Two of the best come together at cricket

It was in the year 1960 that as a 15-year-old, I was picked to be a part of the St. Benedict’s College first eleven cricket squad, led by Elmo Rodrigopulle.

l was the second wicket keeper, to that very competent stumper Allan Gunasekera who was highly rated amongst the schools, not only for his glove work behind the stumps, but also for his skills with the bat. I hadn’t bargained for this elevation at least, not so soon and was quite happy to be around the big boys, just learning by watching Allan at work.

I however had little realised that our coach Bertie Wijesinghe, who had represented the country and one of the best in the business, had other ideas for me, and I soon found myself being groomed to open the batting in the school’s first eleven. That was the beginning of five years of the best period in my entire cricket career.

Cricket at St. Benedict’s was on a high in the 1950s with the school emerging unbeaten under skipper Toto Abeydeera and a few years later annexing the inter school championships, with that outstanding sportsman L.P. Rayen at the helm. The school had a host of brilliant cricketers of the calibre of Neville Casie Chetty, Lionel Fernando and Cecil Waidyaratne, to look upon as role models and heroes. 

This was not all, because we were also blessed with some outstanding sports administrators such as A. Gnanapragasam and Bede Puvimannasinghe together with cricket coaches Edward Kellart and Bertie Wijesinghe, ex-national caps undoubtedly amongst the best, to drive our cricket.

School cricket in general was at its peak, with almost every school game attracting thousands of spectators all-round the country during the cricket season. Kotahena was no different, at the same time very special because we were then the only leading school, playing top grade cricket in that nook of the woods. The SBC grounds was splitting at the seams with supporters of both schools occupying every inch of space, every Friday and Saturday. The students and the old boys were early birds, looking for vantage positions.

A non-stop carnival atmosphere prevailed, with the beating of drums, the blowing of trumpets, shouting of slogans, all to rhythm. Believe me, when one is in the middle battling for your school, a slogan such as “what’s the colour? Green and white” brings music to your ears and lifts up morale by many notches.

To our minds every school match during that period was considered a ‘Big Match’ and we would never have traded it for anything else. I have no doubt that Wesley too adopted a similar philosophy as us. Whenever someone asked me in those days as to why we did not play a big match, my retort was “For what?”

Sri Lanka cricket was making giant strides and slowly but surely convinced the ICC in 1981 that we were ready to be admitted as a full member, eligible to play Test cricket. We were now in the big league as a cricket nation and every Sri Lankan was wanting to be a part of it. The spectator shifts from school cricket, to national cricket was inevitable, but very few foresaw how fast it would be. It came like a tsunami and for the last many years, there was only a man and a dog at most school matches.

In this situation, schools particularly without special annual cricket encounters, needed to fill this void in the interest of the students.

Both Wesley and St. Benedict’s are amongst the oldest Christian schools in the country, just a couple of years apart in age. Wesley is Methodist and St. Benedict’s, Catholic. Both institutions professed very high Christian values and also instilled good discipline at all times. The culture of both schools is very similar in nature and there is perfect synergy between the two. Their coming together after such long time, could be put down as God’s work.

All credit is due to the Head of Wesley Avanka Fernando and the Directors of St. Benedict’s, Rev. Brother Tarcisius at first and Rev. Brother Pubudu after, who together with the old boys of both schools, after numerous productive discussions, came up with a concept different to that of the traditional ‘Big Matches’ already in force.

In my entire school cricket career, I never had the opportunity of playing Wesley but have had the privilege of playing with and against numerous Wesleyites throughout my cricketing career. I considered it a pleasure being associated with them.

However even if it may sound somewhat boastful, I was first Rugby Captain of St. Benedict’s and  in our first year in the game, beat Wesley at Campbell Park. But the reason I mention this is that, Wesley rugby for some time now has been in the top rung and we would likely need their advice on how to get there.

Kotahena was a little Caribbean during the cricket season, with every bare patch occupied with its own softball cricket match, having schoolboys from a variety of leading colleges in Colombo North. The first and probably the only Wesleyite that talked his way into these matches was Peter Christy and he singlehandedly kept the Wesley flag flying, although outnumbered by stacks of Bens.

