Chaminda Vaas was never purely about raw pace or theatrical intimidation. He was about craft. A left-arm seamer with immaculate control, subtle movement and relentless accuracy, Vaas could make a new ball swing, seam or move sharply inward into a batsman before settling into the kind of pressure that eventually broke them.

Vaas took 355 wickets in 111 Tests and 400 in 322 ODIs, becoming Sri Lanka’s most prolific fast bowler in both formats. He could bat too, scoring more than 3,000 Test runs – which includes a century. But his defining quality was simple: he made precision feel dangerous, and that came to the fore at the 2003 World Cup, where he emerged as the leading wicket-taker with 23 wickets.

Now 52, and sporting a striking silver mane, Vaas remains closely involved with the game as a coach and mentor. He was recently in Hyderabad for a mentorship stint with the Palamuru Strikers in TG20. In an interview with The Hindu, he talks about the evolution of fast bowling, the demands of modern cricket, his coaching experiences around the world, and memories of Sri Lanka’s iconic 1996 World Cup triumph. Excerpts:

You have worked across the world with various franchises as a mentor and coach. How has that experience been?

With subcontinent players, their maturity takes some time to develop, and their game understanding can be a bit limited early on. But once they mature, they learn quickly. I always tell youngsters that discipline and fitness are the two things you cannot compromise on in this sport. If you’re committed to becoming a cricketer, you have to sacrifice a lot — but if you commit to yourself, I’m sure you can succeed. The way youngsters in India have stepped up and delivered for Indian cricket has been amazing.

You played over 100 Tests and 300 ODIs. Those are remarkable numbers for a fast bowler, given how brutal the game is on the body. With today’s focus on nutrition and fitness science, players still seem to break down more often. Is there anything about modern training or diet that makes you think, “We never needed that to play this much cricket”?

I’m not going to argue with the science. A lot of new methods and logic have come up. But one thing I do believe is that the amount of cricket today’s youngsters play can sometimes be too much. As I said earlier, fitness is the most important thing. If you’re physically strong enough to support your mindset, that matters most. You need to look after yourself, time things right, and stay focused, especially fast bowlers. If you want to play longer and perform well, fitness comes first, along with proper rehab and the right diet.

You were known for your late in-swingers, especially to right-handed batters. What are your thoughts on swing bowling in the current era?

After watching the last edition of the IPL, most bowlers don’t swing the ball much anymore. The game has become a batsman’s paradise. But I still believe bowlers who can swing the ball and hit the right areas can take wickets. The number of balls going for boundaries is higher than bowlers might expect, but I’m confident that bowlers who focus on swing can still take plenty of wickets.

Left-arm fast bowlers seem to carry a certain aura that right-arm bowlers don’t quite have…

Left-armers are unique; they are a special breed. When they start bowling and try to perform, they always focus and give their best. I’m not saying right-armers don’t, but left-armers bring something special, and they tend to do things the right way.

The game has become batsman-dominated, thanks in part to T20 cricket. If you were coaching an up-and-coming 18-year-old left-arm pace bowler today, would you tell him to focus purely on swing, or on developing variations? What’s the right balance?

As a bowler, you have to keep it simple. My philosophy as a coach – for bowlers or batters – is not to complicate the game. If you overcomplicate things, they won’t go your way; if you keep things simple, the game itself is simple. Especially in fast bowling, I always say: do the right things. The batter will come after you, but remember, you have six balls to his one chance. If you bowl good areas and good lines consistently, you’ll get your wickets and keep the batter under pressure.

You spoke about your relationship with Muralitharan. When you trained together, how many times did you face him, and did you ever figure him out by the end of your career?

It was always very difficult for me to read him. He’d bowl the off-spinner or the doosra, and I never quite got the better of him. Nor he of me! But yeah, he was very hard to face. I could see why he became such an important bowler. Every time he practised, he’d bowl right until the end of the session. That’s the kind of dedication and potential that made him the number one bowler in the world.

This year marked the 30th anniversary of the 1996 World Cup win. Did the team have a group chat to reminisce, or do friends and family bring it up with you on the anniversary?

