A Rare Photograph: Gamini Dissanayake with the Australian and Sri Lankan Cricket Squads and Entourages at Asgiriya on 22nd April 1983-by Michael Roberts
Source:Thuppahis
THE SRI LANKAN PERSONNEL in the PHOTOGRAPH …. identified with aid from Mevan Pieris, Lam Seneviratne & Prakash Schaffter… with a few of the Australians identified in blue.
STANDING L-to-R: ………..16=Ravi Ratnayake; 17=Vinodhan John; 18=Rumesh Ratnayake; 19=Asantha De Mel; 20= Guy De Alwis; 21= DS De Silva; 22=Marlon Von Hagt; 23=Sunil Fernando; 24=Sidath Wettimuny; 25=Ranjan Madugalle; 26=Roshan Gunaratne or Anura Ranasinghe; 27= Arjuna Ranatunga;….. with Don Thomas (masseur) standing in front of him; 28= CEB Anthony or WAN de Silva; 29=HC Felsinger/or WAN Silva.
SEATED L-to-R: 1–Roy Dias; 2-Nuski Mohammed; 4-Chulaka De Zoysa; 5-Jayantha Paranathala; 6-Duleep Mendis; 7-Basil Rigg–The Manager of the Australian Team; 8-Gamini Dissanayake; 9-David Rutter–High Commissioner for Australia; 10-Greg Chappell; 11-Gamini Kannangara; 12-Chulaka De Zoysa; 13- Garry Sobers; 14-??; !5-??; 16-David Hookes.
A NOTE from Mevan Pieris: “I knew Chulaka de Zoysa very well and it was Chulaka de Zoysa who provided the gold coin that was used to toss in the first ever official test match. Both Chulaka and Gamini Kannangara were very close friends of Gamini Dissanaike.”
Reflections & Commentary
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Gamini Dissanayake was an instrumental force in securing ICC status for Sri Lanka within a political environment in the MCC world that was hostile.[1] As a central force in the island’s cricket circles, he followed previous practice in staging international matches at Asgiriya, the grounds of his old school Trinity College – even though the circumference of the site was relatively confined.[2]
When the Australian squad on its way to England toured the island in 1983, therefore, the First Test Match was played at Asgiriya and commenced on the 2 April 1983. The photograph taken on that occasion featured several Sri Lankan ‘supernumeraries’ as well as the teams and their coaches. This act of supernumerary encompassment, too, was, unusual …. and remains relatively unique as far as I know.
Gamini Dissanayake is the central figure seated in the front row with Basil Riggs (Manager of the Australian team) to his right and David Rutter, the High Commissioner for Australia in Sri Lanka, on his left. Rutter was good enough to donate this photograph to me way back in time.
It is a unique picture for several reasons. For one it includes Garfield Sobers the coach of the Sri Lankan side seated 4th from the right. The entry of Sobers as the Sri Lankan coach had been a remarkable coup engineered by Dissanayake courtesy of two factors: (A) the intervention of a West Indian aficionado from the cricketing world whom Gamini had befriended during their stint together at Cambridge University;[3] and (B) Gary Sobers admiration and friendship with Mahadeva Sathasivam – courtesy of older generations of West Indian cricketers who had been charmed by Sathasivam’s batting brilliance and personality – witness this photo from the early 1960s as one demonstration of this link:
Rudi Webster, the Barbadian cricketer and subsequent psychology-guide for sporting teams, who Gamini may have befriended at Cambridge University
Secondly, it is very unusual for such photographs at the commencement of Test Matches to include a range of aides and supernumeraries (see list below). Third: the Asgiriya grounds were eventually displaced as a Test venue by the construction of a larger oval at Pallekelle to the north-east of Kandy town in the year 2009.[4]
For the ‘incidental’ (ha, ha) historical record it may be mentioned that Australia batted first and amassed 514 runs for the loss of 4 wickets — with Kepler Wessels scoring 141, Graham Yallop 98 and Hookes 143 n.o. — in quick time the latter. Then, Sri Lanka was bowled out twice for 271 and 205 (with Duleep Mendis and Arjuna Ranatunge scoring 74 & 90 respectively in the first innings and Sidath Wettimuny 96 in the second).
However, perhaps the saddest feature of this picture is the fact that the lifespan of two personnel[5] was abruptly cut short by two alarming strikes. David Hookes of South Australia (seated here on extreme right) went on to coach Victoria, but was felled and killed by a bouncer after a confrontation at a pub in Melbourne on the 19th January 2004.[6] By then, Gamini Dissanayake had already had his vibrant life shattered by a Tamil Tiger suicide bomber on the 24th October 1994.[7] Dissanayake’s political career had been somewhat turbulent up to that point; but the assassination of both R. Premadasa and Lalith Athulathmudali in the 1990s had opened the door for him to challenge Chandrika Kumaratunga of the SLFP in the race for the Sri Lankan Presidency in 1994. He was on the platform on the UNP ticket addressing a public campaign meeting at the port of Colombo on 24th October 1994 when the female Tigress (in plain clothes) attacked the cluster as a suicide bomber and killed Dissanayake and about 50 others.[8]
A SPECIAL Doffing of Our Caps…. FOR David Hookes at Adelaide Oval, 2004 ….
https://www.theage.com.au/national/thousands-gather-to-farewell-hookes-
END NOTES
1 = Sri Lanka’s valiant political efforts (with aid from British friends & support from India and Pakistan) in the 1970s were thwarted by the ICC conservatives. Alas, Jeff Stollmeyer, representing the Windies, was also hostile.
2 = As a teacher at Peradeniya University in the late 1960s and early 1970s, I recall watching several international matches at this ground. A brilliant catch at gully by Hema de Silva and a huge six over mid-on by Sugi Rajaratnam are among the mental pictures that remain.
3 = My fading and deficient memory suggests that this person may have been Rudi Webster, a Barbadian cricketer who went on to earn a doctorate in psychology and then mentored many cricketing teams including his West Indians. See https://collection.australiansportsmuseum.org.au/objects/41473/photograph-of-dr-rudi-webster-sir-garfield-sobers
4 = See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pallekele_International_Cricket_Stadium
5 = https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamini_Dissanayake
6 = See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Hookes and …. https://www.espncricinfo.com/story/how-good-was-david-hookes-137663
7 = See https://www.upi.com/Archives/1995/02/01/Police-say-woman-killed-Sri-Lankan/5751791614800/ …. AND ….. https://www.nytimes.com/1994/10/25/world/latest-killing-of-a-sri-lanka-politician-fits-a-familiar-pattern.html
