Chamari Athapaththu’s World Cup dream crashes: When belief wasn’t enough

Leading a pack can often put a target on your back. Ask Chamari Athapaththu. In an era of transition for Sri Lankan cricket, Athapaththu sacrificed a lot to become the backbone around which the women’s game could grow.  

“I want to see my team in the semifinal of this World Cup. That’s my wish,” Athapaththu had said ahead of the T20 World Cup Qualifiers in the UAE earlier this year, which they went on to win.  

Six months later, her team is staring at a rather anticlimactic finish to what’s been a fairytale run over the last year and a half.  

After two group game losses in the World Cup, Athapaththu fronted up to the side’s underwhelming performance and her own role in it.  

“Fans probably had a lot of expectations that we would play in the semifinals this year. We have two matches left, and I want to tell fans not to lose hope,” she had said ahead of the do-or-die encounter against India in Dubai.  

Though she spoke to the press in both English and Sinhalese, her desperation to turn things around for her team was more evident in her native tongue. There was no masking, no talk of ‘process’ or ‘assessing conditions.’  

She detailed a conversation she had with herself after the first two losses, especially since she had failed with the bat. The skipper registered scores of 3 (12 balls) against Australia and 6 (9 balls) against Pakistan in the first two fixtures. She had a great night with the ball against Pakistan (3/18), but without the win, it meant little.  

“Our expectations before we came were that the Dubai and Sharjah tracks would be batting tracks, because I had that kind of experience when I played here before. But as batters, we can’t complain about the conditions. We have to play our best cricket and adapt — that is the most important thing. I saw how Nat Sciver-Brunt played, and even Laura (Wolvaardt) and the other South African batters. I asked myself the same question: ‘Why can’t I play?’” she said.  

She compared Sri Lanka’s batting brain fade to the performances of South Africa and New Zealand (vs India).  

“If we take in too much information and pressure on our shoulders, it becomes hard to play cricket,” she exclaimed. “We have to play fearless cricket. That’s the most important thing.” 

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Remembering bravery

The lead-up to the T20 World Cup was significant for the Lankan captain. She led her side to a historic maiden Asia Cup title, defeating South Africa, New Zealand, and England in bilateral T20I series — all for the first time in their cricketing history. Athapaththu led from the front, amassing 684 runs at an average of 42.75 and a strike rate of 130.53, including two centuries and four fifties.  

She was ably assisted by two young talents in Vishmi Gunaratne (467 runs this season) and Harshita Samarawickrama (564 runs, including an unbeaten 84* against India in the Asia Cup).  

With the ball, Kavisha Dilhari has 22 wickets in 20 games. Inoshi Priyadharshani has 20, and Athapaththu herself has 19. Her senior pros — Sugandika Kumari and Udeshika Prabodhani  — played pivotal roles in key victories, particularly in the Asia Cup.  

In the UAE, while the bowling clicked, the batting seemed to have short-circuited.  

“We can’t blame anyone or the conditions. Other teams face the same challenges we do. If they can overcome them, there’s no reason we can’t either.”  

The Sri Lankan squad isn’t young, with an average age of about 30. Priyadharshani, Prabodhani, and Ranaweera are all over 37. Six others, including Athapaththu, are in their 30s. The skipper has thus been on overdrive, pushing the younger players to step up for when she and her peers eventually retire.  

“I don’t want to pressure the young players. It’s important they stay relaxed before important games. I’ve shared my experience with them, having been in these situations before. We’re not a team that’s won the world championship or made it to the finals. But now, expectations are much higher. I’m taking as much of that pressure as I can.” 

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Perpetual firefighting

Athapaththu is like a sponge bursting at the seams, waiting to rain down on her opponents, and it is in these situations that the world has seen the best of her.  

That Asia Cup final against India was just the latest in a long line of rescue acts she has staged for her country. With a steep 165 to chase against a quality bowling side, she made a fighting 61 (43 balls), leaving 72 runs to get in the final eight overs.  

This is where her constant encouragement and mentoring of her ‘kids’ (as she calls them) paid off. Harshita Samarawickrama, who might succeed her as captain, was thrown into the deep end and emerged victorious, securing a huge win and the trophy to boot.  

“That Asia Cup win… we beat the best team in the world. They have so much experience and play a lot of franchise cricket. Compared to India, we don’t have such players, and still, we played good cricket as a team. As a captain, I’m so proud of my girls,” she had said.  

In the crucial league game against India in the UAE, it was the Sri Lankan skipper who made the first move, running out Smriti Mandhana and then dismissing Shafali Verma in consecutive deliveries. It was the lone bright spot in an otherwise lacklustre bowling display, where the players seemed to retreat under pressure.  

With India setting a tournament-high 173, Sri Lanka needed Athapaththu to anchor the chase.  

But even the best of sponges wears out. After years of carrying Sri Lanka on her shoulders, India broke her. She watched as her opening partner Gunaratne fell for a first-ball duck, and then she edged Shreyanka Patil to Deepti Sharma at slips.  

At the Asia Cup just months ago, with her part done, Athapaththu had paced around anxiously, waiting like a mother to see if her child had cleared their class 10 board exam. But this time, she fell short, managing just one run from three balls in a must-win fixture, which all but ended her team’s tournament hopes. 

FILE PHOTO: Chamari Athapaththu of Sri Lanka with the trophy after the ACC Women’s T20 Asia Cup 2024 Final. | Photo Credit: Asian Cricket Council

A towering personality

Mention her name in the press box, and Sri Lankan reporters will tell you tales of how she has been waging a battle for relevance for the women’s game in her country long before it became the norm to do so.  

She was one of the loudest voices calling for match time for Sri Lanka during the pandemic, when the women’s team went over 500 days without an international fixture.  

Her growing stature in international cricket — bolstered by her performances in franchise tournaments and the international stage — forced the Sri Lankan board to take notice. 

The fact that the women’s team captain now has brand endorsements and was there to inaugurate the Lankan Premier League, where she was hailed as the pride of Sri Lankan cricket, speaks volumes about how Athapaththu has shattered the glass ceiling in the island nation.  

In a team of senior players, she has been the leader, banding together a coy and unconfident side – often stuttering to speak the tongue of the international game (literally and otherwise) – and taught them to believe. Sit with her for a chat, and she could convince you that you can change the world.  

That lure of leadership and a strong umbilical cord holding her close to this team have brought her back from a couple of retirement considerations. For the time being, we know she will be front and centre of this team at least until the 2025 ODI World Cup in India.  

Cricket isn’t done with Chamari Athapaththu, and for the sake of Sri Lanka and the women’s game at large, one can only hope she isn’t done with the sport either.