We celebrated in Malaysia this year. One of the Sri Lankan community groups organised it there. We went as a team and had a really good time. Even though Sri Lanka is a small country, a group of us — three or four guys at least — meet up regularly and share memories. We had a great time in Malaysia, even played a game together.

It’s been 30 years, and you’ve spoken about that campaign a lot. But is there one behind-the-scenes story that not many people know?

Nothing specific comes to mind, but if I have to mention something, then I will say that we had a tough time in 1996. After touring Australia, we had a terrible tournament there, and then there was the Motera incident and a few other setbacks. We went into the 1996 World Cup as underdogs, but we played as one family. I remember our captain, Arjuna Ranatunga, telling us that it was a very important tournament. He told us not to show off, but to play well from game one. He always encouraged the youngsters, and that’s how we came together as a team and won the World Cup.

You’ve had a 30-year career across various franchises, and interest in the sport has only grown. Tell us about dressing-room life, something fans never really get to see or understand, especially with the national team.

It depends on the format. A Test match is totally different from a one-day game. In Tests, you get up every morning and come back to the dressing room, whether things are going well as a team or not, you have to face it together. There are ups and downs, but as a player, you deal with all of that in the dressing room.

In one-day cricket, it’s similar, we always support and encourage each other and try to give our best, whether we’re representing our country, playing county cricket in England, or playing franchise cricket. You need a good rapport with your teammates wherever you play.

On a lighter note, during your time with the Sri Lankan national team as a player or coach, who was the most fun or chaotic player to have around?

There are a few, like Akila Dananjaya and Lasith Malinga. They’re all so interesting, always asking questions. Even before going to bed, they ask about how to face a particular ball. I loved working with them, and I have a lot of experience with that group. It’s great to see them doing so well now.

You played in the Indian Premier League with Deccan Chargers. What’s your most striking memory from that time with the franchise?

There were so many exceptional cricketers in that dressing room – Adam Gilchrist, Herschelle Gibbs, Andrew Symonds, Shahid Afridi, Rohit Sharma (who’s gone on to do wonders for Indian cricket), VVS Laxman. Learning and sharing with them taught me so much. We won the IPL title in 2009 in South Africa, playing as a true team. Everyone gave their best when it mattered. Coming from different countries, we became like a family, sharing everything.

The prodigy has an enduring allure, more so if he is yet to sprout whiskers, and his voice has a pre-adolescent twang. This is a trait often linked to subcontinental cricket, especially in India and Pakistan.

An Imran Khan would stroll the streets in Pakistan and pick lads hurling a tape-ball at tremendous pace. And in India, there are these two forever projects linked to finding the next Kapil Dev and the next Sachin Tendulkar.

Subject of curiosity

In all these quests, the subject of curiosity is a young boy, yet to feel the splash of an aftershave on his chin. “Chotte”, or little one, might sound like body-shaming in these politically correct times, but it is also a term of endearment from the senior professional to the pre-pubescent youngster breaking into the big world of cricket.

Be it India or Pakistan, the search for the next big “chotte”, a striking oxymoron, is always on. Seen in this context, Vaibhav Suryavanshi, 14 years old, and on the cusp of turning 15, has ticked all the boxes.

Age entirely on his side, a cherubic face, stunning talent, and hell, he has already played First Class cricket for Bihar, Indian Premier League (IPL) fixtures for Rajasthan Royals, and is a vital cog within the India Under-19 outfit. The numbers he has stacked up are staggering.

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At a mere 14, he hammered 101 off 38 balls for Rajasthan Royals against Gujarat Titans in Jaipur during last year’s IPL. For those with a recency bias, there is the 175 he plundered against England in the Under-19 World Cup final at Harare on February 6.

He has done all this while still not being eligible for a driving licence or a voter ID, and obviously he will be barred at bars! At an age when boys are dealing with acne, exam-fever and the perplexity of adolescence, Suryavanshi is making headlines — and, unsurprisingly, the ‘next Sachin’ references have popped up.

