Inside Sri Lanka captain Dimuth Karunaratne’s stint in Victorian Sub-District cricket

His last Test match had been in July in Galle, against Pakistan.

Dimuth Karunaratne scored 40 and 61, and captained his Sri Lankan team to a handsome victory, in the process raising his 6000th Test run.

Two weeks earlier he had also led his side to an innings-win over Australia.

When Karunaratne next bats in a match, it will be at club level and on an old rubbish tip in the southeast of Melbourne.

The Sydney Pargeter Reserve in Endeavour Hills is named after a legendary local councillor and is large enough for five cricket grounds and a gridiron field.

The conversion from landfill site to sports complex began in the early 1980s.

It’s the home of Endeavour Hills Cricket Club, which plays in the Victorian Sub-District Cricket Association, the second tier of club cricket in the state.

In the past few months the Hills’ profile has been more in line with a Big Bash League franchise; they have organised a two-match T20 exhibition series and brought in players including Chris Gayle, Dawid Malan, Shoaib Malik and Karunaratne.

Dandenong’s Shepley Oval will host the T20 matches, which are being promoted on billboards next to freeways.

They will be ticketed events incorporating live music.

Endeavour Hills will go up against an as-yet-unnamed club team from Queensland and an ‘All Star’ XI expected to feature at least one former Test fast bowler.

Sri Lankan skipper Karunaratne will play not only in the T20s, but in the first six or seven rounds of the Subbies, under the captaincy of his former Sri Lankan skipper Tillakaratne Dilshan and alongside teammate Lahiru Thirimanne.

Thirimanne is the subject of a row between the Hills and the Sub-District association over his points classification.

The club argues he should be worth four since he played a handful of games last year and is a returning player.

Competition officials are adamant he should be five, pointing out he batted at Test level this year.

There was talk of a legal challenge from Endeavour Hills.

But a Cricket Victoria hearing will be held early next month and both parties will accept the final ruling and get on with the season.

There’s no dispute about the status of Karunaratne.

He is a five-pointer, of course.

And as a Test captain he’ll be among the most credentialed players to appear in Victorian Sub-District cricket.

“It’s a massive achievement for the club and the sponsors to attract a player like him,’’ Endeavour Hills committeeman Paul Kirchner says.

“For the local community and for local cricket, it’s a huge get.’’

Club president Arun Rajendran says: “It’s a huge honour for Endeavour Hills.

“Captain of Sri Lanka and he’ll be wearing the Endeavour Hills CC cap. That’s something very special for us.’’

It will be cap No.176. It has already been made ahead of the round one match against Bayswater on October 8.

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Dimuth Karunaratne and Lahiru Thirimanne regularly opened the batting together for Sri Lanka.

They did so against India in March.

And they did so on Sunday, in a practice match at Pargeter Reserve, against Victorian Premier Cricket club Frankston-Peninsula.

Karunaratne took a few balls to get off the mark. When he did, it was with an inside edge that went for four.

His other scoring shots were played with more authority, but there was no value for them on a soft infield slower than an arthritic tortoise.

Two punches off the back foot subsided into fairy-taps.

On 15 the left-hander was out caught behind to Frankston Peninsula captain James Nanopoulos.

There was no disgrace in that; Nanopoulos has taken almost 400 wickets in Premier Cricket and has hauls of 9-27 and 8-16 to his name.

Chasing 9-200, the Hills won with three wickets to spare after Thirimanne retired on 68.

Nanopoulos enjoyed bowling to Karunaratne and Thirimanne.

“It’s always a great challenge when you come up against proper cricketers and test yourself against the best,’’ he says. And he was pleased to put the Sri Lankan captain “in the pocket’’.

From behind the stumps, Frankston Peninsula wicketkeeper Jacques Augustin saw a “very, very good cricketer’’.

Augustin turned up to the game not knowing Karunaratne was at Endeavour Hills.

It was, he says, “too surreal to be playing against the Sri Lankan Test captain in a practice match’’.

“It’s nice to know even at the age of 32 there’s plenty of surprises coming through in your cricketing journey,’’ Augustin says.

He was surprised, too, that Nanopoulos had been so reserved after he dismissed so distinguished a batter.

Karunaratne had come from the ground after fielding for the first 25 overs of the Frankston Peninsula innings.

He went back on after some stretching exercises and a bite to eat.

In his last Test match he had complained of pain in his lower back, and he tells CODE his visit to Australia is about him “getting confidence back’’ after the injury and playing some cricket ahead of his country’s Test series against New Zealand early next year.

He says a few of his teammates have also filled the gap in the Test calendar by linking with club teams.

Oshada Fernando is one; he has also joined the VSDCA, signing with Taylors Lakes.

“It doesn’t matter whether it is a club in Sub-District or District,’’ Karunaratne says.

“You just want to play good cricket and get used to the conditions and keep the fitness and the skills.’’

Fernando also played in the Test series against Australia and Pakistan.

In both, the Sri Lankans lost the first match but won the second.

They’re third on the ICC World Test Championship table, behind Australia and South Africa.

Their skipper, a veteran of 82 Tests, is the eighth-best Test batter in the world on the official rankings.

“Lost the first one very badly against Australia and we came back strongly, which is what we wanted, the bounce-back,’’ Karunaratne says.

“As a captain, that’s what I’m expecting.

“The Pakistan series, we had the same results. We lost the first match and we came back again. That’s a very good sign for Sri Lankan cricket.”

But the Sri Lankan captain will not be captaining Endeavour Hills during his stint with the club; he’ll leave that to 45-year-old Dilshan, who is overseas representing the Sri Lankan Legends in the Road Safety World Series (and who caned a century against the Australian team).

As for the exhibition matches, Karunaratne says he is looking forward to playing with Gale and Malan, his former teammate at Yorkshire.

He says cricket is a game where “you never stop learning; this will be a good experience for me to see how they approach it’’.

Similarly, he says he is keen to help Endeavour Hills’ young players during his Subbies sojourn.

Karunaratne had arrived in Melbourne last Saturday (his family will come out at the end of October), AFL grand final day.

He landed too late to catch the match, but he’s familiar with the game.

“I watched once at the MCG. I have a bit of an idea. Not much,” he says.

“Cricket at the MCG, that is a bit different.”