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When Weerawansa hit Sanath for three fours in one over

By S.R. Pathiravithana
Starting a new inning is nothing new to the Propaganda Secretary and the Spokesman of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna Wimal Weerawansa. In fact like at present what he is doing for the JVP by opening their inning at any occasion as their official spokesman, young Wimal did open batting for his alma-mater Tissa MMV in the seasons 1985 and 86.

Tissa MMV is situated at Kalutara --a Southern hamlet 46 kilometres away from the capital of city of Colombo and has come in to the sporting news in the last 15 years producing cricketers of the caliber of former Sri Lanka fast bowler Dulip Liyanage and the present dashing middle order batsman T.M. Dilshan.

Neil Silva (now retired) who was the master-in-charge of cricket at Tissa MMV remembers the young lad well. Describing Weerawansa's cricket in school the retired MIC said, "It's so long now, I cannot remember any of his individual innings, but, I remember that he was a very reliable right hand opening batsman. As I can remember his highest score was 70. However, I can remember that we used to have a sense of security as long as he was at the crease. He used to be a very steady batsman and play some fine strokes. Besides his batting he was also a very good fielder."

The present Principal of the school D.S. Kaviratne also remembers Weerawansa well. He said " It's a pity that we did not preserve the data on cricket at that time. But, I remember him as a good cricketer who opened batting for the school."

Adding to the story Neil Silva said " Even the only picture we have on cricket at that time was taken because the school cricket coach at that time one Mr. Samarasekera insisted on it. This picture was taken in 1986. The picture was with Mr. Samarasekera recently until he migrated. Before he left the island he handed it over to me and for some reason or another I preserved it."

Speaking more on Weerawansa Mr. Neil Silva said that when he was a teacher at Tissa Central, he was in charge of discipline, " Weerawansa's father was also a school teacher. They lived in a place by the name of Deniyawala Ukgalboda, in Kalutara itself, but, subsequently that land was sold and now some others have built on it. Wimal while in school was a very disciplined student with a very good track record. Recently there was a story on TV about him getting involved in a bank robbery while at school.

This is totally incorrect, had he been involved like that we, as teachers, would have been the first to know about it."

It was late evening when we finally got through to the man himself. In spite of his busy schedule with the on going election campaign, Wimal had a minute to spare. He went back to his schooling days with relish and he spoke particularly about one match " I think it was in 1986. The match was against St. Servatius’ College Matara and the match was played at our college grounds. At that time the star of that school was none other than Sri Lanka's master blaster, Sanath Jayasuriya. I cannot remember the exact scores, but I vividly remember Sanath got twin centuries in that game. Not to be outdone we too did well in that game. When our turn came to bat I opened the inning and Sanath opened bowling for them. I remember hitting him for three fours in one over. I and my opening partner put on a century stand for the first wicket of which 47 runs was my share.

It was a tall scoring match. Over the two days both sides scored over one thousand runs and I think it was a record in school cricket at that time. After the match our whole team in unison felt that Sanath would one-day play for Sri Lanka. He had class written all over him."

Answering to the question what ails the game of cricket today Weerawansa answered " Not only cricket. The entire sphere of sports has degenerated today as a result of political interference. Sport is a noble thing and sportsmen and women are like treasures of a country. I and my party both think that sports should be devoid of any political interference and should be left to bloom on its own," said Weerawansa in conclusion.

Tissa MMV at one stage was playing the SLSCA Division II tournament, but was relegated to Division III for not completing their quota of matches three years ago.

However this year the team has performed well and are scheduled to meet Sri Sumangala College, Panadura in the Kalutara District inter-school cricket final.

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