Vaas has to be admired as one good follower of his untiring and unnoticed predecessors © AFP

There were many before Chaminda Vaas who excelled for Sri Lanka with the new ball. At what point does Vaas, who literally helped criss-cross two eras of Sri Lankan cricket – from underrated minnows to uncompromising world beaters — stand among the best fast bowlers Sri Lanka has produced? Revata S Silva finds out in the Island.

An unassuming and silent servant of the game, even after all his hard-earned achievements — over 350 Test and 400 ODI wickets, an impressive tally of 26 wickets in a 3-Test series against Brian Lara’s Windies in dusty local pitches that were made to suit Murali’s spin, his eight-for in an ODI and the much-hyped ‘first-3-ball hat-trick’ against Bangladesh in the 2003 World Cup —both fantastic world records — never made Vaas a toffee-nosed chap.