Matheesha Pathirana of Chennai Super Kings bowling during an Indian Premier League (IPL 2025) match. (Photo: Sportzpics for IPL)When Sri Lankan exceptional bowler Matheesha Pathirana fell back on homework for days on end and refused to study, his mother burnt his cricket bat – something she saw as a distraction.
Speaking on Chennai Super Kings’ video story on Matheesha that was dropped on Friday, Shalika, his mother told CSK docu makers, “He never touched a book, only played cricket. He just didn’t study. At a PTA meeting, the teacher said he only stares outside the window at cricket ground. When he refused to do his homework I once burnt his cricket bat,” Shalika told CSK.
Matheesha who recalled wanting to become a pilot so “he could travel the world”, as his mother wished for him, remembered not being keen on studying either. “Yes when I didn’t do homework, my mother burnt my bat. I cried a lot,” he said.
Books might not have interested him, but Matheesha’s was a beautiful world with cricket and music. Both his parents – Anura Pathirana (voice as sweet as SPB) and Shalika are musicians in the hill town of Kandy, the second biggest cricket centre in Sri Lanka.
The CSK docu also shows Matheesha old videos where he is proficient on the piano. “He passed his O level exams in music. He was the Best pianist,” his mother told CSK.
Tharindi, one of his two older sisters, was quoted as saying that he took his time but struck the right chord. “His music teacher told him his voice was not pitching well. But now it’s flowing,” Tharindi laughed.
The CSK docu also highlights how his first stint was not with cricket but with baseball. “I started playing baseball at 13…we were not allowed to play cricket in school upto a certain class,” he recalled.
His action like Lasith Malinga was encouraged and not changed by his early coaches. Finally, the docu says, World Cup winners Chaminda Vaas heard of it and called him to Colombo. Journalist Rex Clementine is quoted as saying, “There were heaps of bowlers trying to bowl like Malinga. But my colleague Remus Fernando told me to check his bowling out.”
It would eventually lead him to a scholarship at Colombo’s famous Trinity College, where social media manager Anfal Hanafi would upload video of Matheesha taking 6 wickets that went viral and paved way for his entry into national circuit.
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