He was a scribe I always held in awe and was one who would call a spade a spade or go against the grain or what have you, he challenged the best of them at the highest of places in England. In his armoury he had the intelligence, the cheek and the backbone to spot shortcomings and point out to them. All his tedious efforts however were earlier put in the backburner by the ICC. He lamented due to the fact that the stiff upper-lipped “Suddhas” at the ICC never wanted a brown man from a far corner of the earth to get his name into their books. But he succeeded not once but thrice.
I was privileged to meet Mahinda at his residence at Battaramulla. He was charming as ever and put me at ease from the word go. He wrote a column called Cricket Cavalcade from 1970-80s in the Island news paper which was very popular. He played for Bloomfield as a batsman for a number of years and in the 1963/64 P. Sara season under the captaincy of old Anandian all-rounder, Noel Perera Bloomfield won the Sara Trophy. Mahinda was the vice-captain. In fact, it was a unique feat since the club did not even have a ground of their own.
Mahinda noted that Bloomfield was indebted to the bowling attack of pacemen Norton Frederick, Ranjit Malawana and Noel Perera. Anandian Dhanasiri Weerasinghe was one of the most brilliant cricketers he saw but was a bit laid back. He recalled that Dhanasiri scored a brilliant hundred vs NCC - a crackerjack side and Mahinda went in at No.3 when they were 2 for 15. Mahinda too went on to score a workman like 69 and in a partnership of 149 runs enabled Bloomfield to a facile victory.
Mahinda started as a 15 year old left arm spinner at Royal in 1955 in a third term match. In that game he performed so well, and as a result, the Royal skipper F.B. Crozier asked him to lead the team out. Little Mahinda was over the moon. The newspapers referred to him as “the 15 year old pint sized left arm spinner.” But surprisingly he was not selected for the next match! He was utterly dejected and did not continue going for practices.
However in the next season skipper Michael Wille assured him that he would play right through the season with off spinner/vice captain E.L. Pereira which surprised Mahinda.
He had a sensational season that year. First match in the first-term was against Ananda at Campbell Place. Sonny Yatawara was bowling at his fastest. Sahabandu and Mahinda the last pair were at the crease. Yatawara had his tail up, as the first ball went past Mahinda’s nose like a tracer bullet. Ananda skipper Polonowita realised that Mahinda’s nerves were jangling and immediately crowded him with a close in-field, and when Yatawara was about to bowl the next ball Bandu cheekily put his hand up and stopped the paceman midstream which made the bowler frothing mad, then meekily came across to Mahinda and whispered “don’t cross over.” Bandu was shaking like a fig leaf and Mahinda had a quiet chuckle to himself.
Royal were all out. Ananda had to get 70 odd runs for a win. Yatawara opened the batting. The first ball was square cut for 4, next a cover drive screamed for a another 4 and the next delivery Bandu bowled him as he shouldered arms to show the crowd that Bandu was bowling wide, the ball swung in and bowled Yata all ends up. Mahinda was then brought on to bowl with the score at 45 for 3. With the first ball, Polonowita was caught in the gully by Lorenz Pereira, next ball Nimal Ekanayake was out caught by D.I.de Livera, then S.P. Ekanayake’s stumps were rattled - it was the hat-trick ball, and then A.P Jayasinghe the stone-waller who had scored 86 in the first innings played forward and his off bail was clipped. It was 4 wickets in 4 balls and the board now read 45 for 7 and deadly silence in the crowd prevailed. The game was drawn.
S.P. Foenander the internationally acclaimed journalist – referred to as ‘The Wisden of the East’ confirmed Mahinda’s feat as a Ceylon record. In the very next match he captured 12 for 35 against Zahira and at the end of the season he along with Michael Dias was selected for the combined schools.
In my short association with Mahinda I found him to be meticulous in his work as a scribe and he makes the best of us look run of the mill.
(To be continued next week)
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