Kaushalya Gajasinghe; An international cricket head coach

A journey from Mahinda to Malaysia

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Kaushalya Gajasinghe

This is the story of a boy who was born in rural Thalpe, a southern coastal town in Sri Lanka and his audacious run with life. 

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A son of a policeman, Kaushalya Gajasinghe took his baby steps in cricket at, Mahinda College, Galle. Strange to his profession Gajasinghe claims his father to be a calm and friendly man and was never the strict disciplinarian around him. “Both of them ain’t here today, but they played the biggest role in making me who I am. They did push me to study but always gave me the opportunity to play my cricket as I wished,” said Kaushalya visibly emotional when speaking of his parents. 

At Mahinda College, he began as an ordinary kid who was taken to playing Cricket. “Until I played under-15 for the school, I was an average player but after that, I transformed.” His team managed to clinch the championship in the all-island under-17 tournament in his year and the under-19 limited-overs tourney. In 2008, Kaushalya played his first big match for Mahinda College and made history. They won that game after 32 years in which the guy picked up a match-bag of 7 wickets with his crafty off-spin and was awarded the best bowler of the match. He also won the best all-rounder award at the Mobitel Schoolboy Cricket Awards in 2010. This wonderful all-rounder went on to represent Galle district in under-17, Southern province in under-17 and then eventually, Sri Lanka U19s.

Kaushalya GajasingheIn 2011, England U19s toured Sri Lanka and Kaushalya was a part of the squad as a specialist longer format batsman. His innate knack in decision-making began to show right from there. At that age, many wouldn’t dare to pledge on their strong suit and say this is where I am going to compete. And in a country like Sri Lanka, playing with the label as test cricketer alone is a lot of pressure. The left-handed batsman was ear-marked early in his career as longer version batsman and was not selected for the shorter games. But he was fixated on his strengths and started impressing at every opportunity.

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While schooling, he played under-23 premier cricket for Ragama CC, and gives thanks to Mr Hiran de Silva and Mr Roshan Abeysinghe who made it possible, providing him with necessary support. He made his first-class debut for Lankan CC and then played a year with Galle CC before moving to Moors SC. “Moors was my golden era,” describes the 28-year-old reflecting on his playing days. “First-class was actually a real challenge those days. Today, we are struggling to find players but those days we were short of opportunities. Even after coming from Sri Lanka U19, we had to wait long to debut.”

He has three centuries in first-class cricket in his 52 outings with a highest score of 150 runs. But when he was asked about those numbers, he barely remembers the opponents of the two centuries other than his first.  “It was against SSC, and we put up over a 110 run partnership for the last wicket. About 8 Test players were playing in the SSC team and we managed to get a first-innings win to become the runners up of the tournament.” He is not a man of numbers as far as his playing is concerned. But, coaching in the International arena is all about numbers. It is that switch that’s most fascinating Kaushalya Gajasinghe’s story. 

In 2016, Gajasinghe was playing in the Sri Lanka development team and was by then a part of the 20-man Sri Lanka A pool. “I think Aiden Markram was captaining the South Africa side” he said about the Sri Lanka development tour.

It was at this point the tragic loss of his father happened, dealing Kaushalya a huge blow. He was compelled to make some drastic calls as the burden of taking care of the family came crashing at him. 

“Everyone comes to a point where they have to choose a path, whether to fight or be comfortable with life. To be honest, I am not the most skilled as a player, we had Kusal Mendis, Sadeera Samarawickrama, Oshada Fernando, Dhananjaya de Silva and many others in that development squad. So, I looked at my situation and thought what was staying a wise call?” recalled Kaushalya.

He was just 25 at the time and made brave changes. A devastating decision of giving up the hope of playing for your country but amply displays the character of the man.

He moved to England to play in a premier division tournament signing himself up with a team in the Cumbria county as a coach and a player. “That’s when I realised I can coach” said Kaushalya. He did not stop with his club team but made himself available to help out the Cumbria minor-county teams and their age-group teams in his free time going through 3 seasons with them. 

At the end of his 5-month stint, he took wing to Australia for the Australian summer. He got a fabulous opportunity to be the head coach and a player at St. Mary’s Cricket Club in the state of Victoria. During his time, he saw a vacancy published by Cricket Victoria for the post of an assistant coach for the Melbourne Cricket Club (MCC) women’s team. He applied and got selected. “They wanted to develop the spinners and to teach the batters how to play spin, that’s why they gave me an opportunity. He worked with MCC for 2 seasons. 

At 26, he applied for the ICC level 3 coaching exams and qualified.  

This is when the most important turn happened in Kaushalya’s life. He had met Mr Sampath Perera as a schoolboy when he was playing Sara Tournament.  Perera is a renowned coach in Sri Lanka and was coaching one of the Sara teams back then. Kaushalya always idolized Perera for his coaching and as a schoolboy he thought to himself, “if I ever start a career in coaching, I am going to start it under this man.” Kaushalya wanted to fulfill his childhood vision about coaching. In mid-2019, he decided to contact Sampath Perera. “I called him when I was in Aussie and that’s when I learnt that he is in Malaysia, and I told him about my decision to give up playing and start professional coaching. And I said if I can start under you that’s a childhood dream.” 

Sampath Perera is the head coach of Malaysia men’s cricket team and was also a huge figure in the Malaysian cricket setup. 

“After 4 days he called back and told me about the opening for the national women’s team head coach in Malayasia. He asked me to apply and I did. Faced an interview through Skype and  flew to Malaysia as the women’s team head coach!” Kaushalya reminisced with amusement.

He is also working as an assistant coach with the Malaysian men’s team and accompanied the team to ICC tournaments like ICC T20 World Cup Asia region qualifiers, ICC challenge league A division tournament and a few bilateral tours. Kaushalya assists Sampath Perera with the Malaysian U19 teams too. 

When this man from Thalpe took over the Malaysia women’s team, they were ranked 35th in the ICC ranking and about a year down the line, they are now placed 27th in the table and will certainly be improving. 

“It’s quite easy to coach in England or Aussie, than an associate nation. This is the real challenge for a coach. It’s quite different, especially when we are going to ICC and ACC tournaments. We have to be 100% professional. When I am coaching for a country, I hold a big responsibility. First challenge is to bring people in, the staff who are from several countries to work as a team. Rather than going to a comfortable position, I always like the challenge, I am keen to take up a team which is willing to improve and lift them to their maximum potential.” 

Now at 28, happily married to a counselor, he attributes a lot of his success to his wife after his mentor Sampath Perera. He wishes to move back to Sri Lanka if he gets an opportunity but never ceases on dreaming big. “My opportunity is still there, if I can work with Sri Lanka I am happy to do so.  If I can work with a Test playing nation, it is my goal. My dream is to work somewhere in a Test playing nation and produce good players for international cricket.” 

Sri Lankans have achieved wonders in several professions across the globe. And Kaushalya Gajasinghe, will someday be among those high achievers for determination, hard work and most importantly for his ability to make brave decisions at such a young age. 

ThePapare.com wishes him all success!

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