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 In the first ever under 19 Youth World Cup in 1998 two Sri Lankan cricketers took away the two most coveted awards in the tournament. They are Prassana Jayawardena of St. Sebastian's College, Moratuwa who won the Best Fielder's award and Pradeep Hewage of St.Benedict's College who won the Best Batsman's Award. Today both of them are knocking at the doors of the National Squad.

I like to have a little profile on Pradeep Hewage who won the Best Batsman's award in the 1^st Youth World Cup. I think Pradeep Hewage is the best cricketer produced by the St.Benedict's College in 90's. He also captained Sri Lanka under 19 squad for the 1^st Youth World Cup. He scored heavily throughout the Tournament and his innings of 83 against South Africa in the final Super League game was a gem.

Pradeep Hewage was a promising cricketer from his young age. In 1991 the Sri Lanka Schools Cricket Association selected him as the most outstanding under 13 cricketer. It was only the first step in his long journey of cricket. In that year he scored 6 centuries and took 60 wickets in the Astra Margarine Trophy. Then in 1993 he was selected to the College 1^st XI squad and he played 6 consecutive years for the College 1^st XI side. In 1996 he was appointed as the captain of the college cricket team. In 1996/97 season he scored over 1000 runs in 10 matches. He is a good medium pace bowler who could even share the new ball if needed. His electrifying fielding makes him a real all rounder. In 1995/96 season he was selected as the runner up for Best Fielder in Observer Bata Awards.

His first International tournament was Under 17 Youth World Cup, which was held in Malaysia in 94/95. He also played for the Sri Lankan under 19 and Schools side when foreign teams arrived here. But his best tournament was the MTN under 19 Youth World Cup, which was held in South Africa in 1998. He maintained an incredible average of 105.00 in the tournament. He scored four half centuries in the tournament. Then he played for the Sri Lanka 'A' against the South Africa and England 'A' teams in Sri Lanka. He scored 43 & 42 respectively against England in the 3^rd Unofficial Test Match at Moratuwa. Pradeep was chosen for the National Squad for the New Zealand tour of Sri Lanka in 1998. But he hasn't got any chances to play in Tests or ODI's. Last year he was surprisingly dropped from the Sri Lankan 'A' tour to England. But he was recalled at the latter part of the series and he proved that he is a quality batsman on any track by scoring 92 runs against Sussex at Hove.

Pradeep Hewage won the Observer Bata School Boy Cricketer award and the Prince of Wales award for the most outstanding School Boy Cricketer in 1998. These two awards are the most valuable awards a school cricketer can ever get in his career.

Let us hope that Pradeep Hewage would soon shine in the International Cricket field as he shined in the local arena.