By Dhammika Ratnaweera
Sri Lankan former fast bowler Mario Villavarayan now turned a trainer offers valuable service for cricketers mainly to focus their fitness. Currently, he is on the coaching staff of the ongoing inaugural Lanka Premier League(LPL) tournament franchise team Jaffna Stallions.
The 47-year-old coach Villavarayan in an interview said that he had to work as a Strength and Conditioning coach for Sri Lanka and Bangladesh teams but working in a franchise team in T20 league tournament always gives make a valuable experience. “This time it’s very special with a dual role in this LPL to work as a fast bowling coach and a Trainer (Strength and Conditioning coach) for the Jaffna team. The fast bowlers from South Africa Kyle Abbott, Duanne Oliver, Pakistan Usman Shinwari, Sri Lankan Suranga Lakmal, Binura Fernando have the chance to work with Villavarayan during the LPL with the Jaffna team and his service as Trainer for whole team success.
Villavarayan also pointed out that the cricketers always were very keen to work out their fitness to continue playing in all conditions and a fitness trainer plays an important role to develop the players’ fitness. “As a former fast bowler, I knew what type of areas to build up for fitness,” Villavarayan said. He added that he had more than twelve years of experience as a trainer with the National teams which started with the Sri Lankan team from 2008 to 2014 and later involved with the Bangladesh team for the last six years from 2014 to 2020.
Mario Suresh Villavarayan the former fast bowler from St Peter’s College Bambalapitiya stated that when he joined the Bangladesh National team their performance was not good but they were very keen to learn and to develop their skills and it was easy for him as a coach. “However today all cricketers are professionals and they get their own responsibility to develop their skills. Especially the tournaments like IPL players are very keen to show their talents as franchise players. The players’ attitudes is very easy to handle with coaches with correct approach” he explained
Villavarayan was always very keen to work out for his fitness during his school days and especially after he had realized the importance of fitness as a fast bowler. “I was among the wickets at the first-class cricket tournament to take 378 wickets with a career-best figures 9 for 15 for Bloomfield against Police in 1996-97. I also got chance to represent CCC and Tamil Union but retired from cricket at the end of the 2004-05 season and moved to Melbourne for the next three years where I played and coached Preston CC for two years in the sub-district. he recalled.
In Australia, Villavarayan qualified as an Australian Level 2 coach and obtained his Bachelor’s Degree in Exercise Science. On his return to Sri Lanka, he was recruited by Sri Lanka Cricket as their Strength and Conditioning Coach in 2008 where he handled the Sri Lanka A and Development Squads and also the senior squad which comprised Sanath Jayasuriya, Mahela Jayawardena, Kumar Sangakkara, Chaminda Vaas, and Muttiah Muralitharan.
The talented fast bowler Villavarayan, unfortunately, missed out on making the big league. For nearly a decade after playing his first match for Sri Lanka A in 1994, he was always on the fringes of selection, but for one reason or another, the break never came. He was consistently picked to play for Sri Lanka A both home and away, and also toured England with the Sri Lanka team in 1998.
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