Dennis Chanmugam was a
Colossus in our time at STC. He was larger than life in every
respect. A brilliant Sportsman and no mean student, he dominated
every aspect of life he took part in, at STC. Cricket was his
forte and what a cricketer he was! Initially referred to as
"Neil Chanmugam's Brother", he set about his cricketing career,
determined to reverse the reference to Neil being HIS brother.
For those of you who do
not know, the Chanmugam's came from good Thomian sporting stock.
Their maternal Uncle was the famous George Mant, Head Prefect,
Soccer Captain and coloursman in many other Sports at STC in the
1930's. My Father joined STC in the 5th Form in the late '30s from
St Aloysius College, where the various 'Prefects' (Prefect of Games
etc) were Catholic Priests. On his first day in College, he had gone
to the Main Lavo's to have a 'punt'. Who do you think confronted him
there? George Mant, the Head Prefect, who pulled my pater up. My old
man asked him who he was. George Mant said he was the Head Prefect.
Then my old man said to him, "go to hell man, in my school, all
prefects are Priests. If you want a fag here, take one!" He was
promptly marched to the Warden and began his College career with six
cuts from Koonji !
When
we joined STC in 1957 I believe Dennis
was just one year senior to us. The College Cricket team was led by
Michael Tissera and comprised a plethora of stars. Yes, Dennis would
certainly have been proud of elder brother Neil, who was then
playing for STC, just as much as we were. Each one of us, who later
played for college, would surely have dreamt of emulating those
brilliant cricketing demi-gods of our lower school days.
Dennis progressed in his
career as a very good all-rounder, but he was a fast bowler, unlike
his brother who was a master off spinner. Progress through the
various age groups was as expected and he proved himself as a
genuine all rounder, with a fast bowling ability to knock the heads
off any batsman who dared to confront him. In time, he made his
debut under Anura Tennekoon in 1966 and I joined him as a fresher in
the 1967 season. He bowled fast, exceedingly fast at times and
batted in the middle order and came up with some useful knocks when
needed. He was fun loving and was 'one of the boys'.
Dennis was appointed
Captain in 1968.I still remember the first day of practice for the
season. Dennis waited for us, as we leisurely strolled back to the
dressing room after tea at the college dining room. As soon as we
changed, he ordered everyone to follow him on four laps of the Big
Clubs! That was the routine for the rest of the season. His message
seemed to be "if you buggers want to play under me, you had better
be bloody fit !”
He did not do any
explaining, he did not have to. It was a case of 'do as I do' and he
set a perfect example. I had kept wickets to him the previous
season, but in 1968, it was a different Dennis Chanmugam I saw. He
cut down on his speed, pitched the ball on a perfect line and length
and the ball swung like a pendulum as he pleased. Yes, he could
still frighten the daylights out of any would-be batsmen who
underestimated him, with sheer speed. I was rewarded with many
catches as batsmen groped and failed to cope with the swing. What a
change in his bowling! He also fielded like a man possessed. But he
still remained a good middle order batsman who contributed when
needed with some very useful knocks.
That was until the match
against Wesley in early February.
We had a fairly decent
batting line up, with Kari, Dijen, Nimalka, Azam and Dennis making
up the middle order. Orville thought that we were too "harem, scarem,
whang bang" type of a batting line-up, so he included the sedate
Ranjith Watson at No 3, to steady the boat, so to say! At Campbell
Park that day, I opened with Tiny Reid and after some time, we were
two down with Tiny and Ranjith gone and when I looked towards the
dressing room who do you think was charging out to join me Dennis! I
thought that was a bit rich. With the aforementioned batting line up
ready for action, here was our skipper coming out. I wonder whether
he got Orville's approval to promote himself to No 4 that day!!??
But then, this was Denna he did it his way! That day, I watched in
awe from the other end, as Dennis the all rounder who could bat
well, transform into a brilliant batsman. He started by launching
some poor fellow into the Prisons compound across the Borella Road
(roughly 150 yards) and went on to compile a brilliant 120 runs.
From that day, Dennis announced himself as our foremost batsman,
went on to compile runs almost at will and ended up winning the
F.L.Gunawardena Batting shield! His batting was outstanding that day
and his 'coup-de-grace' was one of the finest exhibitions of batting
he produced when we played St Peter's at Mount, where on a turning
wicket, he made twin fifties.
Royal-Thomian 1968 we
fielded first. I missed a possible head high chance off Tiny, as it
flew between me and Dennis at 1st slip. He glared at me! I got the
message!! A couple of minutes later, fresher Asitha Jayaweera
snicked one that was going down to ground in our general area and
the idea was to prevent it going through the slips cordon to the
boundary. In the blink of an eye, Dennis dived forward and the ball
was in his left hand, clean as a whistle! What a catch. I had not
seen a better one for ages. He simply brushed aside all adulation of
his team mates and got on with the game! We were dumbfounded by his
brilliance. Later in the innings, left hander Dyan Caldera edged
Dennis towards slips and I stretched my left hand out and took a
fluke one-handed catch! I wanted to bask in the glory of a brilliant
catch and remained on the ground, arm outstretched for a few
moments, when I got a rude shot on my head. It was Dennis, telling
me in no uncertain terms what he thought of my putting only one hand
to take a catch for what was to be his first wicket in a Royal-Thomian!!
That was Dennis.
Then came the famous
declaration and the fallout there from. All that is history now, but
my memories of Dennis Chanmugam the cricketer and friend will
forever remain etched in my mind. What a man, what a cricketer.
This is my humble tribute
to an extraordinary Thomian.