The southpaw’s talent is for all to see and, already, whispers about blooding him into the senior Indian squad have begun. Still it is better to wait a bit for the boy to become a man, maybe sport a wisp of a moustache, gain some years and some certainty in his emotional arc.

The lines above may sound like the statutory warning in share market ventures, but some caution is essential while selectors allow him to organically flourish. It must be remembered that for even Tendulkar, there was a counter in Vinod Kambli. The latter made that oft-quoted comment about his buddy taking the elevator while he took the stairs, but when he did catch up with the former, he dazzled, albeit, all too briefly.

Tendulkar turned up first for India at 16 in a Test, and Kambli did that at 19 in an ODI. Briefly, the schoolmates found their tracks running parallel, and then the dynamic southpaw, who once toyed with the great Shane Warne at Sharjah, ran out of steam.

Form waned, a chink against short-pitched bowling undid his forays at the batting crease, and, more importantly, Kambli the person unravelled. His international career was over when he was just 28, ideally the prime stage in a batter’s life. Refusing to read the tea leaves, Kambli often moistened his throat with a potent liquid and soaked his soul within the stifling embrace of self-pity.

Flattering to deceive

A talent withered while Tendulkar watched aghast and, in his own way, tried to help. Readers of a certain vintage may still remember the effervescence that Kambli lent to a soft drink advertisement, which featured his other India mates too. Still, he remains a case of promising much and then flattering to deceive.

It need not be all gloom and doom, and yes, Suryavanshi needs to be celebrated in the immediacy of his runs and the hope he offers. To swing on the side of positivity, there is the Virat Kohli story. Again a star at the Under-19 level, Kohli’s transition to the India shade and to the Royal Challengers Bengaluru colours was not easy.

Speaking to him at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bengaluru, it was obvious that he was self-aware for someone still under 20. Yet during a candid interaction with select media personnel at a fancy hotel in the same city, he once opened up about how he presumed it would all come easy to him, indulged himself a bit, and then understood cricket at the international and even club level is tougher than his Under-19 skirmishes.

This was a man who held a mirror to himself and turned his career around. Suryavanshi has ideal role models in Tendulkar and Kohli. So too in other earlier Under-19 stars like Yuvraj Singh. But it is a minuscule club, as the graduation from teens to adulthood is never easy for most in real life. It is even tougher for young athletes torn between academics and sport, blinding limelight and honest sweat.

Throw in fame and excess money in the bank, and heads can sway, and the 5 a.m. alarm call can be ignored. The morning run is discarded, visits to the gym turn sporadic, and shots are played from a rusting muscle-memory. Just like Kambli, there are whispers about Prithvi Shaw now. Most would remember Unmukt Chand, Under-19 star primed to turn out for India. He also featured in a soft drink commercial with established stars. He even wrote a book, ‘The Sky is the Limit’. But he didn’t fly high.

Just as India celebrates its teenage prodigies, it also quickly tires of them once they fall by the wayside. Presciently, Tendulkar told the trophy-winning India Under-19 captain Ayush Mhatre: “Don’t lose focus and get distracted.” The legend was gently nudging the lad to chase his dreams of eventually playing for the India senior team.

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From the Under-19 level, cricketers still have to turn up for their local clubs, play for their State age-groups and try and break into the Ranji squad. At times patience wears thin and it is presumed that there is a magic bridge between Under-19 and the India colours, with the IPL lending a hand.

The cricketing fraternity will quickly pounce on attitude shifts, notes will be exchanged, and suddenly, the rising star becomes a wilting flower. Soon, it becomes a rage against the dying flame, and as more competitive talent emerges, the return to top-flight cricket becomes tough.

Support system essential

A support system is essential, at times the NCA, now the BCCI CoE, does that through its coaches and counselling sessions. A young and temperamental Harbhajan Singh almost contemplated shifting to Canada and driving trucks but he had a supportive captain in Sourav Ganguly, and he flourished.

Still, it all boils down to the youngster having the drive to persist and prosper. Suryavanshi has a long road ahead, and it is up to him to pave it with ballast and stride with confidence.