Bar star Kash back four Sri Lanka

Bar star Kash back four Sri Lanka

March 2008

Kash Weeraratne bowling for Potters Bar against Hertford last summer

WITH the cricket season fast approaching, Potters Bar players will be keeping a keen eye on the fortunes of Kaushalya Weeraratne, despite the all-rounder being unavailable for selection for their 2008 campaign.

Weeraratne, known as Kash by his Bar team-mates, has been selected to play for Sri Lanka in the three match, one-day series in the West Indies, which starts next month.

This means the right-arm medium-pace bowler and destructive left-handed batsman will be unavailable to play in the Home Counties Premier League Division Two (East) for the coming season.

The selection of the Gampola born-Weeraratne is all the more interesting in that he could well come face to face with another ex-Bar player in Patrick Browne.

Sri Lankan all-rounder Kash Weeraratne batting for Potters Bar against Hemel Hempstead

Wicketkeeper-batsman Browne is set to be called up by the West Indies and should the players face each other, it will be the first time that two players who have represented a Herts club cricket side have met at international level.

Mark Shepherd, of The Walk cricket club's committee, said: "The fact that Potters Bar will be mentioned should this actually happen shows how we are developing for the future.

"There is a good chance it will, and we're proud that both have represented our team in the last few years."

Weeraratne, 27, has spent five years on the sidelines of the Sri Lanka team, but he has forced himself back into the reckoning after successfully remodelling his action.

West Indies international Patrick Browne batting for Potters Bar

Kash also scored a blistering half-century off just 12 balls, which was the fastest 50 in one-day cricket, during a domestic match in 2005.

In his first game for Bar against Hertford back in 2006, he showed the difference between good club cricketers and professionals as he blasted an amazing 118 not out from just 92 balls.

He finished the 2006 campaign as the leading scorer in the division with 837 runs to his name at an average of 55.80 after hitting two tons and six half centuries.

The Sri Lankan also took 22 wickets during the campaign.

Last season Weeraratne took 8-27 with the ball when Potters Bar faced Sawbridgeworth at The Walk.

Barbadian Browne, 26, was called into the West Indies pre-tour squad ahead of the 2007-08 South Africa trip and made his ODI debut as a specialist batsman.

A Potters Bar cricketer in 2004, Browne played in three matches in South Africa and finished the series with a batting average of 59.

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