Lasith Malinga talks about why he wants to do the best he can for Sri Lanka, and whether he has become predictable as a bowler.

Did you ever feel you had something special back when you were playing tennis-ball cricket on the beach?
I knew that I could bowl well with the tennis ball, but at that time I hadn’t even touched a leather ball. I had no idea that I had the ability to be good enough to play for Sri Lanka. That’s something that makes me very happy, to see how far I’ve come.

Champaka Ramanayake took an interest in you early on. How different would your life have been if he hadn’t seen you?
I met him about ten months after I first started playing leather-ball cricket. Since that day, he has done a lot for me. He has been around the A team, club cricket and the national team, and he has helped me in all those capacities. I knew nothing when I started playing with the leather ball – how to control the ball, how to reverse swing it, how to vary the speeds. Under Champaka sir, I was able to learn all that. I didn’t get a lot of opportunity to play school cricket, so the person that helped me get into the national team was Champaka sir.

He hadn’t seen someone like me before. He didn’t say anything major. Just, “Bowl as fast as you can, as straight as you can.” He didn’t try to tell me where my arm should be or anything like that. Even today, he says the same thing to me. He never tried to change who I was, and that’s why I’ve been able to come as far as I have.

There were a lot of other coaches who really helped me – Anusha Samaranayake, Prabath Nissanka, Rumesh Ratnayake. I am incredibly grateful to them.

Read more : http://www.espncricinfo.com/magazine/content/story/589364.html

Interview by Andrew Fernando
Source: ESPNcricinfo