Wayamba skipper Jehan Mubarak is a not only a superb cricketer but also a voracious reader and an expert water polo player.

Brawn. Muscle. Machismo. Terms commonly associated with sportsmen. Perfectly embodying the alpha male concept, our sporting heroes pride themselves on their robust bodies, ultra-competitive streak and bawdy sense of humour. So when you hear of a sporting star who reads Shakespeare and was offered a seat in the Natural Science department at Cambridge, you sit up and take notice.

Jehan's tryst with literature began in school where he was the President of the Shakespeare Drama Society. He even played the role of Juliet in his all-boys school's version of the Bard's most famous romance. Taking a giant leap from art to athletics, the young Sri Lankan, born in Washington, made a beeline for sports. A decision likely to have caused his family of academics some heartache. His father, a Cambridge University research scholar, is currently director of Industrial Technology Institute in Colombo. His mother is an under-graduate from University of Colombo and his younger sister is studying environmental science in Australia.

But much unlike most sub-continental cricketers who graduate straight from the crib to the crease, Mubarak spent his schooldays in the swimming pool rather than on the cricket field. In fact, the water baby, who took to swimming at the age of four, was good enough to have set new standards in the sport. Mubarak holds five national records at the U-11 and U-13 level in both, the backstroke and butterfly categories. Since the U-15s and U-17s, Mubarak concentrated just on the butterfly stroke. At the under-19s, he even had a couple of relay records.

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Where one talent flourishes, many others abound. Water polo is another of Mubarak's interests and areas of excellence. Though he says he did not spend much time swimming after school, he won a few titles at the national swimming meet when he made his Test debut in 2002-03.

Mubarak says swimming and water polo help him keep fit. "Balancing both cricket and swimming is not a problem at all. I love being in the pool.''

Ask the multi-faceted cricketer how he knew what his calling was and he replies, "I was very clear in my mind about what I wanted to do, so I did not go to Cambridge. But that did not mean I gave up studying. I finished my undergraduate course in Science from the University of Colombo."

Having spent so many years mastering swimming and water sports, has he dried himself off the interest completely? He says, with characteristic clarity: "I could consider taking up competitive water polo if it is included at the SAF Games and if I am available. Right now, cricket is my top priority.'' Mubarak was picked for the Lankan team that participated in the 2005 Asia-Pacific water polo tournament in Hong Kong.

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An avid reader, Mubarak says he has been inspired by Lance Armstrong's autobiography My Journey Back To Life. "You can learn a lot about a sportsperson's attitude towards his game from this book," he says.

You can also learn a lot about a cricketer from the interests he nurtures- drama, swimming, natural science. In Jehan Mubarak, Wayamba has a captain who refuses to be confined to the narrow ideas of a what a cricketer is meant to be. He will hope that his team is similarly unfettered in CLT20.

Courtesy: www.clt20.com