My
Thomian Cricketing Heroes and colleagues from the '50s and '60s
I joined S.Thomas'
College in 1957. At that time, in my little mind, I thought
S.Thomas' College Mt. Lavinia was the center of the Universe and
Cricket was the factor that made it so. The Warden was the much
revered Canon R.S.De Saram, an old Thomian himself and more
importantly a Thomian Cricket coloursman. The 1st XI
Captain was the batting supremo, the stylish Michael Tissera.
The Prime Minister was Mr S.W.R.D.Bandaranaike, who, though not
a cricketer was a brilliant product of S.Thomas' and Oxford
University. Two former Thomian Captains were playing for Oxford
(Dan Piachaud) and Cambridge (RI.Pieris). The world looked a
beautiful place for a little boy waiting to join the College
around which the Universe revolved!
I was brought up in a
noisy Thomian neighborhood, with three elder brothers already in
College and as immediate neighbors we had the Boralessa
brothers, one of whom was to later become one of my cricketing
idols - the great batsman/Wicketkeeper, Kumar Boralessa.
Playtime meant only one thing - cricket. We younger ones sat at
the feet of the more senior Thomians in our crowd and listened
to the stories of the Thomian legends of the past. They told us
in revered terms how Norman Siebel broke the Royal-Thomian
batting record by scoring 151* surpassing Royalist RC De Saram's
140; how RI.Pieris came in to bat on the 1st day of
the 1953 match with the score reading 15 for 4 wickets and
smashed a brilliant 123; how M.O.Gooneratne scored 107 and took
7 for 34 in the 1935 match; how Alex Wijesinha stroked a stylish
115* in 1934; about the great Thomian centurions B.T.Jansz,
N.A.De.S.Wijesekera, A.F(Chikka) Molamure and W.Jayatilleke;
plus other legendary Thomian cricketers of the past like Bertie
Wijesinha, Donald Fairweather, the Saravanamuttu brothers,
Vernon Prins....and the list went on and on and on. I listened,
absorbed...... and dreamt.
The first Royal-Thomian
match I witnessed was in 1956 when I was in pre-school. Royal
batted first and after Jothilingam scored 121 in a Royal total
of 283, Ronald Reid scored 158 not out to take us to 288 for 9
declared and in the process became the batting record holder.
The match was drawn, but who cared? Another Thomian legend and a
hero was born that day and I was there to witness it. I was so
proud as I waved a small Thomian flag to celebrate this great
effort. The wait was becoming unbearable. I needed to be a fully
fledged Thomian.
The day dawned in
January 1957 and I was escorted to College by my Father and my
three elder brothers. I was told that a really great day would
be the following Friday, when there would be a 1st XI
match played at the Big Club Grounds. The day came and as soon
as the lunch interval bell rang, the entire Lower School rushed
to the edge of the boundary to watch the College team playing.
Lunch was forgotten as we fought to get to a vantage point to
see the cricket. It seemed as though this was the reason I
joined S.Thomas'! Nothing else mattered, just as long as there
was cricket.
What a sight it was to
see master batsman Michael Tissera captaining the side and
leading such a brilliant team which included Big Match batting
record holder Ronald Reid, left handed dogged opener U.R.R(Gompa)
Goonetilleke, stylish batsman Nihal Gurusinghe, right handed
batsman D.D.(Corky) Abeysekera, stylish left hander
L.R.Amarasekera a middle order batsman who later became a highly
successful opening bat for STC and Ceylon, T.C.T. Edwards, all
rounder Asoka Wickramanayake, leg spinning legend Lareef Idroos,
the pacie with the silken action Dennis Ferdinands, big burly
pace bowler J.K.C.(Labba) Gunasekera and the Prince of Wicket
Keepers, Errol Lisk. Every one of these greats would easily get
into a Thomian Cricketers' Hall of Fame. Many of them played for
Ceylon shortly after leaving college, with Michael Tissera
representing Ceylon while still a schoolboy, a rare achievement
in those days. My cup was overflowing! As I sat at the boundary
edge watching those heroes, I swore that if ever I did anything
worthwhile during my college career, it would be to represent
College in a Royal Thomian and wear that Blue Black and Blue
Blazer. First
impressions of
watching these Thomian Gladiators was so great on any young
Thomian that I still remember the day when Michael Tissera
walked out to bat from the old pavilion, through an adoring
group of small Thomians when his bat accidentally struck my
head. He touched my head and said "Sorry, son". When I got home,
I refused to obey my Mother who wanted all of us brothers in the
showers. She asked me why I disobeyed her, to which I replied
that Michael Tissera had touched my head and I did not want to
wash it off! I got more than the traditional Thomian 'six of the
best' from her that day. Never mind!
Winds of change were
blowing through S.Thomas' in 1958. Canon R.S.De Saram retired
after some 26 years at the helm. Mr C.H.Davidson, also a former
College Cricket coloursman became Warden. A new cricket pavilion
was commissioned at the Big Club Grounds. Michael Tissera was
playing his 5th and final year and was captaining a
second year, a rare feat. Hugely talented freshers had come on
the scene - particularly the spinning all rounder Neil Chanmugam
and graceful left hander, Michael Sproule. Could we carry on
this great cricketing tradition? You bet we could.
