By Srian Obeyesekere

The Most Outstanding player of the recently concluded SLC Major Clubs 3-day Tournament, Ravindu Fernando of Tamil Union C&AC revealed that as a kid his cricket hero was former Sri Lanka all-round star Tillakaratne Dilshan whom he aped. “But by now what I want to do is to become a top batsman like India’s Virat Kolhli.”

He has fond memories of his love for the game of cricket as a kid which he said, ‘spurred me on to take to the game at Maris Stella College, Negombo first representing the U13 team and going on to play for the college U15, 17 and 19 teams.’

While venting his joy that hard work and sweat had fetched him this award, he was quick to credit his school coaches Roshan and Moditha for having put him through his paces and shown him the way to going up the ladder.

A batting all-rounder, 23-year old Ravindu took top billing hitting 3 centuries and 7 half centuries that earned him the top award.

While singling out his fearless approach to the game in confronting bowlers as a factor to his batting success at this level, Ravindu Fernando went on to state that of course, “My cricket dream is to put his hundred percent to perfecting my game in all three departments to gaining recognition to ‘represent my country. I’m working hard to get a national call up soon,” he enthused.