12 Thursday 16th December, 2010 Features

ld wood best to had the form is temporary, class per- burn; old wine to proud distinction of represent- manent. “Odrink; old friends ing the World XI at the inaugu- I presume, there is a lesson to trust; old authors to read.” ral ICC match. If you put it in for all from Vaas’ career; that this was stated by Francis a nutshell, Chaminda Vaas is if one endures the bad times, Bacon (1561-1626), English easily ’s second most good times will follow. politician, philosopher and successful bowler after the leg- Bowling is a very delightful essayist. This saying reminds endary . art. combines me so much of my favourite, Chaminda is also a useful all- strength, suppleness rhythm lovable, local cricketing idol rounder too and a fine fielder. and timing. You have to have a who possesses probably, the His presence in a side will be a mixture of it. In the case of longest name for a Test or ODI big boost to the team. left arm bowlers that I have player in the world. His name I have noticed that in most seen very closely, like Wasim is Warnakulasuriya of the matches, Tests as well Akram and Chaminda Vaas, Patabandige Usantha Joseph as ODIs, Chaminda Vaas bowls there is a fine drop of venom Chaminda Vaas (W. P. U. J. C. his heart out. An incident which transforms a good Vaas). etched in my mind is how bowler into a great bowler. As Chaminda Vaas was Chaminda Vaas intelligently Of all members of the crick- overlooked for the five match foxed dangerous opener Mark eting family, the bowler is the ODI series against the West Waugh, early, on March 17, supreme head. He is like the Indies, I thought of penning 1996, at , trunk on which even the great- these few lines. I personally Lahore, in the World Cup final. est branches depend. feel that Vaas should have He gave the early break which Chaminda Vaas is humble. been given a trial or chance helped Sri Lanka to restrict He respects elders, his teach- against the West Indies to the machine of ers and coaches. He sports that prove whether he deserves a Australia and to annex the place in the World Cup 2011 World Cup for the first time. team or not. He was not includ- As a commentator, I will never ed in the 16 member squad for forget how he removed Mark the first two matches. There is Waugh and gave Sri Lanka a probably a ray of hope for this huge advantage. old War Horse. Chaminda Vaas was born on In cricket, I strongly January 27, 1984 at believe, experience counts. Mattumagala in the Gampaha Chaminda Vaas has done a district. great service to Sri Lanka He had his early edu- cricket, and in my reckoning, cation at St. Anthony’s he is the best left arm paceman College, Wattala. Later, in Asia, next to Wazim Akram. he joined one of the In my cricketing career, - leading Catholic ning into more than four schools in Sri Lanka, decades, he has been the best St. Joseph’s College, seen in Sri Lanka as a left arm Maradana, where he fast bowler. blossomed as a fine left In , in 111 arm pacie. matches in 194 innings, in The major teams that 23,438 balls, he captured 355 he represented were, , giving away 10,501 Sri Lanka, Asia XI, runs, at an average of 29.38. Basnahira North, Colts On 20 occasions he captured 04 Cricket Club, Deccan wickets, 12 times he collected Chargers, in the IPL, five wickets and added to those Hampshire, performances, twice he had a Marylebone Cricket match bag of 10 wickets. Chaminda Vaas’ (ODI) record is more impressive. His best bowling per- formance was eight for 19 runs. Chaminda Vaas is easily the most penetrating new ball bowler Sri Lanka possesses. As a commentator, I Premasara Epasinghe consider Vaas as a left arm bowler Our present opening bowlers ed his heart out, Chaminda who swings and seams the ball Club, Middlesex, very rarely give a major start to Vaas, should also be given a with a lot of control, rhythm Northamptonshire and Sri Lanka. The selectors are chance or two to prove his and skill. Further, I have Worcestershire. Further, also trying hard to solve this class. The irony is that he per- noticed, he bowls a disguised he was in the Sri Lanka major problem. Hats off to forms well in the foreign cir- off cutter. His reverse swing is team led by Marvan them. They do a thankless job. cuit, but he is not given an a dangerous weapon to all Atapattu in the West It is like betting on horses. opportunity to show his talents batsmen in the world. Indies a few years ago. When things go right, everyone at present. All this made him a consis- He was a highly success- is happy. When the team fails, My personal view is that at tent taker on sub-conti- ful bowler who captured the selectors are at the butt end. the World Cup 2011, we must nental pitches. His track the most number of wick- We must understand that they have at least three pace record is excellent. ets abroad in recent times. are human and are bound to bowlers. One must be a left-arm I remember, in Napier, New Cricket is one of the make mistakes. pace bowler. As Muralitharan is Zealand, Chaminda Vaas was greatest team games. I still remember how Sanath probably playing in the World responsible for Sri Lanka’s Sometimes it is intensely Jayasuriya (340) and Roshan Cup 2011, it’s a huge advantage. first Test win on foreign soil in