In our journey of showcasing outstanding schools’ cricketers from the current U19 division 1 tournament 2016/17, this week we take a look at the St. Joseph’s College captain, Harin Cooray who stands out as an inspirational leader, an excellent left-arm spinner and an useful left-hand batsman.
Two weeks ago, he bowled his team to victory in Jaffna with an 11-wicket match bag against St. Patrick’s College in the first match of the season. In his first game as the U13 Captain five years ago, he did the same thing scalping 6 wickets to win the game for his alma-mater, the first of many match winning performances.
Cooray produced a stellar all-rounder performance against St. Servatius’ College, Matara last weekend. His valiant top-score of 37 down the order helped the Joes get out of jail in the first-innings and post a respectable 148. He picked up two wickets in the first innings with the ball and went on to bag his second 6-wicket haul in two games in the second innings when he almost spun his College to victory.
Born to a cricketing family, Harin’s father Hiran Cooray, a renowned name in the tourism industry in Sri Lanka, represented St. Joseph’s College in the early 1980s. Harin recalled his memory how the passion for cricket grew as a kid, “My father would take my brothers and I for the Joe-Pete big match since we were babies. He was an astounding player back in his day, and he and his friends uncle Ashley, uncle Nirmalal, uncle Terry, uncle Sanka, uncle Raj and uncle Hiran (Cabraal) would always speak of their many adventures as school boy cricketers. My passion for the game rose as I grew older, and I wanted to take my own spin on the game, experiencing the wonders my father spoke of. In a sense, you could say that I always had cricket in my blood.”
As every kid in Sri Lanka, Harin started his cricketing journey at the backyard of his lovely home in Rajagiriya, “As kids, my brothers and I would play cricket with our neighbours every evening and I used to look forward to it every day. In grade 4 I joined the cricket academy at school under Mr. Janaka Deegodagamage. I’m glad he recognized my talents and encouraged me to take cricket seriously” Cooray stated.
Having already picked up 19 wickets in 2 games, Cooray stands as one of the best bowlers in the current season and will look to claim more than 100 wickets in his final year for St. Joseph’s College. After making his debut in 2014, he has improved every year as a classical left-armer, he took 25 wickets in the first season under Pathum Madusanka and bagged 67 wickets under Sandaruwan Rodrigo last season.
Harin Cooray is 185 centimeters tall, approximately 17 centimeters taller than his idol, Rangana Herath but the 18-year old follows the great Lankan left-arm spin wizard, admiring his amazing control and subtle variations.
He represented Badureliya Cricket Club in the SLC U23 Division 1 Cricket Tournament prior to this season which helped his preparation immensely. Cooray takes his training seriously and discussed his practice schedules,” I train about 3 to 4 days a week and I would start by bowling to the batsman for about an hour. Then I do about 20 minutes of spot bowling, fielding and batting. Once or twice a week, I do physical training and when I’m at home, I do drills and shadow practice”.
He has a big tendency to run-through batting lineups not just by taking 2 or 3 wickets, but with big hauls; he bagged 7-wicket hauls thrice last season against DS Senanayake College, Mahinda College, Galle and Wesley College.
St. Joseph’s College has a record of wins against each of their opponents which no other school can boast of and Harin and his team have aimed to add to that tally by winning most of the matches outright. The Josephians last won their annual big match, ‘Battle of the Saints’ against the Peterites in 2008 and Cooray is determined in repeating history in March, 2017.
A relaxed and fun-loving character off the field, Cooray loves playing Fifa on PlayStation during his leisure time because he is a big football fan. He follows Manchester United passionately and reportedly even chants ‘Glory Glory Man United’ even in his sleep.
“Firstly, I would like to praise the almighty God and blessed Mother Mary for all the graces and blessings they have showered on me. My biggest pillars of strength are my parents and my two brothers for encouraging and motivating me. I would like to appreciate my first Rector, Rev. Fr. Sylvester Ranasinghe, my U13B coaches Mr. Anil Gunasinghe and Mr. 
Susilough DS Wijeratne who recognized my leadership qualities and gave me the opportunity to captain the team when I was 12 years old, Mr. Janaka Deegodagamage Mr. Kapila Manohara and Mr. Anura Tennekoon who coached me during my U17 stages. Our current assistant coaches Mr. Michael Adams, Mr. Dharantha Menerigama and Mr. Asiri Perera who helps us in our fielding and physical training. I can say I blossomed as a left arm spinner during the period of Mr. Asela Pathirana’s coaching during the last two seasons. As we are now coached by Mr. Roger Wijesuriya and he himself being a left arm spinner of great repute I know I can learn a lot from him. I would also like to thank our current rector Rev. Fr. Travis Gabriel and current P.O.G Rev. Fr. Milan Bernard and board of administration and cricket advisory board for appointing me as captain of St. Joseph’s College which has a very proud cricketing history.” Cooray concluded.
While thanking him for his time, we wish Harin all the very best for a successful cricketing journey and hope to see the best of him in national colours in the future.