There were stories
floating around the lower school that another batting sensation
was waiting in the wings. His name was Anura Tennekoon. Mr
Lassie Abeywardena, at the Small Clubs, was in charge of the
'production line' and he was churning out champions by the day
for Messrs L.S.Gauder and Orville Abeynaike to work on, at the 1st
XI level. Some of Lassie's products were top order batsmen Buddy
Reid, Mano Ponniah, RS.Kumara, Randy Morrel, R.M.Fernando,
RWanduragala, Premalal Gunasekera, Sarath Seneviratne,
L.S.Perera, Kumar Boralessa, Sriyantha Rajapakse, 'Bundo'
Samarasinghe, left arm bowlers Annesley De Silva, Keith Labrooy
and Barney Reid, gutsy allrounders Paul Selvadurai, Maurice
Fairweather, Tony Sirimanne, Ana Medonza, Cecil Perera and
D.Panditharatne, Leggie B.W.R Thomas, openers S.P Wijesinghe and
Gamini Marapona and pacies Lorensz and Roger D'Silva, G
Balasingham and 'King of Swing' Mevan Peiris. STC cricket looked
in good health and we young Thomians were never short of
cricketing heroes.
Waiting in the wings
to come on to this great cricketing stage at S.Thomas', was a
master strategist and brilliant batsman and a man who will go
down in the annals of our school as the leader of the Greatest
Thomian Team in its glorious history (and I do not think I will
have too many disagreeing on this point), Premalal Gunasekera.
He was an impatient man. He was restless to break the shackles
of two schools packed with talent going head-to-head with
successive drawn games for almost a decade. He was a winner.
Making his debut in the 1961 match as a 15 year old, Premalal
knew he would lead the side one day and also the extent of
talent he had at his disposal for his master stroke - a Royal
Thomian victory.
Lassie had produced
the brilliant openers, L.S.Perera and Kumar Boralessa plus
master batsmen Anura Tennekoon, Sarath Seneviratne, Premalal
himself, Sriyantha Rajapakse, 'Bundo' Samarasinghe,
multi-talented alrounder Barney Reid, Pacies G Balasingham and
Mevan Peiris and kept producing a plethora of up and coming
talent in "keeper Odath Weerasinghe, batsmen Janaka Rockwood,
C.L."Kalla" de Silva, Priyantha Serasinghe, also an useful off
spinner, Aubrey Kuruppu, T.M.De Silva, 'Rifle' Mendis, Trevor
Baines, Mohan Jayasekera (my brother!), Prabodha Kariyawasam,
Tony Perera, pacies Dennis Chanmugam and Senarath Condegama, all
rounder Jayampathi Bandaranayake (who later Captained College),
David Ponniah the present Warden and debut centurion, Tiny Reid,
Azam Hameed, Bandula Tennekoon, Manilka Wijesooriya, Nimalka
Wijesooriya, Dijen De Saram, left arm leggies Lyie Peiris and
Shantha Kottegoda, batsmen Ranjith Watson, Rakkitha Jayawardena,
Mano Wickramanayake, Ravi Sathasivam and A.D.H.Samaranayake,
left arm pacie Sunil Wijeyeratne and right arm pacies
W.Ravindran and T.Rudra until the end of the '60s decade. I had
the honour of playing with some of the latter mentioned players,
a wonderful and talented bunch of players who wore the Blue,
Black and Blue blazer with pride.
Going back to
Premalal's team and the 1964 match, he had such talent at his
disposal that he knew exactly what combination he needed to beat
Royal. Besides the ten players I have mentioned at the beginning
of the
last paragraph,
Premalal delayed his master stroke until the last moment. He
included left arm pacie L.Chelliah in his playing XI because he
had reportedly noticed a flaw in Royal Captain Shaw Wilson's
technique against left arm pace bowlers. Premalal's hunch paid
off when Chelliah bowled Wilson with the very first ball he
bowled in a Royal Thomian! A brilliant all round display of
power batting, great fielding and penetrative bowling saw STC
win the big match with minutes to spare. The drought had been
broken after 10 consecutive drawn games; Premalal had completed
his mission. He left College a proud man; his dream realized and
although he had another year to play, he opted to leave,
satisfied that STC cricket was in safe hands - Sarath
Seneviratne and Anura Tennekoon to follow as leaders.....and we
still had Lassie churning them out!
I truly believe that
the '50s and '60s saw some of the greatest Thomian Cricketers in
its illustrious history. These brief memories of my heroes and
colleagues will not be complete without mention of those who did
not quite make it but would have, in another day and age; such
was the strength of STC Cricket at that time. From memory, I
remember Ana Sinnatamby, Waruna Fernando, Wyville Scharenguivel,
Leslie Brainard, M.N.A. (Labba) Gunasekera, Robin Labrooy, 'Kadi'
Wickramasooriya, Sam Abeysekera Jr, K.B.Amerasinghe,
K.R.W.Gunawardena, Nihal Dias Abeyesinghe, Nimal Welgama, Ranil
De Soysa, D.L.Peiris, M. Sri Bawan, Peter Schoorman, K.G.Perera,
Vasantha Weerakoon, Hasitha Kannangara, C.S.B (Cap'n)
Weerasinghe, Dhammika Jayasooriya, Russel Rajaratnam et al, who
adorned the cricket fields of STC with much aplomb and panache.
To these, my Heroes
and Colleagues, Esto Perpetual Be Thou for Ever!
Ajit Jayasekera
