Having earned a celebrated status as Sri Lanka’s first women’s cricket captain, Vanessa De Silva has gone on to become a pioneer of women’s cricket in Sri Lanka, after a short but successful cricketing career. She is now the Manager/ Coordinator of Sri Lanka Women’s Cricket. Vanessa is working hard to promote and organize women’s cricket around the island, and with the support of Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC), she hopes that one day our girls will bring home the World Cup Trophy.

Her own sporting career began not in cricket, but in softball. As captain of the women’s national softball team, she toured with the team to India in 1995; it was after she returned that she made the decision to focus on her ‘passion’ and joined the Colts Cricket Club that same year.

While she knew she was talented in the sport, Vanessa says she never expected to be made captain at just age 22, “It was a great achievement for me to be the first women’s cricket captain. I was selected by Gwen Herath, the former President of the Women's Cricket Association of Sri Lanka (WCASL) to captain the side for the 1997 Women’s World Cup in India, and I have to say she really inspired all of us back then. If it wasn’t for her, we might not have played cricket at all.”

While there weren’t many tours at the time, the team made maxiumum use of the games they had. Vanessa captained the winning team that took part in the 98’ innagural test match between Sri Lanka and Pakistan, the only test match the Sri Lanka women’s team have played to date.

One of the reason talented players like her retired early was the fact that women’s cricket was not a paid profession during her time. With family commitments and careers to focus on, most players gave up the sport early in their careers.

“My only regret would be that I gave up my international career too soon. I could have played for another 3 more years I think but, my family was more important too me.” Thankfully, things have changed since then, as Vanessa explains, now that the women’s side are professionally paid, more and more girls are playing for longer in the current squad, with most of them continuing for up to 6 to 7 years.

 

 

“The SLC are working hard to promote the women’s game by taking it to the grassroots level. Women’s cricket does not bring in funds like the men’s, so I’m very greatful for the amount of work and exposure the SLC is giving the women. I think the popularity of the game has risen here after the last World Cup in India was telecast live and our team did very well in that. Parents should encourage their daughters if they want to take up cricket as there are also now employment opportunites within the sector.” she explained.

After her marrige in 1999, Vanessa played for 3 more years before retiring to focus on her family and career in the travel industry. In 2008, she was selected to represent the Sri Lanka women’s team at the Asian Cricket Council and between 2008 to 09’ she was a selector for the national squad.

Around 09’ she took over her current position at the SLC, Speaking about her change in role from player to administrator, she says the switch was made easy given the fact that after having played at the highest level, she can understand both the players and SLC’s point of view. “I’m proud and happy to be part of women’s cricket in Sri Lanka. Iook after everything here so I’m quite happy to be doing something for my country.”

 

 

While Vanessa does love her work, she is also a mother to 2 little boys, which means everyday is a struggle to balance both her professional and personal lives. “My oldest son is 9 and my youngest is 1 year and 6 months. I make sure to dedicate my weekends to spending time with them. My oldest loves cricket and even plays at his school.” When queried if she’d like to have a cricket loving daughter someday, Vanessa laughingly answered with a definite no, adding, that having 2 children was already a handful.

Right now, Vanessa is determined to coontinue the hard work that’s being done to promote women’s cricket in Sri Lanka and lift up the women’s team to the No.1 side in the world -  hopefully, a world cup winning side at that! 

 

 

 

 

By Lake Argent

Pics by Samantha Perera