Watching Neil Harvey selling cricket boots in Hasset’s shop spurred my studies-By Michael Wille
Source:Island
My Cricketing Journey, From Big Dreams To Big Matches
I did not play in the next game which was against St Peter’s but was not missed as Fitzroy, who opened with Selvi, shared a partnership of over 200, both getting centuries.We than travelled to Kandy to play Trinity which had a number of good players, including Nimal Maralande and Sendi Ettipola. It was the same old story. Selvi and I put on over a 100. I made 42 and Selvi made another century.I also recall that Kadalai and Cobra travelled with the team in our pre-booked third class compartment. They had sacrificed a minimum of two days’ income to support the team. What loyalty!
After the last practice session before the RT we sat on the grass, Barney and Harold included, and discussed tactics. Jothi, who Barney was very fond of, had hardly scored a run all season. Barney said: “I think this will be Jothi’s match.” We were all certain that Barney had said this just to boost Jothi’s[M1] [M2] confidence. As it turned out it was not Jothi’s match but he certainly saved us from defeat.
I rated us at 10 and the Thomians at 8. The Thomians were captained by Dan Piachaud who later played for Ceylon and the MCC. We were hot favourites. We batted first and the much-vaunted top order failed and we slumped to 103/6. Jothi, batting with the four freshers, saved the day and we went on to make 289. The Thomians replied with 288/9, Ronnie Reid breaking the record with 158. It was truly a great knock but of course the match fizzled out to a tame draw.
That year, for the first time, one of the daily papers announced it would run a competition to determine the “Schoolboy Cricketer of the Year”. The winner was to be determined by votes cast by the readers. Selvi should have won the competition, but unfortunately, he did not because voting was left to the readers. The result embarrassed the organizers to the extent that winners were thereafter selected by a panel.
In ’57 the boot was on the other foot. We had lost a number of good and experienced players. We had myself who was playing in my fourth year and four other players, Lorenz Pereira, the Samarasinghe brothers and Pat Poulier who were playing in their second year. The Thomians had a very strong batting line-up and the fastest bowler in the competition, Denis Ferdinands. At the start of the season I rated us at 6 and the Thomians at 9.
In the late ‘40s a weak South African side had drawn a Test series against the then mighty Australians by great fielding and a spinner named Hugh Tayfield. To win you need to get an edge on your opponent. I decided that we should take a leaf out of the South African book and be the best fielding side in the competition. I have always believed that if you want to succeed you have to practice meaningfully and hard.
As Percy Cerutty, the legendary Australian athletics coach said: “To train without pain is to train without gain.”
We started practising in the August school holidays which was about a month earlier than usual and we certainly practiced hard. I believe that you should practice as you would play in a match. You are always under pressure when you play in a match. To create a pressure situation at practice it was a rule that any player who dropped a catch at fielding practice would have to run two laps of the groundThese draconian methods caused my friend Mahinda Wijesinghe to give me the unflattering sobriquet of “Hitler”. He also said that the only reason that I opened the bowling was because I was captain. I note that he made these “libellous” comments only after he was awarded his colours!
If we were to succeed the “colours” players, Lorenz Pereira, the Samarasinghe brothers and I, would have to step up to the plate. It was also necessary for talented freshers such as Michael Dias, Ben Eliathamby and T Perayerawar to punch above their weight. In short, the requirements were easy to understand. “Maximum performance at all times.
I also believe that confidence is a major part of achieving success. For an inexperienced side like ours avoiding defeat is as important as winning the occasional game. I believe the rearguard actions we fought against St Anthony’s, Ananda and St Benedict’s were major factors in our success. You dodge a bullet and then you win one and then you say to yourself, “I can do this.”
However it was not all hard work and no play. After practice the boys who lived in Bambalapitiya, Wellawatte and Dehiwela would cycle home and about once a week stop at Saraswathi Lodge for thosais. For 50 cents, you could purchase eight thosais, a cup of tea and a Three Roses cigarette. This was my usual fare. I was holding forth one day saying that it was not possible to eat ten thosias. Pat Poulier took up the challenge. The bet was that if he ate ten thosais I would pay for his meal, if he failed he would have to pay for mine. So, one evening the game was on. Pat effortlessly consumed ten thosais and, with a smirk on his face, said, “Skipper I am feeling a bit peckish can you buy me a few ulundu vadais?”.
I’m not going to write about all the games we played but focus on the key games against Ananda and St Benedict’s. We played a strong Ananda side containing Sonny Yatawara, Anuruddha Polonowita and Daya Amerasinghe early in the season. There was no doubt that we were the underdogs and we were struggling for most of the match. In the fourth innings Ananda had to get 73 runs in 35 minutes to win, a comparatively easy task. They were cruising at 47/3 when I brought on Mahinda and with his first four deliveries he took a double hat-trick. Ananda plunged to 47/7 and were in panic mode.
I than had a brain fade. I took Mahinda off and brought on Mohdi Ismail, a slow leg-spin bowler. What an idiot. Taking Mahinda off was bad enough, why didn’t I bring on Sahabandu? I still have nightmares over that decision. Ananda escaped with a draw and thanks to Mahinda we dodged a bullet.
Mahinda told me many years later that, when going off the field, Harold grabbed him and, finding a ten rupee note, (a lot of money in those days) stuck it in Mahinda’s hand and said, “Here, buy a bottle of arrack but don’t drink it all on you own.” Harold never said a word to me about my poor decision in taking Mahinda off.
