Age, girth no barrier for Rangana Herath 'aiyya'

GALLE: In this day and age when everyone is looking for those bulging biceps or perfectly chiseled abs, Rangana Herath is an oddity. But the portly 5-feet-5-inch left-arm spinner does weave magic with his fingers.
With his seven-wicket haul against India, Herath became the third-most successful left-armer in Tests behind Daniel Vettori and Derek Underwood. The 37-year-old, who replaced Bishan Singh Bedi at No.3 in the list, rekindles the memories of old Lankan favourites Duleep Mendis and Arjuna Ranatunga in the manner he moves around the field with that 'extra weight' in the middle.
The 'extra baggage' does not have any effect on his bowling though, which has an old-world charm about it. Unlike the long list of mystery spinners which Sri Lanka has churned out over the years, starting from Muttiah Muralitharan to Ajantha Mendis and now Tharindu Kaushal, Herath is in the classical mould with no quirks in his action. Over the years, a lot has been written and spoken about the likes of Kumar Sangakkara, Mahela Jayawardene and Muralitharan but Herath remains the quiet soldier who has toiled in the background. "The one guy who has been outstanding and who is never spoken about is Rangana Herath. He has been an incredible servant of Sri Lankan cricket," Sangakkara said just a couple of days back.
Age is starting to catch up with Herath, who is known as Rangana 'aiyya' (sir elder) among his teammates. "I am carrying a bit of an injury as well. My knees are sore. But you have to give 100 per cent when you are playing for your country ," he said. 'Aiyya' knows that he needs his bowling to do all the talking to take eyes off his portly figure.

"When you get old, you've to do something special. I've gathered lot of experience during the last few years. Yet, if I can learn something more, I'm ready to learn and gather that information," the man from Kurunegala in northern Sri Lanka said.
Although he made his debut in 1999, it wasn't until Muralitharan retired a few years back that Herath became a regular in the side. He was already 32 years of age by then. But he made his presence felt and was one of the highest wicket takers in international cricket in 2012 with 60 scalps. He followed that up with another 56 last season.
In spite of all his exploits and achievements, Herath was benched for the third Test against Pakistan and Kaushal was played. "For every batsman and bowler, there are rough patches in their careers. I have done a lot of good things in the recent past, so I told myself that I can do the same again. I backed myself and went on," Herath said after his match winning spell on Saturday.
Asked how it is to shoulder responsibility as the No. 1 spinner in the side, he said, "I played alongside Murali in 2009 and he retired in 2010. I didn't try to emulate what he did. I've tried everything that I could do."
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