Walking harder than scoring runs for Mahela
Mahela on to a new vocation
His feet hurt but Mahela Jayawardene is more than happy to walk the entire length of Sri Lanka – 670 kilometres – as part of Trail 2016, a charity walkathon that is not only raising money for a cancer hospital but is more importantly seen as a giant step in the reconciliation process between Sinhalese and Tamil.
The 28-day odyssey from the Northern-most tip of Sri Lanka, Point Pedro in Jaffna down to Southern Dondra Head near Matara, has drawn strong participation from the public including its first celebrity in the form of the former Sri Lankan cricket captain.
For Jayawardene, used to occupying the crease for hours on end – he and best mate Kumar Sangakkara hold the world record for the highest ever partnership in Tests or first-class cricket, 624 runs against South Africa in 2006 – the walk is a whole new test of endurance made easy by memories of his deceased younger brother Dishal who died of a brain tumour.
“This cause is close to my heart because of my brother who I lost 20 years ago. I have told everyone that I’m dedicating this walk to his memory. It has been 20 years but I know he is watching from up there,” Jayawardene said soon after Trail 2016 arrived in the heart of Colombo.
It is Day 20 and the Galle Face Green is more crowded than normal for a Tuesday morning. Roving vendors have to share Colombo’s popular seaside esplanade with big corporate executives who have all come to mark their card and show that they too care by donating millions of rupees towards the targeted US$5 million (around Rs. 750 million) needed to provide a cancer ward at the Karapitiya Teaching Hospital in the Galle district.
While pleased that the corporates are pulling out their cheque books, Jayawardene is more than aware of the contribution made by the common-folk and pays tribute. “It’s not just us on the podium or the corporates, but everyone has contributed like the people who have given us water or offered bananas and water melon, while we are walking”.
Jayawardene was only 18 when his brother, 16, died. Soon after his personal tragedy, Jayawardene was picked to represent the country, going on to play in 149 Tests and finishing with an average of 49.84 runs. During his stellar career, Jayawardene still found time to devote to charity and was at the forefront of helping build a 750-bed unit at the Maharagama Cancer Hospital, the biggest in the country.
He couldn’t walk the inaugural Trail, in 2011, because of his cricket commitments, but promised that when he retired – after the last World Cup in 2014 – he would participate.
“I thought walking would be easy (than cricket) but it isn’t. Yet it has been very enjoyable because of the group of people I’m walking with and more so due to the huge support we get from the people on the road. Every step is towards building a hospital and that makes all the pain worth it,” smiles Jayawardene.
Two years after the war ended, in 2009, two friends and work colleagues – Sarinda Unamboowe, who had pledged that if the civil war ended he would walk the length of Sri Lanka as a commitment to peace, and Nathan Sivaganathan who was touched by a personal loss to cancer – a Sinhalese and a Tamil, got together and decided a walk would create have the biggest impact in achieving their goals which was to build a cancer hospital in the North.
That walk, Trail 2011, began in the South and ended in the North with US$2.6 million raised, US$1.6 million more than the intended target. Thirty thousand people walked and there were more than 250,000 donors. Their efforts helped build a 120-bed Tellippalai Trail Cancer Hospital. Todate this facility has treated more than 4,500 patients from the North and the East.
“We didn’t want to undertake this present walk, re-tracing our steps but in reverse, until that hospital was built. This has been an amazing journey and today there were more than 4,000 people walking with us which is just wonderful,” acknowledged Unamboowe.
The star of the show prefers to take a back seat as sponsors come forward with their pledges. But Jayawardene himself has raised US$23,465, a little less than a quarter of the US$100,000 total he has targeted towards the US$5 million goal.
“This is something we should all be proud of and I hope the word spreads and more people will donate as well as come out and support us, I can easily say that there are no words to express this experience. I’m humbled by it and I’m very proud to be a Sri Lankan,” Jayawardene adds.
(Courtesy the Hong Kong-based South China
Morning Post)