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Sports

Trek down memory lane
A man of his times
By Mahangu Weerasinghe
Cricket. The history of this country is so entwined with the word that in most cases it is impossible to differentiate the two. For more than a century and a half, cricketing heroes have been national idols. From the scruffy village boy running through a paddy field with a rubber ball in hand, to the nervous opener walking out to the middle at his maiden school big match, every Sri Lankan dreams of being a cricketing legend.

Some, like Skanda, get to live that dream. S. Skandakumar first held a bat at his Alma Mater, Royal College, Colombo. At that time however, no one would have suspected that a future pillar of Sri Lankan cricket was being formed, right there between those brick walls down Reid Avenue.

Skanda played his first big match in nineteen sixty five, and went on to play again in sixty six, a performance for which he received the Royal Thomian's Best Performance Award. His Alma Mater honoured this achievement by making him a Prefect in the same year.

Next, the off spinner and top order right hander entered the University of Colombo, and was named Best Bowler and Best All Rounder in the First Division, in 1968 and 1969 respectively. He furthered these achievements by winning the Most Outstanding Sportsman Award from the University of Sri Lanka in 1970.

However, it was at the Gopalan Trophy match in 1970 that young Skanda proved that he was a cut above the rest. The trophy at the time, was played for between the Madras Cricket Association and Sri Lanka. Playing alongside the likes of Anura Tennekoon and Sarath Seneviratne, Skanda bagged a total of five wickets, with his university team mate Mevan Peiris taking the other five.

After having graduated from University, Skandakumar joined the Tamil Union Sports Club in seventy-three. "I remember my first Tamil Union match very well", said Skanda with a twinkle in his eye. "We were playing against the Moor's Sports Club, and by tea time on the second day, they had already registered a terrific first innings total," related the cricketer. "Then, we went in to bowl and bowled them out for just nineteen runs," said Skanda with a chuckle. "We then went out and knocked off the forty required runs with thirty minutes to spare." Skanda's figures were as follows - 6 Overs, 4 Maidens, 2 Runs, 4 Wickets.

After his excellent performance for the Tamil Union, Skandakumar was isolated as one of Sri Lanka's up and coming off spinners. The cricketing community expected him to succeed the two spin giants Abu Fuard and Neil Chanmugam. However, it was at this juncture that his cricketing career took a drastic turn. Skanda was hit by a bout of hepatitis in 1976 and as a consequence had to lay off all sporting activity for four years.

"I came back to cricket when I was thirty-two, but then my best years were behind me," remembered Skandakumar. With job commitments and a slowly recovering body preventing him from embracing cricket competitively for some time, Skanda took on the task of giving back to the game what he got from it. "I believed that cricket development should not be focused on Colombo alone," states Skandakumar. Human Resources Manager at George Stuarts Travels at the time, Skanda persuaded the board of the company to give promising outstation cricketers jobs in the city. "We selected young cricketers from the south and brought them up to Colombo to develop them," said Skanda. It was the first time in the history of Sri Lanka that anyone had paid much attention to the development of cricket in the outstations.

Both Champaka Ramanayake, the current bowling coach of the National team, and Chandika Hathurusinghe, National squad member, were brought in as a result of this programme. "There is no joy like seeing a talented young cricketer succeed, and it makes me truly proud to say that I had a little part in helping them get on their feet," says Skanda with smile.

In 1980 however Skanda got back in to club cricket. Playing for Tamil Union Division Three and then Two in 1980 and 1981 respectively, he assumed the Division One captaincy for the club in the 1983/84 season. "The team was made up of mostly of young school leavers which meant that I had to play mentor to all of them," he related.

"It was the year they changed the name of the Division One trophy from the P. Saravanamutu Trophy to the Lakspray Trophy, and we were playing Bloomfield CC in the finals", said Skanda. "Both teams were neck and neck in the points tally going in to the final and we had to obtain bonus points in order to win the title," said the Tamil Union skipper.

Skanda explained that bonus points were given to any side that reached a specific milestone, such as obtaining more than three hundred runs in the first innings. "At the end of the day however, we managed to pip Bloomfield on the post to win by 0.065 points," recalled the captain. Headlines in the papers the next day called Tamil Union the 'Kings of Cricket'.

"But then, Bloomfield opened the score book to our very first final round match and found that we had not been reprimanded for our slow over rate on that day," said the Captain. When the points were re-tallied after the penalty, it was seen that Bloomfield had in fact won by 0.015 points. "Apart from being Captain of Tamil Union, I was also president of the Tournament committee that year, and it was my responsibility to give away the trophy to Bloomfield, which I did," related Skanda. A paper cutting from that week showed the then President of Bloomfield, Mr. Shelly Wickramasinghe describing Skandakumar as a "fine honest man and a true sportsman."

"That season was truly a bitter-sweet one of the Tamil Union," said Skanda. "We learnt so much and went so far with such a young team - I am very proud of what we did together that season," related the captain.

Then Skandakumar left club cricket the following year. In 1981 however he joined the BCCSL as Asst. Secretary, a post that he held until 1988. During that time, as a retired cricketer he was also a part time radio and TV commentator. In 1989 he was made Secretary of the Board, and held this post until 1991.

The Interim Board of 1999 comprised of Rienzie Wijeytilleke (Chairman), S. Skandakumar (Vice Chairman and Secretary), Sidath Wettimuni, Michael Tissera and Ashantha De Mel. In just eleven months, they managed to make leadership changes in the team, bring the squad together and restoring confidence in the cricket administration of the country.

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