Learning to live without Murali

Bond: I am Bond. James Bond. And you are?

Vaas: I am Vaas. Chaminda Vaas. Joseph Chaminda Vaas. Ushantha Joseph Chaminda Vaas. Patabendige Ushantha Joseph Chaminda Vaas. Warnakulasuriya Patabendige Ushantha Joseph Chaminda Vaas.

Vaas smiles each time the joke is told to him. The longest name in cricket belongs to him but he would rather concentrate on the goals he has set himself.

‘‘I want 400 one-day wickets and 320 Test wickets,’’ he says with the same precision that he bowls the lethal in-dippers to batsmen.

We are seated in his tiny hotel room and Vaas, in a red silk lungi and a team jersey, looks as much a Sinhalese in a crowded Colombo market as he looks a world-class cricketer.

With two hat-tricks in his 10-year career so far, Vaas is a contented family man. With a picture of his young four-year-old daughter by his bedside, the boy who wanted to be a priest has settled for the role of a menacing fast bowler.

‘‘I so wanted to be a priest. I even went to the seminary but it didn’t work out,’’ he says. ‘‘God wanted me to be a cricketer and so here I am. Maybe cricket is the path god chose for me to lead to him. I attend Sunday mass and Friday novena without fail. Wherever I am. My faith in my religion is everything for me.’’

But right now Vaas’s mind is on winning the Champions Trophy. After a five-nil thrashing of South Africa at home in the one-dayers, Vaas believes that they are favourites to win the meet.

‘‘We are a very confident team today. Time was when we only relied on Sanath Jayasuriya and Marvan Atapattu scoring runs and (Muttiah) Muralitharan and me taking wickets for us to succeed. But today it is different. Nuwan Zoysa and Upul Chandana are match winners with the ball as much as Kumara Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene are with the bat.’’

Before I can ask him about the reliance on Murali and the recent turnaround where the Lankans win without him in the side, Vaas shoots, ‘‘We are happy winning without Murali. No doubt he is a champion bowler and no one can ever replace him, but his absence is good for the team. The other bowlers realise the importance of giving their all and taking the responsibility to win games.’’

‘‘Sri Lankan cricket will not end if Vaas and Murali are not there, and the way the team has progressed is the best thing to have happened to Sri Lankan cricket,’’ he adds with a smile.

Vaas argues that the Lankan team now has good fast bowlers who can take on the best in the world even though they often win on the basis of their spin wing. ‘‘It is a matter of time. We have very good fast bowlers. In the subcontinent, all wickets are turners. But our young bowlers are bending their backs and bowling hard. Both Zoysa and Malinga are very quick. Give these guys some time. In the near future this bunch will win matches for Lanka all over the world.’’

So what brought about the change in attitude in this Lankan side?

‘‘The Australia tour earlier this year. To my mind it was the best tour for the Lankan team. It will go down as the turning point in Lankan cricket. We came back and won the Asia Cup comfortably. We knew right from the start that we would win the Asia Cup. That was the confidence of the team,’’ Vaas says.

He believes that the Australian approach to the game made them think hard: ‘‘We should have won the first Test against them. But we learnt from them. Their attitude, their spirit for the game and the pride they took in playing for their country. We adjusted to their conditions soon enough and made sure that we fought with the same pride they play the game.’’

Vaas has often been talked about as a potential all-rounder. With a strike rate of 75 in one-dayers, eight fifties in Tests and one in the shorter version of the game, Vaas is still not a satisfied man. ‘‘Batting is important for the team. During practice my seniors always tell me to concentrate on my batting. I guess I took their advice seriously and am batting well these days. But I am looking for a hundred. If I end my career with a couple of hundreds against my name, I will have done well for myself.’’

But with the number of milestones he has passed already, Vaas has already done enough for Sri Lanka.

Even James Bond would agree.