By M Naushad Amit
Young Ruvindu Gunasekera (19) is following in the footsteps of his father, Niron Gunasekera, who played for Tamil Union in the 1980s. But Ruvindu’s accomplishment is somewhat difference to what his father would have even dreamt of. Ruvindu has the rare distinction of representing Canada in the Under-19 Youth World Cup held in New Zealand in 2009 and is on the verge of representing the country in the upcoming ICC Cricket World Cup.
Ruvindu who is an undergraduate at the University of Toronto interrupted his academic career briefly to concentrate on his cricket and earn a call to the final 15 of the Canadian cricket team. With that aim on his mind he returned to his country of origin, Sri Lanka, to brush up his talents. The stylish left-hander and occasional leg-spinner made five first-class appearances for Chilaw Marians during the 2009/10 Premier season and this time he represents Badureliya Cricket Club. Ruvindu is rated 15th among the batsmen in the competition and above him are seven of Sri Lanka’s prospective world cup players. In five premier limited over matches he has piled up 171 runs with an average of 34.
“Because of my cricket my father started a voluntary based under-15 cricket academy in Toronto. I was just 9 years then and there was no properly organised school cricket structure in Canada. In the very next year we managed to win the under-15 Toronto and district cricket championship and I became an integral part of the team. We switched to the under-19 league since all my team members were older than me. In the meantime I started playing in senior level cricket in Toronto and was getting into good form. At the age of eleven I managed to represent the Canadian under-15 team. When I was just 15 I managed to achieve my first century at Canadian Elite level which is the senior club competition there,” he recalled.
Ruvindu made his ODI debut in July 2008 against Bermuda at the age of 16. An important batsman for Canada, he scored 207 runs at the 2010 under-19 World Cup qualifiers, including two half-centuries, and helped them qualify for the main event. His career changed for good in 2007 when he became the best batsman in the ICC Americas under-19 cricket cup. This achievement helped Ruvindu to earn the call to the national squad of Canada.
“My father was behind me right throughout my career. My father became my personal trainer subsequently and we started working very hard. It paid dividends to help me to piles of runs in the elite cricket in Canada. In 2009 I represented Canada in the under-19 World Cup in New Zealand but couldn’t make a significant impact as I did in the qualifiers. Then I requested permission from my parents to temporally halt my university education to play club cricket in Sri Lanka. I know the level of cricket in Sri Lanka is so professional that by playing here it could help me reach greater heights in cricket,” he stated before returning to Canada to join the national squad.
“I still remember the way I started playing cricket in my early childhood. I was not even attending kindergarten when I cherished to hold my father’s cricketing equipment, put-on his playing kit and gear and dreamt of becoming a cricketer. My father bought all my cricketing gear when I was just seven. He used to take me to the Soysa Park in Moratuwa when I was studying at Prince of Wales’ College. With him it was all technical training of basic cricketing skills and we used to practise together for long hours. This habit of training continued even after we migrated to Canada in 2001.
“I returned to Sri Lanka in 2005 to play under-15 at school level and play for a division II club. Despite performing well I was unlucky not to make it into the teams due to unknown reasons. My parents were so disappointed and brought me back to Canada but kept on supporting and encouraging me till now. Their blessings have brought me this far and I believe that I could reach greater heights in cricket,” the youngster beamed.
Ruvindu Gunasekera is one of the four Sri Lankans to be selected to the provisional squad of 30 players to represent Canada in the forthcoming ICC CWC 2011. Trevin Bastiampillai, Rumesh David and Zameer Zahir are other Sri Lankans but Ruvindu is the youngest of all