The match against St Benedict’s was played on matting at Kotahena. They had a strong side that included Neville Casie Chetty, Lionel Fernando and Cecil Waidyaratne. They batted first and gave us a leather hunt. I think they made well over 300 in record time. With a score like that we had no option but to play for a draw. We defended stoutly and not one player from No. 1 to 11 gave his wicket away. We must have survived for at least seven hours much to the chagrin of the Benedictine players and their noisy supporters who wanted to see Royal thrashed.
We gradually built up to, arguably, the best fielding side in the competition with Lorenz Pereira, Ben Eliathamby and Pera being outstanding. We also developed a very good spin attack with Lorenz and Mahinda. One right-arm off-spin and the other left-arm leg-spin, and both were very accurate. Every player at some time or other had played a vital role in saving or winning a match. Going into the big match we were undefeated and had won three matches.
I now rated us at about 7.5 and the Thomians at 9 and we went to the Oval quietly confident. Michela Tissera, my opposite number, won the toss. I said: “Lucky bastard.” He laughed, picked up the coin and said: “We’ll bat.” We shook hands and wished each other good luck. The Thomians made 259, with Ronnie Reid making 65 and Michael 48.
As usual, Lorenz and Mahinda carried our bowling – Lorenz taking five wickets and Mahinda four. I don’t remember us dropping a catch. The beauty of cricket is the ability to formulate a plan and execute it. When Michael was in the 40s, I noted that Lorenz had done a lot of bowling. I wanted him to have a rest. When I discussed this with him he was initially happy to come off. However, when I told him that I intended to bring Pera on he said: “No, Michael is in his 40s and has not scored a 50 yet. He will be anxious to get his half century. Let me bowl and if he gets to 50 I will take a rest.”
Michael was a very good player of the cover drive but sometimes did not get his foot to the pitch of the ball. We set Pera at cover and Lorenz bowled wide of his off-stump. Mahinda maintained the pressure from the other end. Eventually, Michael lost patience and chased a wide delivery from Lorenz. As we had hoped, he did not quite get his foot to the pitch of the ball and hit a catch to Pera. It was great cricket by Lorenz.
I saw Denis Ferdinands, who was very fast, as the main threat. If he got a couple of early wickets and got his tail up, he could go right through us. I tried to keep him away from the “freshers”. In ’56 I tried to hook him and he nearly broke my forearm so I had decided that I would duck under the many bouncers that he bowled. Anyway, we held him off and when Lorenz and I put on 117 for the fifth wicket the chance of a Thomian victory disappeared.
From the point of view of concentration, my century was the best innings I played. I watched every ball and did not look at the scoreboard until I reached my century. Ronnie got another 65 in their second dig. He was the outstanding batsman in the competition that year and rightfully won the Schoolboy Cricketer of the Year award.
The match also produced another future star in M.L Idroos, a very good young leg-spinner.
We had the usual bonding on the Galle Face Green and then in a couple of weeks I said a sad farewell to my friends and got on an airplane bound for Australia. In Melbourne that first year, I was studying for my Matriculation exams and attended a small “cram school” located in the City. Lindsay Hassett, the man who succeeded Bradman as Australian captain, owned a sports store in the city and one lunch time I decided to go to his shop in case the great man was present. Hassett was not there but I saw Neil Harvey, at that time arguably the best batsman in the world, selling a pair of cricket boots to a customer. I said to myself, “If this guy has to sell shoes to make a living there has to be an easier way to make a quid.” I decided to study harder.
Cricket in Australia at that time was an amateur sport, the prize being a place in the Test team and the winning of a “Baggy Green”, which was the dream of Aussie youngsters. The first cultural shock I received was to experience the intensity in which the game was played. In Sri Lanka we played for fun, In Australia we played for sheep stations. There was no sledging in the late ‘50s and not much chatter, just immense pressure, you earned every run.
In Sri Lanka, reputations overawed us. I remember being picked for the Combined Schools team and playing against a guy called Dick Arenhold who was a fast bowler and a Cambridge Blue. I worried about the encounter for days before the match.
The Aussies were no respecters of reputations. I loved the way the Aussies played the game. When I made a good score, it gave me great satisfaction. The Aussies were great competitors and played to win. We fought like hell on the field but after the match we sat in the dressing room drinking beer and were the best of friends.
When I left Sri Lanka, Barney wished me good luck and expressed the view that he wanted to see me play for Victoria. Well, I didn’t play for Victoria and will never know if I was good enough. I do know this though. Whether it was seeing Neil Harvey selling shoes or whether playing for Victoria was not one of my dreams, I lacked the passion to put in the hard yards necessary to play at the next level.
When I look back on my cricketing career, the sweetest memories are those of my days playing for Royal.Sri Lankan schoolboy cricket was very strong and played in the best of spirits. A show of any dissent or hooliganism could mean severe disciplinary imposition, possibly in cases with sacking.
The Royal Thomian was the icing on the cake. Anybody who played in that match could consider themselves privileged and blessed, as would other cricketers who played in the Josephian-Peterite or Ananda-Nalanda Ananda, or Trinity-Antonian. The history and tradition of the big match created a spirit of its own. You were conscious you were walking in the footsteps of the great players who had gone before you and participating in a historic event. You must do nothing to tarnish the reputation of the college, you were representing or the Game itself.
It is very true. “The game is greater than the players of the game. The ship is greater than the crew.”
