Cricket Board official M. Rajasingham passes away

M. Rajasingham who was assistant manager of the Sri Lanka cricket team on their first official Test tour of England in 1984, passed away at his residence in Athurugiriya yesterday. He was in his late eighties.

M. Rajasingham

Raja as he was fondly known was assistant manager to Neil Chanmugam on that tour where Sri Lanka, the then-minnows of Test cricket, distinguished themselves on the big stage by outplaying England in the drawn one-off Test played at Lord’s.

Sidath Wettimuny scored a monumental 190 and skipper Duleep Mendis missed out on a century in each innings by six runs, scoring 112 and 94 runs respectively. Wicket-keeper Amal Silva also chipped in with a century as Sri Lanka dominated the Test against a hapless England side that had been whitewashed 5-0 by West Indies.

Former Sri Lanka Cricket Board Secretary Nuski Mohamed expressing his sympathies said: “Raja was a regular feature at the Cricket Board, having served in the ExCo and also in numerous committees, particularly the Tournament Committee during my tenure of office as Secretary in the 1980s. He served the game of cricket with a lot of dedication during this 10 year period and also went as an official with the Sri Lanka team on several overseas tours.”

Raja first served in the Cricket Board’s Umpires Committee for three years 1970-71 to 1972-73 before becoming Assistant Secretary in 1973-74 – a post which he held for seven years (from 1973-74 to 1979-80) under the Presidencies of Robert Senanayake, Maj. Gen. B.R. Heyn and Dr. N.M. Perera.

He later served in various other committees of the Cricket Board, in Tournament, Organising and District. At the time of his death he was serving as a Vice President of the Colombo District Cricket Association. Raja was employed in the State Plantations and in later years he worked as an administrative officer in the Cricket Board. 

His funeral took place yesterday afternoon at Aturugiriya. (ST)