Trinity College,Kandy has been using Asgiriya Grounds for sports activities of the School for more than 100 years or so with its Turf pitches. Having fond memories of this ground is not only for them but for the groundsmen of the Asgiriya Grounds which has spanned three generations of one family.
A turf wicket needs the loving care of Groundsmen who know all about wicket preparations and for a long time this position has passed from father to son and Trinity College had the good fortune of having a family of experts who were working as groundsmen at the Asgiriya grounds.
From the start T.G. Marthelis Appuhamy was the Groundsman and he was there from 1914 to 1964 and his son T.G. Wickremapala took over the Asgiriya Grounds as groundsman from 1964 to 1998 after his father’s death. While Wickremapala was working his son, T..G. Nimal assisted his father from 1976 and he was very knowledgeable with regard to the care and working abilities of the grounds which was upgraded to an International Stadium.
T.G. Wickremapala passed away in 1998 and his son T.G. Nimal who knew how to maintain International Grounds was appointed as the groundsman of the Asgiriya International Stadium. , T.G. Nimal who has served 44 years as groundsman is hoping to retire at the age of 60 years at the end of his term.
He says that he has fond memories of his service as groundsman of Asgiriya with the preparations of the Turf Wickets of the grounds for more than 15 Test Matches including the World Cup tournament match between Sri Lanka and Kenya in the year 1996.
Apart from preparing the Grounds for Cricket matches, Nimal had to prepare pitches for games like Hockey, Soccer , Rugby and marking the running track for Athletics.
He did all this with keen interest and he remembers the curators of Asgiriya International Stadium, Roger Abeyratne as well as his brother Lucky Abeyratne, Shaw Wilson, Kishan Dias and late Alex Lazarus who were always there to help Nimal when he needed it.
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