personal. That is one of its Mahanama (225) created history His presence alone is a big fac- 1994/95. In 2001/2002, Vaas beauties. The unassuming at R. Premadasa Stadium. In tor. Cricket is psychological took 26 wickets in the series. Chaminda Vaas is a fine team the book written by Roshan warfare. If an opening side sees Sri Lanka recorded a 3-0 victo- man. He always puts country coach is simple. He states that a Mahanama titled ‘Retired experienced players of the cali- ry against the West Indies. He before self. A great gentleman, engaging smile, which symbol- coach should aim to create Hurt’, he mentions how he was bre of , became only the second pace Chaminda Vaas has been an izes the culture of the paradise improvements so that a bats- virtually dropped, but given one , T. M. bowler or fast bowler after ornament to the game. isle which is Sri Lanka. man scores more runs; a bowler more chance to prove his capa- Dilshan, Muttiah Muralitharan, of to Bowling requires concentra- They say, “bowlers win takes more wickets, a fieldsman bilities. A committed, deter- Chaminda Vaas (if selected), take 14 wickets in a match. tion, a correct bowling action, matches.” Unfortunately, there takes more catches in the field mined took they will entertain a degree of How can we forget his first ability to bowl a good length is no consistency in our bowl- and seizes more opportunities up the challenge and proved fear. Psychosis will be in their eight wicket haul against and good direction and a cer- ing department. This, I feel, is to create run outs. These words that his bat could still talk. minds, when they walk into the , which included a tain amount of luck. our major problem. clearly express a pragmatic I feel that as a bowler who field. Cricket is a mind game, a hat-trick with the first three Chaminda Vaas possesses all As the legendary Bobby - oriented approach. had done a great service, sweat- thinking game. balls? these ingredients. Remember, Simpson puts it, the role of a World’s largest genome belongs to slow-growing mountain flower An unremarkable and slow- is native to the mountains of the “When we worked out just how pairs, which if stretched out growing plant has stunned sci- Japanese island of Honshu but is big it was, I was staggered. I had would measure just 1.6 inches. entists after they found it had also found in gardens in the UK, to keep checking to be sure. It is The previous record holder for the world’s largest genome – 50 boasts more than 150 billion base amazing how the cells pack all of the largest genome was the mar- times bigger than that of our pairs – the basic building block that DNA in there. bled catfish, which had 130 billion own species. that links together to form DNA – “Other members of the family base pairs and would stretch 288 in its genome. Humans have just that Paris japonica is part of have feet. BY RICHARD GRAY three billion base pairs. medicinal qualities so there could Dr Leitch said that having such t is an unremarkable and If stretched out, the genetic well be some that we can identify a large genome could help explain rather fragile plant, but a flow- information contained within just from the genome. why Paris japonica was so slow- Iering herb that frustrates gar- one cell of Paris japonica would “Genome size does not neces- growing and vulnerable to pollu- deners for being notoriously diffi- stretch more than 328 feet – taller sarily relate to the complexity of tion and other extreme conditions. cult to grow has stunned scientists than Big Ben – while the genome an organisms. We can now start She added: “Having that much after they discovered it has the from a human cell would stretch probing what is going on in these DNA does have consequences for world’s largest genome. just 6.5 feet. really big genomes and under- the plant – plants with big The DNA contained within The discovery has added to stand what is going on. genomes are at greater risk of Paris japonica dwarves all other questions about why our own “It can tell us what restricts extinction, more sensitive to pollu- plant and animal genomes that genome is so comparatively small. where plants can grow and how tion. have been analysed so far. It is 50 It may also lead to the discovery of they are going to respond to cli- “Having so much DNA means times longer than the human new types of drugs. mate change. While many factors every time you want to divide a genome, even though our species Dr Ilia Leitch, a geneticist at affect how and where plants grow, cell in order to grow, you have to is thought to be one of the most Kew Gardens’ Jodrell Laboratory it now seems that genome size is replicate all that DNA and it takes complex and advanced on the who was part of the team that one of the factors.” a lot longer.” planet. made the discovery, which is pub- The smallest genome found so Listen to a podcast by the A genome - the biological code lished in the Botanical Journal of far belongs to a bacterium called Natural Environment Research which directs how every organism the Linnean Society, said: “When Carsonella ruddii, which has Council’s online journal Planet develops - is made up of the DNA we started looking at the plant on fewer than 160 000 base pairs The Earth about the giant genome