The funny game called test cricket

The funny game of test cricket: Not only how they won or lost but also how they played the game: Reviewed by Carl Muller

Don Bradman strolled the grounds of Balmoral Castle in 1948. With him was King George VI. The cricketer's behavior was considered most outrageous. He walked, chatted with the king and, all the while, had his hands in his pockets!

No, I didn't find this in G.L. Wijesinghe's absorbing book, but certainly, my scant knowledge of the game - a game that is driving us bonkers today - was given an optimum thrust, a sort of fission-boost, sending me careening through some sort of star gate where, beyond, England piles up 504 for 2 in one day of a Test match and Azharudeen scores a hat trick of centuries.

The book, "The Funny Game of Test Cricket" is not just ha-ha funny and is not meant to be so. It is, rather, a compendium of the feats, the golden moments, the quirks and the hiccups of Test cricket. The cover, as the author tells me, is a "dreamed-up" situation which couldn't happen (or could it?). The ball is delivered, the batsman loses his bat in the swipe. The keeper stares, open-mouthed, then everything falls into place - the bat hits the bowler's head, the ball leaps into the keeper's mouth and in anguish (and with no chance to appeal against such an ungodly mess) he uproots the stumps. Everybody's happy. The umpire seems to have decamped.... and that is what this funny game could become: downright hilarious!

Wijesinghe has been a cricket fan from childhood. A product of Gampola's Jinaraja College, he preferred, as he said to "follow the game" although he did play when in school. His love for the game led him, when in public service, to become a member of the Cricket Foundation Library at Maitland Place where he found a wealth of material that gave him the idea to get it all together. It took, he says, a couple of years, although actual compilation took just three months.

A Katugastota man now, Wijesinghe at 62 is a sprightly person who insists, with Neil Harvey, that "cricket is fun and a game to enjoy." Well, enjoy it one must when we are told that in an Australia - England Test in 1979, Lillee was caught by Willey off the bowling of Dilley in the gully. And what must have been our Arjuna's state of mind when he batted against Pakistan in 1986? At 10 he gave a catch. Dropped. At 12, another. Dropped again. And dropped yet again at 25, 26 and at 29. Five times lucky! Above the P. Sara Stadium the gods in white flannels must have smiled and smiled because somehow these Gods don't grin. Arjuna went on to score 135 not out. Surely the strangest game of "catch me if you can".

Even as I write, I hear the bleats of disbelief around me. Our chaps could not get that one precious run so badly needed to beat Pakistan at Sharjah. But that's the way of the ODI and Wijesinghe has not strayed into the cowboy game. Still, do we really have to feel so bad? In 1982, Wijesinghe records, we had seven wickets for eight runs as Test score in our inaugural match against England.... and yet, as Wijesinghe points out, the whole business of cricket is to go in and get out. The Sri Lanka Cricket Foundation has given him this gem:

You have two sides, one out in the field and one in.

Each man that's in the side that's in, goes out, and when he's out he comes in, and the next man goes in until he's out.

When they are all out, the side that's out comes in and the side that's been in goes out and tries to get those coming in, out.

Easy as pie? Of course, if you know your cricket, although I have always considered that somehow, somewhere a lot of sexy terms have also crept in - things like fine legs and maiden over and driving through the covers and leg glances and leg byes. The slips, let it be known are not underskirts... but who's to tell?

As we are told, over 2100 cricketers have played in Tests since 1877 and yet, our own W.P.U.J. Chaminda Vaas is the only one to have five initials and a full name of over fifty letters! This is the special appeal of this book with its potential to excite even the most critical of the game. We can all relate to the trivia, the moments of glory, the crazy incidents, the firsts and the lasts. We know that Brendon Kuruppu was our first test cricketer to score a double century and that Everton Weekes was the first to score five consecutive Test centuries and how keeper Amal Silva not only accounted for nine batsmen in the 1985 Sri Lanka-India Test, but also hit a breezy 111.

We are told that no one bowled faster than Roy Gilchrist of the West Indies. His first Test delivery soared over the heads of both batsman and keeper, hit the sight screen and ricocheted back into the middle of the field. But the real worth of this book is its 100 questions (answer supplied); its list of notable "firsts"; a collection of Test cricketers' birthdays (Dhammika Ranatunga, Anura Ranasinghe, Roy Dias, Chamara Dunsinghe, Sanath Kaluperuma and Russel Arnold are all October-born) and Test highlights which tell us not only how they won or lost but also how they played the game.

I suppose we all have our cricket memories. A funny game, true. Dull as dishwater, then blazing with 10,000 volts, then dying like the celebrated dodo, then leaping like lambs in the springtime. Thanks to Wijesinghe, we have the essence of the Test game to give us hours of entertainment. He tells me he will give us a record of the one-day game too, and that'll take some doing as well.

Let me add that this book is a must for all lovers of the game. It is also a must in every school library and, certainly an update will be needed, say in 2025 and every quarter century thereafter. As a pacesetter, the book is more than welcome and weaves together the true fascination of cricket for all ages.

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