Pubudu Dassanayake Making Associate Cricket Happen

Ever wonder what’s inside the mind of the pioneer of associate cricket? Pubudu Dassanayake is known as one of the most experienced coaches of the associate cricketing nations. Coach Pubudu also recently led Janakpur Bolts, the winners of the inaugural season of the Nepal Premier League.

In the pilot episode of iCaptain Media’s “Beyond the Boundaries” podcast, we get down with cricket coach and former Sri Lankan international and Canadian international Pubudu Dassanayake to discuss his incredible journey in cricket. Dasanayake began his cricket career as a wicket-keeper batsman for Sri Lanka. After playing 11 Tests and 16 One Day Internationals for Sri Lanka, Dasanayake moved into coaching and has had a considerable impact on associate cricketing nations.

Dassanayake was coincidentally scouted when he was just nine years old, and he credits his success to hard work and dedication.

“I want to be honest; I was not the most talented player in my area, but I was able to work harder and get into that number one position as a wicketkeeper. It had been my everything basically form when I was nine years old, I joined to play and still have been with the game,” Dassanayake said.

Dassanayake believes that grassroot level infrastructure is crucial in developing young talents and preparing them to leap into playing for their respective nations. There are many things associate countries like Nepal can learn from grassroot structure in countries like Sri Lanka.

“If you look at places like Sri Lanka, they have a top-class grassroots system because the school cricket is great,” Dassanayake said. “It is very competitive. Nepal and other associate countries need that good structure where a youngster can walk in and develop their skills. For a youngster to join an academy and join a school and play cricket, the key is for coaching staff as well as player to produce unorthodox players like in Sri Lanka, we let players to develop whatever they have instead of pushing something into them.”

Dassanayake also reflected on the differences in associate cricket from when he was a player to now as a coach.

“At the time I started playing there were only a few teams like Ireland, the Netherlands, Canada was okay, but it slowly grew, the later in 2010-2012 Afghanistan joined the party,” Dassanayake said. “After 2018-2019 when T-20 cricket came in and I think outside the top 12 teams there are still good 20 nations that are pushing hard to develop the game and associate cricket at the moment is at a great place where the competitions are high quality.”

He also gave an insight into the cricket scene in North America and the grassroot level cricket structure in nations like USA and Canada.

“USA has a very decent pathway now; in minor league any youngster can come and join into the system,” Dassanayake said. Finally, every minor league team is supposed to play one or two U21 players so that’s an opportunity for all the youngsters. And the MLC is a well-organized tournament and I’m seeing that it will only grow from here. Canada is also very similar. As you know in GT20 there’s so much of good academies in Canada. That’s how the access are coming through. There is a lot of talent.”

As Pubudu Dassanayake continues to push the boundaries of cricket coaching in associate nations, his knowledge and global experience make him an invaluable contributor to the sport’s global growth and development. This episode of “Beyond the Boundaries” provides listeners with a rare glimpse inside the mind of a coach who has truly pushed cricket’s conventional boundaries, motivating the next generation of players and coaches around the world.

To watch full interview hosted by Sharvani Regmi, click -> here.

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