Javed ready for lead role in Thomian cricket

Chris Dhambarage

He made his First XI debut at the age of thirteen and showed early promise of turning out to be one of the most attractive stroke makers in inter-school cricket. After nearly seven years in the business, left-hander Javed Bongso is set to dominate and take S. Thomas’ College to greater heights during the current inter-school cricket season.Last week the stylish left-hand middle-order batsman and vice captain of the team came out with a sterling performance to hit an unbeaten century in a tough assignment against Prince of Wales College Moratuwa. 

“I think this is one of the best hundreds that I have scored in First XI Cricket because the team was under tremendous pressure and I had to bat for a long period to avoid a certain defeat.“Any school will not like to lose a match outright and I performed my best to stay at the crease and save College from further humiliation,” said the senior coloursman after he hammered an unbeaten 103.   Even then Bongso believed that the situation was tailor-made for him to make an impact and after the team had conceded a huge first innings lead of 151 runs to the opposition.  

“I wanted to prove myself that I am the best batsman in the team and I was really determined to make amends for the first innings failure and score a big hundred in this important encounter. “My coach had a lot of confidence in me because if there was anyone who could have saved the team then I was the only experienced batsman who could have played an innings of this nature.” Bongso stated that he would rate this century as one of his best knocks in his career although he would always remember and cherish the innings which he played in last year’s Big Match.

“I scored a fighting 97 in last years big match against Royal in the first innings but one cannot compare the two innings because the pressure on that occasion was completely different.“Last season of course I was somewhat disappointed because I managed to score only 650 runs from 21 innings with just two half-centuries despite all my experience in the game.“The first year once you get colours you think that you have done it all but it is from there onwards that the real challenge starts as you realize that one needs to be more determined and committed than in the previous seasons to be successful.   
    
“This is something that I learnt towards the latter part of last season and this year I have more responsibilities on my shoulders as most of the senior players have left the school. “As a result I have turned out to be the main batsman in the team and with seven years of experience in first XI cricket I believe if I do not perform well then there is no one else in the side able to do it”.The 19-year-old arts student who is awaiting the Advanced Level results stated that shifting to Mount Lavinia from Wesley College has brought a huge turnaround in his school cricket career. 

“I think coming to S. Thomas’ College Mount Lavinia from Wesley College in 2010 has boosted my school cricket career to a great extent because I have achieved many things on the field and learnt a lot here. “I did not know that I had the capability of achieving so many things until I came here because everybody made me believe in myself and I owe a lot to S. Thomas’ College.“If I recall my first coach at Wesley College was Safraz Farook and I also had the opportunity of playing under veteran coaches in the calibre of Jerry Wourtersz and Dinesh Kumarasinghe.

“But I think the person who gave me the most amount of confidence was former Thomian coach Sajith Fernando who really guided me through the correct path along with Ranil Peiris and the present coach P. Milton. “This is my last year in First XI Cricket and I want to make the best out of it and I am hoping to score at least four more centuries and to complete one thousand runs for the season” concluded Bongso.