The honourable schoolboys

SRI LANKA is unique among Test playing nations in not having a domestic first class tournament. Its cricketers do not come up through the tough grind of Ranji Trophy or Sheffield Shield; they are moulded by the gentler ambience of club and especially school cricket. Till very recently, the ceremonial encounters of rival schools would attract larger crowds than an international match. In the third week of March, Royal College plays St. Thomas' College in Colombo, a fixture that is now comfortably past its hundredth iteration. This encounter of Catholic institutions is followed by the clash of the Buddhist ones, Ananda versus Nalanda, then would come (before the civil war broke out) the match up of Tamil Schools from Jaffna, of Jesuit schools in Kandy, of sundry trans-denominational schools in Galle, Morutawa, and elsewhere.

Given this background, Sri Lanka's victory in the 1996 World Cup must count as the most stunning upset in cricket history. Till then, cricketers and cricket-watchers from other countries, not least India, liked to regard the Sri Lankans as charming fellows, spirited chaps really, who would play a dazzling innings or two before graciously shaking hands, as good losers will, with their opponents. How then did this team of little fat schoolboys, this side of part-timers and no-hopers, become cricket's world champions?

A kind of answer is provided in a recently published and handsomely printed book called The Janashakti Book Of Sri Lankan Cricket. The title page identifies S. S. Perera as the author but adds that the book has been "edited" by S. Muthiah. The first is a long time follower of Sri Lankan cricket and collector of its memorabilia; the second is an author and cricket lover best known as a historian of Madras (Chennai), but who, in a previous incarnation, had been a leading journalist of Colombo. Together they have produced a vast compendium of cricketing facts, facts arcane and commonplace, solemn and evocative. Their book is rich in visual illustration, in photographs, maps, cartoons, caricatures and sketches. There are scorecards of all the important matches played by or on the island. There is a proper emphasis on cricket in the schools, but too much space is given to the curriculum vitae of the politicians and bureaucras who have served as presidents and vice-presidents of the Sri Lankan Cricket Board. Altogether 2,000 names are mentioned in the book. Many of these, generally schoolboy cricketers, appear only once, but the true greats of Sri Lankan Cricket are allowed three or four paragraphs apiece.

Reading the book, one makes the acquaintance afresh of such hallowed names as Tommy Kelaart, Churchill Hector Gunasekaran, F. C. de Saram, Mahadeva Sathasivam, Ben Navaratne, Stanley Jayasinghe, Michael Tissera, and Anura Tennekoon. But we find within these pages, too, the names and deeds of those who have more recently played with distinction in official Test cricket, such as Duleep Mendis, Siddath Wettimuny, Somachandra D'Silva, Roy Dias and the members of that all-conquering side of 1996.

The Perera-Muthiah book displays a marvellous attention to locality. The origins and development of the game in different hamlets, towns, cities and institutions is scrupulously charted out. It is geographically comprehensive, and socially inclusive too. It treats with respect and attention the European schoolmasters who first promoted the game among the young natives. It talks of the seminal contributions to cricket administration made by two Tamils, John Rajathurai Rockwood and Pakiasothy Saravanamuttu. It shows how the aristocratic Burghers, of Dutch origin, were the first Sri Lankan players of quality. We learn that one of the first clubs, formed in 1872, was run by and for the Malays. Other early converts to the game were the Moors, Muslims who came to the island from West Asia. The dominant Sinhala community took to the game rather late, but took to it with vigour nevertheless.

This is a 800-page, large format book, into the making of which have gone years of learning and love. Among the nuggets the authors have uncovered, let me share two. In November 1886, the island witnessed its first "international" match, between a team of visiting Englishmen captained by G. F. Vernon and an "All- Ceylon" side of resident whites. The gate charges were 25 cents for standing on the road that ringed the field, one rupee for entering the ground, and two rupees for admittance to the pavilion. These rates should be immediately brought to the attention of those who organise international matches today.

Move on to July 1936, when a Muslim girl, Noor Bee Salihue, appeared in a cricket match for St. John's Girls School, Panadura. This stirred a "hornet's nest among the Moors of Ceylon". In response to criticism from the keepers of the faith, Miss Salihue published a letter in the newspapers, wherein she stated: "The old order changeth yielding to the new. Oh ye Muslims, give your sisters fraternity, liberty and equality in all branches of knowledge. It is unpleasant keeping us shut up like prisoners in Welikada jail". Brave words, though drafted perhaps not by Miss Salihue but by her schoolteacher.

Before the ship was replaced by the aeroplane, Colombo lay on the route taken by cricket teams commuting between England and Australia. In 1891, W. G. Grace arrived in Ceylon as part of an All-England side, Unhappily, on the same ship, the RMS Arcadia, was the great African explorer Henry Morgan Stanley. The crowd at the Galle Face Grounds paid more attention to Stanley than to the cricketer. Grace was not amused, and "disappeared into the pavilion and was not seen for sometime". He did come out to bat, making a dozen runs before hitting his own wicket.

Thirty-eight years later, Donald Bradman came to Colombo, part of W. M. Woodfull's team due to tour England. Oddly enough, he too was out hit wicket, apparently the only time he was ever dismissed thus. Bradman had then scored 40. In the spring of 1938 he came ashore again, this time as captain of an Australian side en route to the mother country. The Ceylon Government Railways advertised the match, as follows: "Watch Bradman at the wickets - day excursion tickets available". Fans came from all corners, but Bradman caught (or feigned) a cold, and did not play. However, Lindsay Hassett and Jack Badcock scored centuries. These whistle- stop matches were interrupted after the Second World War, but in 1948 Bradman and company came again. On March 27, 20,000 Ceylonese crowded into the Colombo Oval to watch Bradman score a quick 20, before holing out to cover.

The Janashakti Book Of Cricket shows how long and sustained is the Sri Lankan love for the game, how it is shared by high and low, by coast and upland, by Tamil, Burgher, Malay, Moor, European and Sinhala. This history notwithstanding, the later achievements of Sri Lankan cricket are still remarkable for the (lack of) size of the island, for the absence of a first-class domestic game, and for the ongoing civil war. We have much to admire in our neighbours' sporting history, and much to envy too. For we cricket-mad Indians were denied the sight, in the flesh and at the crease, of W. G. Grace and Don Bradman, arguably the two most influential and charismatic cricketers who ever played the game.

RAMACHANDRA GUHA

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