ThePapare catches up with ‘Captain Marvel’ himself Niroshan Dickwella

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Category: Features

Published on Saturday, 18 February 2012 13:35

Written by Ameen Mohamed

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The Papare.com spoke to Niroshan Dickwella, the Trinity Skipper and Sri Lanka U19 Player about his route to success in the cricketing field as well as an insight to the Trinity team.

Niroshan Dickwella, better known as ’Niro’ is a familiar name in the schools cricketing arena, mainly due to being one of the most talented and successful cricketers in the current schools cricketing arena. He is currently the captain of the Trinity College cricket team, and has been recognized by his Alma Mater which awarded him the prestigious ‘Trinity Lion’ which is given to the sportsmen who have done an enormous service to the college. Famous personalities like Lakshman Kadirgamar, Duncan White and Kumar Sangakkara are a few of the past Lionsman. This itself speaks of the level of quality needed to receive this prestigious award. As tenure as Captain of the Trinity Side he has led his team to 8 outright wins, scored 844 runs and scored a double ton.  He has also scored over 1000 runs in the 2011 cricket season, and is also a very good wicketkeeper. His performances contributed to him being called up to open the batting and to keep wickets for the Sri Lanka U 19 team, where he scored 57 runs in a match against the Indian U 19 team.

How did you start your cricketing career?

“I started my cricketing career in Grade 4 where I started a coaching class. Bernard Perera and Harold Ranasinghe were my first coaches. Since then, I played U-13, U-15, U-17 and U-19 right throughout for Trinity College.

What would you consider to be the most memorable moment in your cricketing career?

“The most memorable in my cricketing career would be scoring my first Double Century .” He went on to score 212 against Mahinda College Galle and led Trinity College to their 7th outright victory.

What do you consider to be the driving force behind the player you are?

“My Parents who have been very supportive right throughout, my coach Sampath Perera who has helped me grow as a player and the Master in Charge of Trinity College Cricket Vishnuwarthan Anandhan.”

What has playing for the Sri Lanka U19 Team given to you as a player?

“Playing for the Sri Lankan U19 team was a great experience, and helped me grow and improve as a cricketer. It also has helped me in my captaincy.”

Scoring 1000 runs in a season isn’t an easy task, in your opinion, what is the hardest thing to do as a batsman?

He said, as a batsman, the hardest thing is probably to score runs, and most importantly being consistent in scoring them. A good batsman will always be consistent.

How do you cope being the Captain, wicket keeper and the highest run scorer?

“It is tiring as well as tough, with a lot of responsibility, but the players give a lot of support to make my job easier as well.”

Who is your role model in the cricketing arena?

“If I had to decide on a role model, it would have to be Kumar Sangakkara who is an Alumni of Trinity College, because he too is a wicket keeper batsman and one of the most respected crickets in the world.”

What were your targets for yourself as an individual and the Trinity team as a whole?

“As an individual target, I want to score 1000 runs this season as well, and play for the U19 Sri Lanka Cricket team. The team target is to be considered the ‘Best’ side this season.”

What is the secret to success of the Trinity College cricket teams in the past couple of years?

“Well, we make sure we work on ourselves as individuals, and first improve individually as crickets, then combine as a team and play together, to achieve our various goals. The coaches helped us a lot right throughout the season, and due credit should be given to them as well.”

What are your future goals?

“My future goal is to be a professional cricketer.”

What is it like to have a former skipper (Akila Jayasundara) in the team?

“He really helps me a lot, both of us discuss about the decisions to be made. Since Akila is in the slips communication is also very easy and his experience from the previous year is invaluable. It makes my task a lot easier.”

The big match is coming up, how are your preparations as a team? And what do you have to say about it?

“We are hoping to win the big match. The Ananda match which we played last week wasn’t a good enough performance. We have 4 more matches to go so we will definitely try playing better from the next match and get good performances right throughout.”

In conclusion he stated “I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone, my parents, the team, coaches, the master in charge and everyone else who has contributed to nurturing me as a player and helping the Trinity team to success.”

The Papare.com would like to thank Niroshan Dickwella for his time offered to us and wish him all the best in his future endeavours.

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