Gentlemen of the Emerald isle

IN July 1981, Sri Lanka became a full member of the International Cricket Conference (ICC). In March 1996, it won the World Cup. Most knowledgable observers of cricket had always felt that it should have become a full member much earlier. The history of cricket in Ceylon that became Sri Lanka is a long and distinguished one. In this book, S. S. Perera has provided an account of this history. Based on scrapbooks he started at the instance of his father 60 years ago, supplemented by extensive research, Perera has produced a comprehensive record. It is not straight chronological narration but a collection of notable events and accounts of personalities in Ceylon/Sri Lanka cricket and it has been edited and chronologically arranged by Muthiah. A mammoth effort, indeed.

The origin and growth of the game in the Crown Colony of Ceylon mirror the corresponding developments in India, the bigger British Colony to the North. Introduced by the British, fostered by the planters/boxwallahs, taken up with enthusiasm by the "locals", matches between European teams making way for contests on ethnic lines, and so on. The development of teams of Europeans, Sinhalese, Burghers, Moors (the Muslims), Malays and Tamils remind one of the Quadrangular and Pentangular tournaments of Bombay and Sind in pre-Independent India. If England had its Eton versus Harrow and Oxford versus Cambridge matches, Ceylon had its own Royal College versus St. Thomas College (both being schools) tradition, the matches generating as much enthusiasm as Test matches did later.

Ceylonese cricket has had a long connection with Indian cricket and with Madras in particular. The first tour of Madras by a Ceylonese team was in 1885-86 and it was when Ceylon visited in 1902-03, that captain Challenor (no relation of the great George Challenor of the West Indies) playing for Madras, scored 216, a ground record of which no one was aware in later years. The first tour of India was early in 1933. In this and in all the subsequent tours, matches were always played in Madras. In the thrilling victory of 1940, A. H. Goonaratne, the all-rounder stood out but Jayawickerama, the captain, Jayasundera, the fast bowler, M. Kelaart, the other Goonaratnes and the wicket keeper Ben Navaratne (once described by Bradman as the best wicketkeeper in the world) stand out in memory. The match of 1947 was of course lit up by the remarkable innings of M. Sathasivam. No one who saw it can ever forget it. Swashbuckling, insouciant, contemptuous almost of the best bowling South Zone had to offer, the shots flowed from elegant bat till Sathasivam threw his wicket away after scoring 215, surpassing what everyone thought was the Chepauk record of 213 by Joe Hardstaff (Jr) for Tennyson's XI in 1938. Nobody had heard of or remembered Challenor (including obviously Sathasivam). It was, at least as far as this reviewer is concerned, the finest display of batsmanship at Chepauk. F. C. De Saram and Jayawickerma with the bat and de Krester with the ball helped Ceylon to an innings victory. There were other tours and other matches, all of which find mention here. And India toured Ceylon more than once. In later years, these were not always pleasant. Ranatunga's remark that Sri Lanka could never win in India unless there were neutral umpires and Indian gripes about Sri Lankan umpiring in the 1990s being fair indicators. But these did not affect the cordiality of Indo-Sri Lankan cricket relations and India was one of the strongest sponsors of Sri Lanka for full membership.

Ceylon had the advantage of "whistle stops" at Colombo by the English and Australian cricket teams proceeding by ship from one country to the other in quest of the "Ashes". These were not always taken seriously by the touring teams but the Ceylon teams did quite well on a few occasions. There were other tours by other teams from among the full members of the ICC. Most teams that toured India from the time of Jardine's MCC in 1933-34 and Ryder's Australian XI in 1935-36 down to the post-war sides included a tour of Ceylon in their itinerary.

The special relationship between Ceylon and Madras is best exemplified by the Gopalan trophy. Instituted in 1953 at the instance of V. Pattabhiraman (Pattu) and K. S. Ranga Rao and donated by Pattu and Narasimha Rao, this was for the victor of the annual match between Madras and Ceylon. The photograph of the players in the first match will bring back nostalgic memories to Madras cricket addicts. The matches came to an end in 1983. Over this period, Ceylon performed rather better than Madras. Venkataraghavan and V. V. Kumar, the former in particular, have fine achievements to look back upon in the series. Perera says the series needs revival and no one will disagree. There have been some noises recently about revival, possibly in another form. One hopes something will materialise. Incidentally, two stalwarts of Madras cricket, R. B. Alagannan (who led Madras to its first Ranji trophy triumph in 1954-55) and N. Kannayiram cut their cricketing teeth, so to say, in Ceylon.

All this is in this book but there is much more. It talks of the travails and achievements of the early pioneers like Saravanamuttu (Sara), Dr. Gunasekara and D. L. de Saram and of the performances of the pre-1981 stalwarts like F. C. de Saram, S. S. Jayawickrema, M. Sathasivam, Heyn. Jayasundera, Jayasinghe, Prins Tissera, C. I. Gunasekara and Lafir. It has details of the bizarre, the amusing, the regrettable and the uplifting moments and incidents of Ceylon cricket. F. C. de Saram, Ceylon's first cricket "Blue" invited to be a member of the MCC team to tour West Indies in 1934-35, distinguished himself in the Ceylon Artillery and in 1962, was arrested along with other Army officers and accused of planning a coup against the Government. He was released by the Privy Council on appeal (as was Sathasivam, convicted and sentenced to death for the murder of his wife, though this the book does not record). The book tells of the distinguished Sri Lankans who played county cricket in England of whom Gamini Gunasena earlier and Aravinda de Silva recently are the best known. It talks uninhibitedly also of the intrigues in officialdom, the playing around with captaincy and team selection and the quarrels, all familiar stuff to us in India. Two points stand out in the narration. The first is the appearance of a number of members of the same family down the years, be it the De Sarams, the Kelaarts, the de Kresters, the Pereras or the Mendises. The second is the active association with cricket in the island of Prime Ministers and other high ranking figures like the Senanayakes (father and son). Kotelawala, Jayawardene and Gamini Dissanayake who led Sri Lanka to test status and whose assassination in 1994 was a great loss to Lanka and Lankan cricket.

Both the Foreword and the author's preface concede the possibility of errors but there are gratifyingly few. F. R. Brown's 1950-51 MCC team is described as having regained the Ashes. In fact, it lost the series 4-1 but in winning the last test, recorded the first victory over Australia since 1938. The book is very well got up and is a handsome tome indeed. Mention must be made of the superb table of contents, which gives a gist of each chapter, a boon for quick references, the excellent chronology and the extensive index.

K. V. RAMANATHAN

The Janashakthi Book Of Sri Lanka Cricket (1832-1996), S. S. Perera, Edited by S. Muthiah, Janashakthi, distributed by EastWest, p. 636, Rs. 1,950.

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