Imagine the scenes, two of the most illustrious schoolboy cricket captains in their own right walking out to toss on a warm Saturday afternoon March 17, 1975 at what is now touted to be Sri Lanka’s first ever one-day match even before the inaugural World Cup unfurled in June that same year.
Bernand Wijetunga a collector of sports memorabilia with the historic ball
The venue at Darley Road at Maradana was packed along the boundary line as schoolboys and family members flocked all over as the strapping figure of Dushan Soza the captain of St. Joseph’s College won the toss against his counterpart from St. Peter’s College, the no-nonsense Bernard Wijetunga.
Sunanda Jayasekera the dusky intimidating Peterite speedster had the red cherry in his hand and even before Wijetunga could finish setting his field, Joes’ opener Rohan Wijesinghe slashed at a ball to be caught in the slips for what is being called today a golden duck.
And so began what historians and both Wijetunga and Soza take pride in declaring was the first ever one-day match between two academies in the island that was followed by Royal College and S. Thomas’ College playing their maiden one-dayer.
Five players from the Joes team, Trevor Croner, Priyalal de Silva, Ranjith Senaratne, Niranjan Weerasinghe and Anura Eliyathamby are no longer walking the earth but what they started and then moved on gave countless numbers of schoolboys a passion to live for although the rules have changed for one-day cricket in the 21st century.
The Joes moved in as the favoured team boasting and toasting one of the best schoolboy teams ever to grace the playing fields of Sri Lanka while the Peterites were like a bunch of angry hungry pups ready to take on the intruder.
Soza and Croner who were undoubtedly the most feared two batsmen around at the time fell cheaply as the Joes were dismissed for 118 that the Peterites needed 40 overs to target and win.
Last Tuesday to mark the 50th anniversary of the one-day match, Soza and Wijetunga came together to relive memories as the two schools also launched their two-day 90th Battle of the Saints match scheduled for March 22 and 23 at the Sinhalese Sports Club in Colombo.
Soza recalled the historic moment when Rohan Wijesinghe was dismissed first ball and even his team did not know that everything happened in a flash.
Soza still carries memories of how the father of Rohan, the cricket intellectual Leo Wijesinghe rushed from a makeshift ticket counter to catch the first ball action only to realize his son was sulking in the dressing room.
“None of us knew what happened. It happened so fast and we did not even realize Rohan was back in the dressing room,” recalled the inimitable Soza who to some was a father figure even as a teenager.
But the affable Wijetunga had much more to re-live of a match that none in the two schools at the time wanted to miss and most of his team-mates were the glamour boys of Peterite rugby.
Even a 118 target seemed big for the Peterites who were at one stage down five wickets with 60 runs more required when in walked their man for all occasions, the street-fighter that he was, Angelo Wickremaratne who ironically when the Joes batted was banished by his captain to the boundary after he conceded 11 runs in the second over of the match.
But for Wickremaratne, who eventually became a top shelf hardcore Sri Lanka rugby flanker, it was time to settle scores as he clouted the first ball he faced out of the ground that almost landed in the swimming pool a hundred metres away.
“I was dismissed and walking back to the pavilion when Angelo who replaced me asked me what to do. I told him you bowled and gave away runs now go and whack the bowlers.
“True to his calibre Angelo hammered a six off the first ball he faced and took off the pressure and we won,” said Wijetunga whose son Sheehan represented a third generation of Peterites to take to the crease.
Wijetunga is now a collector of memorabilia and is in possession of the ball that was used to make history that even the Lord’s cricket ground would want to have in their museum. He will not part with it for anything this side of Heaven.
There is expected to be a felicitation of the players who featured in the historic match on April 6 when their 50th one-day contest is played at the SSC ground.
They set the ball rolling and each of them has a story to tell. Away from it they make up different characters that came together 50 years ago to start something that snowballed into a multi million rupee business today.
When Soza and Wijetunga came together last Tuesday, it was hard to figure out who was the happier of the two.
St. Joseph’s team of 1975: Rohan Wijesinghe, Noel Warnakula, Trevor Croner, Dushan Soza (captain), Priyalal de Silva, Wayne Jansz, S de S Wijeratne, Ranjith Senaratne, Carlton Bernadus, Anura Eliyathamby, Niranjan Weerasinghe
St. Peter’s team of 1975: Reynold Anandappa, CSR Fernando, Frank Hubert, Ranjan Perera, Bernard Wijetunga (captain), Charindu Perera, Angelo Wickremaratne, Sunanda Jayasekera, Darrel Wijetunga, Suraj Abeysekera, Nari Melvani
