Alihusen Momin

Marvan Atapattu was a Sri Lankan cricketer who played for the national team up until 2007. He is currently the coach of Sri Lanka's national cricket team. His cricket career story had its own ups and downs but his story is surely an inspirational one! When Marvan made his debut in test cricket for Sri Lanka, he scored a duck in his first innings. In the second innings as well, he scored a duck! The team hence dropped him from further matches. Marvan went back to the nets for more rigorous practice. Marvan started playing a lot of domestice first-class cricket (matches to last for three or more days). He kept on scoring and waited for a call from the Sri Lankan national team. After about 21 months, he finally got a second chance. He tried harder this time. And when he played his second international match, his scores were: 1st innings: 0 runs, 2nd innings: 0 runs. He was dropped from the team again and went back to practising again. He scored tonnes of runs in the domestic first-class cricket. He scored many runs but nothing seemed to erase the painful memories of his test cricket performances. And 17 months later, Marvan welcomed a new opportunity again. His scores for the test matches were: 0 and 0 in both the innings. What he did next is something you wouldn't expect; he was back at the grind AGAIN! Everyone was now wondering whether the selectors would ever again give him a chance or not. The selectors felt that he neither had the temperament nor the technique for big matches. Nonetheless, Marvan never stopped trying. Then 3 years later, he got a more chance; who would have thought, right? And this time, he played and played with all his heart and scored good. Then there was no stopping him. He went on to score over 5000 runs for Sri Lanka. That included sixteen centuries and six double hundreds. Not just this, he also captained his country. All this, after SIX years of struggle, determination, dedication, and hard-work. Six years of trying and failing again and again; how many of us can stand so many failures? He must have been tempted to pursue another career, play just the domestic cricket, change his sport altogether, or just give up. But he did not do any of these things. He knew where his heart was and worked only towards that. So the next time you think of quitting something you love whole-heatedly, think again and remember Marvan Atapattu's story and never give up. Moral:Never give up your passion. Work towards it with full determination and dedication.

This is an inspiring story based on Marvan Atapattu's (Sri Lankan cricketer) cricket career.Moral(s) of the story: determination, hard work, dedication

marvan atapattu stories

Kids moral stories help in improving their imagination & relate to real-world life. Here are age-specific bedtime stories for children by renowned storytellers.

An inspiring story of Marvan Atapattu, a Srilankan Cricketer

More like this