Sunil Wettimuny, the cricketer turned pilot and meditator
View(s):I managed to get hold of Sunil Wettimuny at his Baddegana Bungalow for this interview. I was lucky to find him grounded, since he flies most of the time. Sunil’s father a double Chartered Engineer by profession had 5 sons, and to teach them the rudiments of cricket, he built the first indoor Turf nets in Sri Lanka at his residence in Park Road Colombo 5 way back in the early sixties.
Three of his sons, Sunil, Mithra and Sidath all learnt their A, B and C of cricket there under the watchful eye of Berty Wijesinghe and they all played for Ananda College and Sri Lanka later.
Sumil Wettiumuny with World Cup winning captain Arjuna Ranatunga
He was ‘The School Boy Cricketer of The Year 1968’ and during that year he got three hundreds including a brilliant 124, which enabled Ananda to beat S. Thomas ‘s by an innings, which stands as a record up to now.
Sunil has the unique distinction of being the only international pilot who has played international cricket. He also mentioned to me about another aspect of his life which has escaped our attention, that is meditation, he has being an avid meditater for the last forty years. His demeanor portrays that he is cool, calm and collected .His German wife runs a meditation school in Bonn.
Sunil Wettimuny was hit on the ribs, by a thunderbolt from Jeff Thomson in the 1975 World Cup Match against Australia.
In the above match Sunil scored 67 after being battered and bruised by Jeff Thomson, the blow to his rib resulted in a hairline fracture and an ambulance took him to the nearest hospital in London, he relates an amusing episode, “Whilst in hospital, a London Bobby had approached him and inquired whether he wants to press charges, thinking that he had a motor accident”. Sunil also vividly recalls that he was not the only casualty in that match, Duleep Mendis was also struck on the temple trying to hook Thomson and collapsed to the ground in slow motion, Sunil was the non-striker and adds that when he went over to assist Duleep he was muttering something and his black lips were turning white before he was concussed, so as a result both ended up at the same hospital.
Sunil is of the opinion that when facing Thomson he had only 16 yards reaction distance unlike 22 yards for any other pace bowler and as a result he never saw the ball but only a red streak, Thomo was hiding the ball behind his back and releasing it as late as possible hence the shorter distance. The Chest Guard was invented after this incident to counteract Jeff Thomson’s missiles so as in future the batsman facing him, could live to tell the story.
Sunil Wettimuny represented his country in the 1979 World Cup as well and scored another fifty and Sri Lanka won the Mini World Cup, which paved the way to gaining Test Status for Sri Lanka in 1983.He states that he was not selected to play for the Inaugural Test due to his flying duties and he further states that, if he availed himself to play in that match he was also in line to Captain the Sri Lankan side, but then again politics would have intervened he laments. The end result was that Air Lanka’s gain was Sri Lankan cricket’s loss.
Thilak de Silva
Nugegoda