| The Royal-Thomian fever spreads to Thornton Reserve, NSW, Australia today (March 29) with the annual “seniors” encounter. Royal go as ‘underdogs’ by playing a fairly young side. Royal’s selectors have shrewdly brought in an over 65 year old, better known for his rugby prowess, into the side to take advantage of the rule which allocates bonus runs to players over 60, they were trumped by their counterparts who are fielding five players over 60 years, two of whom are over 65 years. Hence, STC are 45 runs ahead even before the game commences, and poised to retain the “Mabel Morrell Memorial Trophy “, which suggests that the rules need to be revisited with a view to restricting the number of over 60 year olds per side.
Nine members of the 14 man Royal squad (yes the special rules allows 14 per side and any 12 are allowed bat /bowl) are under 55 years of age, which makes it a pity that there isn’t a qualified doctor in Royal’s side to ensure that they not only survive the game but also to live long enough to be over 60 and thereby accrue bonus points for Royal. (It is understood that they have been offered contracts.)
In the Royal squad there is only one player who has played for school’s first XI, and captained it at that (in fact he was the Royal captain at the inaugural Royal -Thomian limited overs match for the Mustang Trophy which was played at CCC. Grounds on April 12, 1975). Another player played 2nd XI cricket and then went on to be a “Major” in the Sri Lankan army before migrating to Australia. (He no doubt has been chosen to instill discipline in the side and, failing that, to provide covering fire if the Royalists had to be evacuated from a deteriorating situation). There are three former school under 16 representatives, one of whom is a qualified umpire and his importance to the team will be to lend authority to dubious decisions designed to swing the game in Royal’s favour. The other had played for the STC under 16 side before joining RC (he is clearly a fifth columnist). Three others have played school “house” cricket.
What is of most significance is the selection of six players who have played no representative cricket at all at RC and are in the team by virtue of their kinship to one particular selector!!!!, whose only claim to fame was that he wasn’t famous in anything.
A point of interest about these six Royalists, who failed to make their mark at any level at Royal, is that they finally did so, after leaving school. The quality of their game, which was an embarrassment to their families, particularly their children, allowed them to walk into the over fifties side where genuine talent and ability is frowned upon.
Out of the abovementioned six, two had played cricket in non cricket playing countries like Hungary and Sierra Leone, respectively, or so they claim. While the guy who played in Hungary no doubt confuses the iron curtain with sight screens, the other is more likely to have been behind more than one coup in Africa, an experience that has been put to good use in maintaining his power base in the NSW & ACT Old Boys Association in Australia. Two others have even more dubious credentials. One was a leading light in the Moratuwa based “baila kollas” while the other blocked the narrow lanes of Kotahena while gaining bowling tips from the self-described Kotahena bullies. The remaining two are the only Royalists to have retained their credibility. One plays (???) backyard cricket with his wife in his home in the ACT, Australian, whilst the other who was educated in a very prestigious university in UK, has been a “cricket virgin” until recently.
The best that STC could come up with to match this motley lot is to field a player with experience in the Swaziland cricket league. However, they are also fielding an ex Sri Lankan rugby player and a person who cut his teeth playing cricket for the Lions Club of Sydney. Such backgrounds are very likely to produce the type of bad cricket that often makes a difference in games where ambulances outnumber spectators.
Bad in all departments
The policy of giving preference to those who didn't play even “ House” cricket for Royal, and running the over fifties as a family business, has resulted in a promising squad which excels in all departments of bad cricket. They are surely the envy of other over fifty school sides who struggle to field teams of slow movers, poor catchers, inaccurate bowlers and poor hitters. With Royal’s current squad, bats and balls are redundant because they rarely make contact.
Carrying the captain
Alas, the captain, Mr.Prasanna Kariyawasam, is the weak link in the Royal side. By showing ability he threatens to undermine the hallowed traditions of “over fifty” cricket. By contrast, the two Thomian coloursmen are both over 65 years and therefore not likely to undermine the morale of their team by doing something stupid like playing fluent cricket. But I guess a squad so bad, as Royal’s is, can afford to "carry" one good player. STC also had two players who represented the St. Thomas’ Gurutalawa first XI, and one person who played club cricket. But Gurutalawa is not exactly known as a nursery for budding Thomian cricket stars, while the Thomian club player is too old to be held up as a role model.
The only danger to Royal is that if “Kari” fails the side will be demoralised and will consequently exaggerate the ferocity of the Thomian face attack, whereas if “JP”, the man behind the scene, succeeds (a most unlikely event) the team will be in a state of shock. It is hard to decide which occurrence will undermine morale more.
Hence, the Royal team is a curious blend of inexperience, little to no experience and experience unknown (at the school level) but possessing the skills highly valued in this form of cricket. They are a coach’s delight; in the way run down houses are a renovator’s delights.
Family honour
In the early seventies back home in Sri Lanka, the name Kariyawasam was associated with defeat in the Royal Thomian. As a result Royalists felt that the presence of Prasanna and his brother at Royal was a plant by the Thomians to bring defeat to Royal. The Kariyawasams were viewed with as much suspicion as Japanese- Americans were in the US in WWII. At one point Kariyawasam was even a swear word much to the consternation of two aggrieved Kariyawasam brothers who came close to instigating defamation proceedings. They were not helped by their elder brother’s claim that it took two Royal Kariyawasams to match a single Thomian one.When Royal lost the over fifties cricket game in Sydney last year, nasty rumours started floating around once more tarnishing the Kariyawasam name. Hence, following in the footsteps of his eldest brother, Prasanna has stayed on as captain for another year in order to reverse the ignominious defeat of 2008. However, if things go sour for Royal, Prasanna cannot turn to his Dad for help since the latter has long retired from the Department of Meteorology and can no longer influence the weather.
Outside one’s comfort zones
The only reference point to events which occurred when we were at school was when we all answered the call of the Principal “Your school needs you”, and trooped off on much publicised weeding campaigns, setting back the rural economy for decades with our scorched weed policies, entertaining rice farmers with our massive incompetence as we got bogged down in the marshes and became sitting ducks for flies and ridicule by govis who looked on in dismay at the ruination of their lovingly crafted fields. And then, after extricating ourselves from the quagmire, those of us occupying the front rows had to dodge the spittle sprayed at us during Canto's notorious de-briefing sessions. And no one was immune from the leeches that were displaced through the judicious use of cigarette butts. There was a sense of déjà vu in attending an over fifties practice game witnessing the haplessness of cricketers who were clearly outside their comfort zones.
Post mortem
We hope to bring you details of the much awaited battle of the rheumatoids at a later date providing the over fifties legends turn up for the game and survive the afternoon. We are keeping our fingers crossed.
(ECL)
S. Thomas team: Former Thomian captain Randy Morrell, Palitha Wanduragala, Sellappah Prahalath , Shaan Ching, Vimal Jayanetti
Ananda Amaranath, Dulip De Silva, Lasantha Pieris, Harry Cumaraswamy, Graham Masefield, Eksath Perera , Rehan Abeykoon and Derek Bolling
Royal team: Prasanna Kariyawasam, Tony Rankin, Channa Atukorala, Chitral Perera, Janaka Subasinghe, Rohan Seneviratne, Suren Salgado, Deva Mylvaganam, Gane Sanmugaratnam, Mahen Selvarajah, Raj Karunairatnam, K Sooriyakumar, G Kandakumar and “JP” Jeyapalan. |
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