Newton Gunatileka - the man who broke cricket's language barrier (21 July 1999)
Imagine in rural areas if crane watching is considered childish and on a World Cup day, the national gross productivity goes down and people are not seated at their work places, then to be gleeful at cricketers clad in pure white: or else adults
21-Jul-1999
21 July 1999
Newton Gunatileka - the man who broke cricket's language barrier
The Daily News
Imagine in rural areas if crane watching is considered childish and
on a World Cup day, the national gross productivity goes down and
people are not seated at their work places, then to be gleeful at
cricketers clad in pure white: or else adults watching cricket is
childish. Even in rural areas nowadays no one is devoid of this
childish communion.
The village lads have left paddy fields where chalky cranes pecked
for worms to be sagacious by collecting information on cricket.
But then a barrier was laid before them, it was the Whiteman's
language, not his sport that enthraled them.
Newton Gunatileke was engaged in crashing this barricade for those
lads, may be among them sprouts of future world class cricket players
would emerge. His monthly "Cricket Lova" (the cricket world) covered
all current events of cricket in Sinhala right throughout.
Newton was a human dynamo. He was stocky and well rooted in
indigenous manners, and his lips were ever reddened by chewing betel,
and he was clad in a neat chalky sarong and a national upper jacket
with short sleeves. His pace was quick. Given to talk of cricket in
Sinhala he was good at it; though cricket is imported, let us import
it in Sinhala had been his prime move. To cross the Rubicon he moved
with a gusto of a fast bowler.
Perhaps in bowling, one or two may miss yet persistence could move
one to blow the wickets. Until Newton's monthly "Cricket Lova"
embraced the interest of the readers he had to endure his previous
unsuccessful attempts. He was the first person that ever edited and
launched a cricket magazine in Sinhala.
Having abandoned the masonry skills which he cultivated soon after
his adolescence with a tint of leftist politics, Newton was a
voracious reader in Sinhala that habit led him to a writing career.
If Arnold Wesker was made to write The Wesker Trilogy from kitchen,
of a restaurant, was not a Newton's gravity capable to ease the sport
in Sinhala?
If the Whiteman's sport has made children dismiss their minds from
milky cranes why could not his language be well rooted among them?
Perhaps language was more susceptible for politics in Sri Lanka than
it was to the games.
Until it is established in far off hamlets, lads need people like
Newton Gunatileka who would move with a gusto of a fast bowler.
Source :: The Daily News (https://www.lanka.net/lakehouse/)