Sunday Times 2
Life and times of Mahadevan Sathasivam
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Mahadevan Sathasivam played cricket for Wesley College from the age of 15 and produced several sizzling innings for the school. His last season for Wesley in 1936 was considered his best and most magnificent, when he ended the season with a classic 145 against S. Thomas’ College in Mount Lavinia. A schoolboy batsman rarely has had the privilege of notching a century in the windswept grounds of Mount Lavinia.
Sathasivam first played for Ceylon in 1945, scoring a glorious 111 runs against India. In 1948, he captained Sri Lanka against Don Bradman’s Australia.
On October 9, 1951, around 1 a.m., Sathasivam came to his house. His wife Paripooranam Ananda Sathasivam opened the front door and let him in. At about 10.30 in the morning, he left the house.
That evening, his wife was found strangled. When a man or woman dies on suspicious circumstances, it is said that the spouse is the first suspect!
Sathasivam was arrested the same evening at a friend’s place. He and a domestic aide called William who was in the Sathasivam household that morning, were charged with the murder. Later, William was a given crown pardon to give evidence against Sathasivam.
It was the evidence of
Sri Lanka’s first Professor of Forensic Medicine, G.S.W. de Saram, who conducted the post-mortem examination on Mrs. Sathasivam’s body and the Edinburgh University’s Forensic Medicine Professor Sydney Smith, who was summoned by the defence, that saved Mr. Sathasivam. His defence Counsel Dr. Colvin R. de Silva’s unparallelled intellectual brilliance as a counsel was immensely helpful.
Mahadevan Sathasivam, whose occupation was mentioned as a broker in the marriage certificate, married Paripooranam Ananda Rajendra, the younger daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Ramanathan Rajendra of “Sukhasthan”, Horton Place, Colombo 07.
The civil or legal registration of the marriage of the couple, both Ceylon Tamils, was held on February 9, 1940. The wedding ceremony, according to Hindu customs and rites, was held in 1941.
Their marriage was a stormy one, largely due to the faults of Sathasivam. In October 1944, a divorce action was instituted by Sathasivam. Through the intervention of relatives, differences that existed relating to the action for divorce were smoothened and the couple agreed to live with each other again. In December 1944, the action was withdrawn.
In 1949, Mrs. Sathasivam sold her dowried half-share of her parents’ house in Horton Place to her sister, who had the other half-share. With the proceeds of that sale, Mrs. Sathasivam bought the house named “Jayamangalam” at No. 7, St. Alban’s Place, Bambalapitiya.
In this house, a few years later, Mrs. Sathasivam had to face a tragic death.
In 1950, Sathasivam appeared to have formed an attachment to Yvonne Stevenson, who worked at “Bogstra and de Wildt”, a private firm, for a few months.
Sathasivam had said that he was to be sent out by “Cargills”, a leading departmental store in Colombo, for training in England in ‘Sports lines’ and that he would then come back to Ceylon and take up the management of the Sports Department in “Cargills”.
On September 6, Mrs. Sathasivam instituted an action for a divorce, and at 8 o’clock in the morning of October 8, the Fiscal’s Process Server was successful in serving the summons on Sathasivam.
On the 9th, near about one o’clock in the morning, Sathasivam came to his wife’s house. His wife opened the door for him and about 10.30 in the morning, he left the house.
That evening, Mrs. Sathasivam was found strangled!
President’s Counsel Lakshman Kadirgamar wrote, “Sathasivam, the famous cricketer, was indicted for the murder of his wife. High society gossip had hanged him from every lamppost in the city. Although handled with extreme sensitivity in view of his standing in the profession, elaborate, delicate but devastating cross examination of a highly respected witness, Professor Milroy Paul, Professor of Surgery of the University of Colombo, by the defence counsel Dr. Colvin R de Silva, was a noteworthy feature of the case. Justice Gratiaen presided over the trial before a special jury. Satha began the case a villain. It is said that Colvin lost his Wellawatte Parliamentary seat because irate Tamil opinion punished him for securing Satha’s acquittal.”
After a Supreme Court trial lasting 58 days, the jury deliberated for 64 minutes, brought a unanimous verdict of not guilty.
Addressing Sathasivam, Justice Gratiaen said, “On the verdict brought by the jury, you have been found not guilty. You are now free.”
Mahadevan Sathasivam then walked out of the dock a free man, after being twenty months on remand — for a crime he did not commit.
If not Sathasivam, who committed the murder? Much of the evidence showed that domestic aide William was responsible for the murder.
After spending 20 months in the remand prison, Sathasivam became a free man again in June 1953. Two months after his release, Sathasivam went to England and married 35-year-old Yvonne in August 1953, at the Kensington Registry in London. They were blessed with three children and all seven children of Mr. Sathasivam were brought up together as a happy family.
Sathasivam held the ground record at Chepauk Test venue, the home ground of the Madras Cricket Club. In 1947, playing against an Indian XI, which included M.J. Gopalan, Ram Singh and fast bowler Rangachari, all of whom were Test cricketers at the time, he made a brilliant 215 surpassing, West Indian Jeff Stollmeyer’s 211 to set a new record.
Cricket fans in India termed Sathasivam’s innings as the best seen on this ground. Sathasivam compared well with the late Everton Weeks and Frank Worrell of West Indies.
His 99 runs against the West Indies which included Frank Worrell, John Goddard and the two trundlers Prior Jones and John Trim was considered to be a gem of an innings.
At the end of his masterly innings, West Indies skipper Goddard had said that he had never seen such a commanding innings in any of the countries he had played Test Cricket.
After his release from remand prison, Sathasivam used to visit Ceylon thereafter and played cricket on and off in England, as well as in Ceylon.
In 1953, he scored 153 not out for a Ceylonese team against the Indian Gymkhana Club in England. His best and the last century in the island was in 1955, when he scored 206 not out for the ‘Rest’ team against Government Services in a tournament at the Nondescript Cricket Club (NCC) grounds in Colombo.
Sathasivam migrated to Malaysia in 1958. In 1959, the legendary ‘Satha’, as he was affectionately known, had the unique distinction of captaining two countries in cricket.
He captained Malaysia, when an All Malaysian team played against legendary Don Bradman’s Australians in Singapore. This was the first and perhaps the only occasion that any cricketer had led two countries in cricket. Even in Malaysia, playing for Selangor, Sathasivam scored 106 runs.
Sathasivam was such a popular cricketer, Keith Miller, a former Australian test player, visited him in the remand prison on March 30, 1953.
It was rumoured that Frank Worrel, the West Indies cricket captain, later Sir Frank Worrel, had sent a cable to Mr. Sathasivam urging him to hire the best lawyers for the case and giving an assurance that he would pay.
In 1971, Sathasivam was made an Honorary Member of the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) for his unstinted services and devotion to cricket. This is a crowning glory for any international cricketer.
Mahadeva Sathasivam passed away in July 1977, after suffering a heart attack, at the age of 61.
“A glorious innings declared closed”, reported the Ceylon Daily News.
(Based on the two books “A Murder in Ceylon – The Sathasivam Case” and “Sathasivam of
Ceylon – the batting genius”)