My very first friendship in Senior cricket amongst Wesleyites was with Lalith Wijesinha, when he was my teammate touring India with the Sri Lanka Schools team in 1962. Lalith and I got on so well that I soon realised that we had a lot in common.

In 1964 I toured India with Michael Tissera’s Sri Lanka team and was the youngest member on the squad, as the second wicket keeper. It was a well-experienced team and I soon found out, that despite being the youngest, I had to look after myself. 

My roommates were seniors Abu Fuard and Sylvester Dias, both of whom have now sadly passed away. Abu was one of the best that the country had produced as an off spinner. He fought for the underdog as a cricket administrator and worked according to what he conceived was right. Abu made a huge contribution to the development of cricket in Sri Lanka at a critical time in the country’s cricket history.

All my club cricket was played at the Nondescripts Cricket Club and it was there that I cultivated great friendships with those from Wesley. Lucky Gunatileke with his left arm whipping deliveries was lethal and Ted Dexter would vouch for that. 

The Jeganathan twins Haritharan and Sridharan were diehard NCC loyalists with Sridharan exceptionally talented, that on his day, he could turn a game on its head, all on his own. There was nothing he could not do, and every year volunteered to be Santa at my children’s Christmas parties, and they just loved him, with Sri being like them.

Russel Hamer was a natural wicket keeper and later in my career for Sri Lanka competed with me for the wicket keeper’s berth. It was hard fought with no quarter asked and no quarter given, but we never allowed our friendship to suffer as a result. After we had both finished our international cricket, he brought his son Peter to me at the NCC and said, “Ranjit, I am leaving Peter in your hands.”

C.T. Rodrigo, Sarath Wickramaratna, Milroy Muthuvelu and Kenneth De Zilva were my dear cricket and hockey mates. Darrel Maye l recall was the School Boy Cricketer of the Year and Wesley under him was the Best School Team. Darrel was a joy to have as a team mate in combined schools’ teams.

I cannot fail to mention the great Wesley academic Richard Ebell, with whom I had the pleasure of participating in an Institute of Marketing course in Malaysia, where I was able to get some valuable insights from him. We became good friends. Richard was an outstanding hurdler too, but his brilliance in his academic prowess put sports in the background.

My experience working under the Chairmanship of Rienzie Wijesekera for Sri Lanka Cricket was an opportunity that I always cherished. Rienzie was a true professional and I learnt a lot from that experience.

It makes me proud to see some of the younger generation, Navin De Silva and Fervez Maharoof from Wesley with whom l had the pleasure of associating at the NCC, later as a cricket administrator, taking on responsibility in governing Golf and cricket respectively. I wish them all success in their endeavours.

Writing about anything connected with cricket at Wesley and not touching on that great Mahadevan Sathasivam would be doing a disrespect to the sport. Wherever I have met cricketers who have played with him and against him, they say he was the best as a batsman and with this inaugural encounter I wish to pay tribute to him.

I have saved the last for our groundsman Rogus Perera who passed away many years ago, but I would be failing in my obligation if I don’t remember him on this memorable occasion. Rogus was our groundsman for years and years and I don’t know whether he himself knew how many years he had served with loyalty and love, to be the best he could be.

Rogus was a technical genius who handcrafted bats, turned out machines for ground markings and manufactured slip cradles for catching practice. He was outstanding in preparing good and fair pitches, and even designing run by run scoreboards. He was a Jack of all trades and was the pair of hands to keep St. Benedict’s sports up and running for uncountable years. It was a labour of pure love. 

His biggest cricket moment was when the Bens under Sunil Fernando, my brother, carried everything before them to be the Best School Cricket Team in 1964. Rogus Perera has to be recognised at this great event, in the history of St. Benedict’s.

I see a big resemblance between those from Wesley and most of the Bens and have no doubt that the Ben-Wesley encounter will go from strength to strength and will achieve the goals that the two schools have embarked upon. God bless you all.

(The writer was St. Benedict’s College Cricket Captain 1962 and School Boy Cricketer of the Year 1964.)