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in Malaysia The wheels were set in motion by the Warden Dr. David Ponniah. The live-wires of the Old Thomians Cricket Union followed his lead and the likes of Arjuna Hettiarachchi, Ken de Alwis, Prabodha Kariyawasam, Dayal Silva and Dayalan Subramaniam, made a tour of Malaysia and Singapore a possibility. On Thursday, 21 April fifteen players and three officials took wing to Kuala Lumpur, for a tour to last fourteen days. As a nation Malaysia has made giant strides in the past two decades. Their development has been phenomenal and continues its forward move. It is sad when thoughts go back to the years when our nation was known as "Ceylon" and then this country, had not much more to offer to its citizens. That is now history. Moving on, our first stop was Penang. A four hour journey by coach. The journey was a pleasure on well carpeted roads, mainly landscaped with teak trees, planted between four and six years ago. Beyond that mountainous stretches, plush estates - tens of thousands of acres of rubber and oil palm trees. We played cricket on the very afternoon of arrival. It was a twenty five over affair against a mixed team from Penang Sports Club. The British influence had been passed on to the locals. The cricket ground resembled the peaceful setting for village cricket while tennis (19 courts, including grass courts), squash, swimming and gym were facilities available for members. The boys, weary after a night on the plane, showed no ill effects, to knock up 231 for 4 wickets. All the batsmen who went out helped themselves to runs with Sashreeka Pussegolla and Nishan Mezahir scoring half centuries. Then, the men were dismissed for 127 runs, with Danushka Colombage, Rayendra Karunaratne and Shevnath Gnaneskandan sharing the spoils. Another twenty five over game followed the next day against Australian Defense Forces, at the same venue. They were out to spend-the-day, rather than play cricket! Batting first our opponents managed 97 runs. Again, the spin bowlers got amongst the wickets. Then Mezahir struck out a powerful 70 not out and with Ashan Peiris (24) won the game in seven overs! Two days later we were up against Millenium Cricket Club (a mix of original Indians and Pakistani's). It was a low scoring game which the Thomians won by two wickets. The game was played on an artificial surface - a new experience. Young Ruchira de Silva starred claiming five wickets. We then moved into a city called Ipoh for a day and have now moved into the country's capital, Kuala Lumpur. With that we have commenced the second leg of the tour. The game has been played in this country since the days of British rule. Unlike India and Sri Lanka the progress then had been slow and since has moved along at snails pace. They are caught-up in a maze of problems, primarily - no men keen enough to play the game. Naturally, there is no money in it. The ICC is spending mega-bucks attempting to globalize the sport. It is a sport that requires a huge amount of money and a whole lot of time. Bangladesh, playing at the highest level are proving to be misfits. So too a trouble-ridden Zimbabwe. Is the ICC on the correct path? The Thomians are looking out for a good game of cricket in Malaysia. Maybe a game against the National Team could be the answer! |
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