I interviewed my ex neighbour at Rodney Place, Borella, the charming and modest Ishak Sahabdeen, At Glaxo Smith and Kline Ratmalana.He is the leader of Logistics and Sales at this leading Multinational in pharmaceuticals in Sri Lanka, Ishak has clocked 37 years in this company.
A product of Kandy, as a 17 year old excelling in Cricket and Hockey he wanted a bigger challenge in sport and applied to St Thomas’ and Royal and got selected for both and opted to the former.
He was a member of the all-conquering Thomian cricket team in 1976, which was adjudged the Best All Island Team. The team comprised ShashiGaneshan his brother AjitGaneshan (V. Capt.), Dayal De Silva, Ishak Sahabdeen, Micheal Jayasekera, Lakmal De Soyza, Suraj Dandeniya, Saliya Ahangama, late Lalith Ratnayake, late Guy De Alwis and late Dayalan Subramanium.
Three players, Ajit Ganeshan, IshakSahabdeen and late Lalith Ratnayake represented Sri Lanka Schools team captained by the late Anura Ranasinghe that won the Ali Bhutto Trophy in 1975 and toured Pakistan for the return fixture in 1976 under Ranasinghe.
The Thomians won eight inter school matches that season, Ishak excelled in his fast inswing bowling and hard hitting batting.
He played first class cricket for the Tamil Union Cricket Club under the captaincy of the late S.S. Kumar in the P. Saravanamuttu Trophy tournament. later he joined Moors Sports Club where he was ably guided by Ghulam Razick another brilliant all rounder. According to Ishak, Ghulam was a shrewd tactician who gave a lot of tips to Ishak, he recalled how Ghulam trapped Sidath Wettimuny, Ishak was fielding at slip and Ghulam asked him to move to leg slip and bowled a fast off cutter and Sidath was late on the defence and edged it to Ishak at leg slip.
Ishak first played for Sri Lanka in a one-day fixture against Zimbabwe in 1983, toured Sharjah in 1984 for the first ever Asia Cup against India and Pakistan . His next assignment was in a one-day game against New Zealand in 1984.
In 2005, he represented Sri Lanka in Indoor Cricket in the Masters Tournament in New Zealand.
Ishak played for the Burgher Recreation Club. The club won the Andriesz Shield, Pioneer Cup and seven-a-side Pettah Pharmacy Gold Cup. He scored 120 goals in one calendar year while representing BRC, Mackwoods and Mercantile Hockey Association. This is a record which still stands.
While still a schoolboy he represented the country against the visiting West German team. He also represented Sri Lanka at the Asian Games. In 1985 and 1986, he represented Sri Lanka against Singapore and Oman twice and in 1985 captained Sri Lanka against Singapore. He was a devastating centre forward.
Ishak was of the view that the once dominant Indians and Pakistanis with their slick stick work were no longer effective when the Europeons introduced the astro turf,where dribbling was ineffective, the game was based on hit run and stop and hit, speed was the order of the day.
Ishak is The Chairman of The Illegal Bowling Action Committee at Sri Lanka Cricket.He also mentioned the fact that Akila Dhananjaya’s action is still suspect.He stressed that Akila trying to extract more spin was bending his elbow illegally behind his shoulder which was not acceptable. He also mentioned that he has yet to receive the report.
Ishak is of the view that there is no back up plan by the selectors to fill the gaps created by senior players retiring.
He also mentioned that Dinesh Chandimal was a brilliant bat but the captaincy was thrust upon him too early and as a result his performance dropped and now he is struggling to find a place in the team.
Ishak has one daughter who is a scientist and two sons one played cricket for S. Thomas’ and the other one is also a Thomian.
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