ESPNCricinfo's Records archive is an endlessly fascinating treasure trove of cricket statistics and records, especially if you learn how to use Statsguru, their powerful statistical search engine. The idle cricket fan can spend hours clicking through table after table, hitting upon curiosities or unearthing unbeatable records. If you're not careful, it's a total time suck.
One such table is the best career bowling averages in List A cricket (you can read an explanation of 'List A' here).
At a glance, it doesn't tell you much, other than that West Indian quicks Keith Boyce and Joel Garner were incredible limited overs bowlers -- albeit during an era in which List A cricket was not as far removed from first-class and Test matches as it is today. And that's when you see it: all the names on the list plied their trade in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s... all except seven unusual individuals.
In ascending order of bowling average -- a figure which decreases with higher achievement -- they are:
| Name | Matches | Economy rate | Average |
| Ajantha Mendis | 134 | 4.28 | 17.85 |
| Nisitha Rupasinghe | 69 | 3.92 | 18.51 |
| Indika Gallage | 62 | 3.62 | 18.52 |
| Dinuka Hettiarachchi | 118 | 3.90 | 18.67 |
| Ranil Dhammika | 80 | 3.77 | 18.83 |
| Dinusha Fernando | 83 | 4.10 | 18.92 |
| Suwanji Madanayake | 71 | 3.68 | 19.13 |
All are Sri Lankan. Most are spin bowlers. And only one -- Mendis -- is a household name.
So who are these super Sri Lankans? And why are they so good at bowling in List A cricket?
The Chinaman Syndrome
The central figure in the novel 'Chinaman' is Pradeep Mathew, an astonishingly gifted (and fictional) spin bowler around whom author Shehan Karunatilaka spins a ripping yarn about Sri Lanka's recent political, social, and cricketing history.
Mathew is a freak: he can bowl fast, medium, fast-medium, medium-fast, and any variety of spin. He can also imitate any bowler in the world with great accuracy. But it's in his own preferred guise as a leg spinner (or 'chinaman' in cricketing parlance) that Mathew reaches the heights of the Sri Lanka national team, only to be forced out by the establishment and disappear without trace.
Ajantha Mendis is about as close to a real-life Pradeep Mathew as you can get. He burst onto the international scene in 2008 by dismissing several vaunted members of the Indian middle order -- some of the best players of spin in cricketing history -- in a one day international. He then hit similar heights in his first Test series, taking a record number of wickets for a debutant. Mendis brought the art of mystery spin back into vogue with his off-spinners, leg-spinners, and straight ones, including the now-common carrom ball. The world was at his feet.
Unfortunately, like the fictional Mathew, Mendis' career took a dive soon after. Within a couple of years, the video analysts at each of the world's other cricketing powers had figured him out, removing the 'mystery' for their batsmen. Mendis retains a fine bowling average for one day international cricket, but his Test average in the mid-thirties illustrates how he was unable to kick on to long-term glory.
But that was in international cricket. Back in Sri Lankan domestic cricket, Mendis remained a force -- and so, too, did the six names accompanying him on the list above.
The Magnificent Seven
It's really hard to keep your bowling average below 25 in List A cricket. To keep it under 20 is exceptional. And that's what makes these seven so magnificent. Of all the top-level cricketers making regular apperances since the year 2000 -- an era with heavier bats, shorter boundaries, and more runs -- they are the only ones to have managed it.
With such variety in their ranks, it's hard to identify exactly what it is about these super Sri Lankans that makes them such high achievers in List A cricket. Five of the seven -- Mendis, Nisitha Rupasinghe, Dinuka Hettiarachchi, Ranil Dhammika, and Suwanji Madanayake -- are spinners of various kinds. Two -- Indika Gallage and Dinusha Fernando -- are fast-medium bowlers. Four bowl left-handed; the other three are right-handed. They come from all over Sri Lanka, not from a single magical spring of one-day bowling talent.
A possible pointer is their strike rates. Unlike most of the other bowlers on the list of best career List A bowling averages, five of the seven have a strike rate of less than 30. The other two -- Gallage and Madanayake -- are very respectable at 30.9 and 31.1. This indicates that these bowlers take wickets more often than most, and as bowling average is calculating by dividing the number of runs conceded by the number of wickets taken, this brings their averages down.
Weather's With You
But then, the question becomes: why do they have such low strike rates? I have a theory. It has little to do with cricket.
It's commonly accepted that a flat, dry pitch with even bounce will be easy to bat on, while a grassy, moist pitch offers a lot more assistance to the bowlers. Fortunately for the likes of Mendis and Gallage, weather conditions in Sri Lanka -- particularly in capital Colombo, which sees more cricket than any other part of the country -- are perfect for creating bowler friendly pitches. Compared to the dustbowls of India or the chilly greens of England, Colombo's heat and humidity literally inject juice into its cricket pitches for the bowler to exploit.
I'm not surprised, therefore, that a look at the recent history of results in Sri Lanka's Premier Limited Overs Cricket Tournament indicate that teams are quite often bowled out (i.e. lose all ten wickets). Scores over 300 are virtually non-existent. In other words, the bowlers dominate to a degree unheard of in other countries' List A leagues. And that gives our seven -- ostensibly the cream of the bowling crop in Sri Lanka's domestic leagues -- regular opportunities to cash in.
Of course, it's always possible that the lot of them are just really good bowlers, independent of the weather or pitch conditions. Their records at the highest level would beg to differ -- only Mendis has played more than a couple of internationals, and even he has been reduced to a bit-part role in the Sri Lankan team -- but you can't tell any cricket story armed only with statistics. The tale of Pradeep Mathew proves that. So might the tale of the Super Sri Lankans of One Day Cricket.