When St. John's College, Jaffna played Kingswood (14 July 1999)

14 July 1999

When St. John's College, Jaffna played Kingswood

Herbert Jayasuriya

In present Sri Lanka none would have ever thought of travelling to Jaffna to play in a cricket match. But in 1958 the conditions in Jaffna were quite different. It was a peaceful area to live in did not have an iota of terrorist problems. Any person could have travelled to any part of Jaffna without any fear.

Kingswood College was one of the few schools that played a cricket match against a Jaffna School i.e. St. John's College, Jaffna which recently celebrated its 150th anniversary. This match originated in the early 1950s due to the untiring efforts of Mr. B. A. Thambapillai who was in-charge of cricket at Kingswood. Mr. Thambapillai was a distinguished old boy of St. John's College, Jaffna who joined the tutorial staff of Kingswood after obtaining a BSc Degree from the Ceylon University. He was an excellent chemistry teacher and equally good mathematics teacher. In fact he ended up as the Co-Vice Principal of Kingsood in 1958.

There are some amusing stories pertaining to Mr. Thambapillai. The best is about giving a lift in his Morris Minor Car to 3 hostel boys who had gone to his house in Primrose Garden for a tuition class in mathematics. After the class Mr. Thambapillai had offered the 3 boys viz. Vincent Fernando, Leslie Abeysekera and Ebert Perera a lift to the school as he was going to watch a cricket match on the college grounds. Vincent got into the front seat of the car whilst Ebert and Leslie got into the rear seat of the car. Mr. Thambapillai after starting the car looked from the mirror and advised the 2 passengers in the rear seat in his drawly bass voice "Ebert and Leslie get onto either side of the car, otherwise the car will loose balance."

The Kingswood team that played against St. John's in 1958 comprised Maurice Fernando, captain, Godwin Manamperi, Vice Captain Ranjith Dharmawardene, Clifford Ratnavibushana, K. Somakirthi, Nissanka Kumarasinghe, Hilerian Gunaratne, Cedric Augustine, R. Khrisharaj, Clifford Harvie and I.

Winston Holle another distinguished cricket of St. John's College, Jaffna who was an excellent wicket keeper and a very good right hand batsman was our coach. He accompanied the team to Jaffna along with our ground boy "Wije" who carried out cricket gear in his famous cricket bag. Wije's excuse if we ever lost a match was that "Ball was swimming like hell". Wije did not know the difference between swinging and swimming.

The Kingswood team on a Wednesday afternoon accompanied by Mr. Holle and Wije left the Kandy railway station at about 5.15 p.m. in a train bound to Polgahawela. From Polgahawela we boarded the night mail to Jaffna and reached Jaffna in the early hours in the morning. Of course as usual we travelled in a reserved 3rd class compartment. On reaching Jaffna on Thursday morning we were taken to St. John's College and we were housed in one of the dormitories. The beds we had to sleep on were plank beds with no mattresses. This was because of the hot climate in Jaffna. However I was able to organise a few pillows and mattresses through my good friend Susila Ponnadorai whose father was a master at St. John's. I had met Susila at the S.C.M. Trianial conference in Guntur, South India.

We commenced to play the match on Friday afternoon. St. John's batted first and were all out for about 160 runs. The only player I can remember who played for St. John's in this match was my friend Karunian Arulanandan the youngest son of the Principal of St. John's. He is presently a doctor living in the United States. We had almost overtaken the score of St. John's at the close of play on Friday. The following morning we piled up about 250 runs. My friend Maurice scored a brilliant century. I recall Clifford Ratnavibushana scored a quick 35 or 40 runs and in the process he hammered 3 sixers which broke the glass of the new science laboratory that was constructed by the side of the grounds. In the second innings St. John's made about 220 runs and we had to make 110 runs in about one and half hours because the match was to be stopped by 5.00 p.m. as there was some official function of the college on that day. We made 97 for 6 wickets. Maurice was unbeaten on 36 runs while I got 25 runs and the match was drawn. We returned to Kandy by the night mail from Jaffna on that Sunday and arrived at Kingswood on Monday morning.

Speaking of cricket in Jaffna I remember when I was Asst. Superintendent of Police in charge-of the Jaffna police station in 1985 we were attacked by the terrorist who used RPGs and mortars for the first time against us on the 10th of April, 1985. Thereafter the army moved into the Fort of Jaffna which the Police was occupying. In May 1985 the army officers arranged a soft ball cricket match between the army and the boys of St. John's College inside the Jaffna Fort Grounds. They videoed this cricket match to show that the army was living peacefully with the citizens of Jaffna. This cricket match had drastic consequences because the terrorist shot the Vice Principal of St. John's who arranged this match with the army whilst he was travelling on his scooter in the Jaffna town.

In fact I met the late Brig. Devanayagam at the Jaffna Fort for the last time when he had come to attend the funeral of the Vice Principal of St. John's College, Jaffna who was a close relation of his. I had returned from the Palaly Army Camp when the Brigadier was waiting to board the helicopter in which I came. Along with the Brigadier my friend Cecil Wickremanayake alias "Citizen Perera" who had been abducted by the terrorists and released was also in the Fort and he boarded this helicopter.

This incident goes to prove that unlike in 1958 it would have not been prudent to arrange cricket matches between the officers of the army and civilians in 1985.

Source :: The Daily News (https://www.lanka.net/lakehouse/)