve. In doing so, he's built up a lot of hard work and lot of effort mentally as well," said Whatmore.
"When I began the Test series, my one priority was to give as much support to our no.1 bowler (Muttiah) Muralitharan," said Vaas, reflecting back on his wonderful performance where he picked up 14 wickets to steer Sri Lanka to a ten-wicket win and a historic 3-0 whitewash of a Test nation.
"But in the end, I finished with more wickets than Murali the series. The way I bowled throughout the series gave me a lot of satisfaction. My reverse swing is working to near perfection. I have a few more things to learn and add to my armoury. I think after I'd learnt to bowl reverse swing that I started to take wickets regularly," he said.
"It took me about a year to learn to bowl reverse swing. I have not mastered it yet But as a fast bowler you should get a couple of wickets with the new ball and then come back and take more wickets when the ball is old with reverse swing. I am quite happy I was able to do that in this series," Vaas, who was joint man-of-the-match at the SSC, said.
"I had lot of help from Saliya Ahangama, Champaka Ramanayake and Rumesh Ratnayake (all former Sri Lanka fast bowlers) and Whatmore. I also received a lot of support from my team mates without whose help I wouldn't have been able to get so many wickets," he said.
Muralitharan to some extent would have helped Vaas achieve those career best figures by bowling the majority of overs to West Indies star batsman Brian Lara.
"Without Murali's heavy workload it was difficult for us to achieve the results we did," said Whatmore.
"The West Indies batsmen particularly, Lara attacked Murali, which made him ineffective. That is the reason why he couldn't get as much wickets as he would have," said Vaas.
Eight of Vaas' 14 victims were out lbw, which reflected on how accurate he was in line and length. More or less, he bowled wicket to wicket not giving anything away and, the slightest attempt by the batsmen to play across the line made them a prime candidate for an lbw decision.
Having made his Test debut at the age of 20 as a left-arm fast-medium bowler Vaas had instant success when in only his fifth Test he became the first Sri Lankan bowler to take a match bag of ten wickets with 10 for 90 against New Zealand at Napier in 1995. The Test was notable for Sri Lanka recording their first overseas victory in a Test match (by 241 runs).
That Vaas had to wait another 50 Tests to record his second match bag of ten or more wickets in a Test can be put down to several factors.
What matters is that at present, he is bowling as best as at anytime during his career.
"My main ambition is to get as many wickets as possible and bring many victories to Sri Lanka," he said.
"Initially, my ambition was to get 200 Test wickets, but if I continue to bowl the way I am now, I am confident of getting to 300 wickets," said Vaas.
His present tally at the end of the West Indies series where he finished as the top wicket taker with 26 wickets, stands at 182 wickets (avg. 28.52) from 55 Tests. Only the indomitable Muralitharan is ahead of him.
© CricInfo
| Players/Umpires | Chaminda Vaas. |
| Tours | West Indies in Sri Lanka |
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