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What ails Royal cricket?
By Bernie Wijesekera
Royal College cricket. The very sentence brings in a lot of meat into the subject. Not many moons ago willow wielders of this institution were the very feeding point to the national grid, may be almost 50 per cent.

There was a time that Royal churned out cricketers in the calibre of - late Col. F.C. de Saram who scored the first 100 for Oxford against the Australian team led by W.M. Woodfull in 1932, Gamini Gunasena, who led the Cambridge team to victory over Oxford which included a personal 'double ton'. A wily leg- spinner played for Nottinghamshire and for NSW (Australia) ahead of Ritchie Benaud. Both played for the SSC and Sri Lanka and led the teams. F.C., a stern disciplinarian and administrator par excellence. He coached Royal-Thomain cricket teams with distinction. Then comes the likes of C.I. Gunasekera, George Rajapakse, M. Kasipillai, Mahes Rodrigo, Channa Gunasekera, Sathi Coomaraswamy, Darrel Lieversz - the gangling fast bowler and athlete, who did proud for the country in both disciplines. Jagath Fernando, Michael Wille Lorensz Pereira, Michael Dias, V.P. Malalasekera, Daya Sahabandu etc. in the yesteryear and then Ranjan Madugalle, Chulaka Amerasinghe and Asitha Jayaweera in the recent past -- year in year out.

Now the times have changed. The cricket season of the year 2005 five will be a year that the avid fans of Royal cricket would like to forget. Like a set of crashing dominos they kept on losing matches till it came to the loss against Dahrmarajah in their ' big match' prelude. This may have been the biggest shock to their sagging morale. Only a few days prior to that they they had unexpectedly crashed to a defeat against Prince of Wales at Moratuwa.

Various factors
There are various factors that could be attributed to this sudden decline in the standards of cricket at the Reid Avenue school. Royal is not short of facilities unlike some less affluent schools which includes a first class venue. A healthy junior cricket academy starting from Under-11 is also prevalent in this school. But still standards have dropped putting Royal cricket to shame if one went by the performances of the year 2005 team. Even diehard old Royalists, who have played and maintained the dignity of the game agreed.

The team is a reasonably good one which was led by that outstanding schoolboy batsman Dimitri Siriwardena. But as a team they were not totally committed and lacked the discipline and metal toughness. This was evident in both batting and bowling during the season. They also lacked the courage to play under pressure.

The cricket committee headed by Ajith Pasqual is answerable. Well, Pasqual is on the ball despite official commitments. Apparently some of them make their presence felt at the end of the game by questioning what happened. Apparently another accusation is the interference from the members of the mothers room.

Let off the hook
Imagine, Nalanda reeling at 4 for 8 at one point were let off the hook and went on to pile over 300 runs. What sort of strategy was there or advice given to the team from the touch line. Had the present team had a master-in-charge, the like at present times the players could have got a dressing down or even stopped from playing (or expelled).

Former Royal captain at cricket and rugby 'double international', Mahes Rodrigo confirmed to this effect. Royal had its teething problems since the end of the third term (2004), not having a competent coach to handle the team with the departure of Roger Wijesuriya for reasons best known to the cricket management. This was a major setback to the team and for its progress. A past stalwart said, "a professional coach if drafted should confine only to Royal cricket, but not those who have private interest besides coaching Royal".

Is it too much of cricket?
Imagine, at present a school plays over 16 games in a calendar year. Royal played 19 games (First XI). This included a couple of fixtures against emerging schools.

Unlike in the past it was not Friday and Saturday matches. Some schools had to play three matches a week (postponed games). Under these circumstances the game is sure to suffer.

The play levels have dropped. Where is the fitness and rest for the key players, who keep on playing. In the end they become a spent force. Royal with limited resources of talent suffered immensely. Why shower brickbats on makeshift coach Nalliah Devarajan.

Apparently, he was caught in mid-stream. No planning, no strategy - the team was in disarray. Even the picking of the teams for the matches had much to be desired. No pair of regular openers (to give a solid start) and bat with understanding. Spate of silly run outs. Indisciplined batting by the top order in the Josephian game saw Royal go down meekly at Darley Road on a good pitch. All over before tea. Nothing to do with the bowling. This was proved by Feroze Ahamed. He came in at No. 3 and was out at No. 9. Gave an object lesson to his teammates in orthodox batting. The batting order was shifted like a pawn on the chess board. then adding insult to injury Ahamed was dropped for the Big Match. He had the temperament to play a long innings. Even Nadun Punchihewa was made to open batting when he is a pinch hitter in the lower order.

Bowlers go in pairs - pacemen or otherwise, at any level of cricket. This was solely lacking in the Royal team. Even Mr. Ranjit Senanayake, a senior vice-principal, (incharge of extra -curricular activities) agreed. He has served Royal for long years and seen much of the game. Royal had hostile pacemen, who went it pairs - Darrel Liversz and Chanaka de Silva, Harsha Samarajeewa and Brendan Gunaratne, to name a few. Imagine opening the attack in their 126th encounter with a spinner (Punchihewa) to pair Eranga Godamunne. This move even surprised Thomian coach Ranil Abeynaike on a lively SSC pitch. In batting Royal played cowboy cricket to be bowled out for 94 runs on the first innings in a three-day match. Royal should have made over 175 runs with correct batting. The pitch held no terrors for batting.

Forget the past
Forget about the past, Royal must start all over again to bring back their glory. Mr. Upali Gunasekera, the soft-spoken Principal said, in the end the Thomians played within themselves and they deserved to win. They exploited the Royal mistakes. Mr. Gunasekera, who did much to revive Isipatana on and off the field has taken stock of Royal's cricket debacle. He said he will take remedial measures with the ones with the know-how to put Royal cricket back in the saddle.

Get past stalwarts Mahes Rodrigo or Channa Gunasekera as advisors. They played good cricket for Royal, SSC and Ceylon. While Jagath Fernando, Chulaka Amerasinghe, Gamini Perera, could join the committee to co-ordinate with Ajitha Pasqual for a Royal cricket revival.

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