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Humour
in Cricket Grace had this habit of throwing the coin high in the air, far away from his stupefied rival then rushing to pick it up and saying 'we bat'. McLaren bided his time, having suffered this indignity a few times. When they met at Old Trafford and it was his turn to toss, McLaren threw it higher and further than Grace, sped these before the ageing Grace and Chirpily proclaimed 'we bat'. A bewildered Grace said he never saw the coin to which the suave McLaren declared, "neither did I that day at Bristol". Grace's protestations were of no avail. He had been beaten at his own game, outsmarted and, for once, made to eat humble pie. The small-built, but intensely powerful Patsy Hendren was fielding near the boundary in front of the noisy, infamous Sydney Hill - the ball was hit in the air and as Patsy was readying himself to accept the relatively simple offering, a barracker from the Hill shouted 'Patsy, if you miss the catch, you can have my sister". Later, on being asked the outcome, Patsy declared that he decided to take the catch as he had never set eyes on the barracker's sister. Back to the Sydney Hill and the 1954 Ashes series Frank Tyson was delivering a particularly high - velocity over. The unfortunate Greme Hole, a top-order batsman, never laid wood on any of the deliveries in one over. At the end of which a barracker's voice rang out "Tyson, send him down a Grand Piano- see if he can play that". That irrepressible character Fred Trueman had just finished a fairly lengthy spell and had betaken himself to the outfield. A rest was not to be, as the aristocratic Ted Dexter summoned his best bowler back to the crease and handed him the ball, with the terse comment "England expects". A scowling, infuriated Trueman muttered under his breath "No wonder she's called the ruddy mother - country". Yet, true to his sense, of professionalism, Fred responded to his skipper's (and country's) call. Keith Miller was handsome, performed wonders on the field as an all-rounder and had a certain presence (aura, if you like) about him. A young Richie Benaud, making his first appearance for New South Wales, was agog with excitement and could hardly wait to see the tactical nous of the famed Miller. The New South Welshmen started fanning out onto the field, minus their skipper. He duly appeared a few seconds later, buttoning his shirt. The fielders quite naturally stood in the centre awaiting instructions. Miller's order was short and to the point. "Wicket Keeper, and Scatter the rest". It was 1984/85 in India, David Gower the captain of England was setting his field. Richard Ellison, the bowler, inquired of the skipper if he could have Gatt (Mike Gatting) a little wider at slip. Chris Cowdrey who was within ear-short, chipped in with "if Gatt gets any wider he'll burst", needless to say, the start of the over was delayed as half the English team were falling about with laughter. January 1980 and the venue Sydney. It was a particularly tight finish. Australia had Thomson, Dymock and Lillee to bowl the last few overs. The next batsmen to go in, Graham Stevenson and John Lever were in a state of great anxiety as a lot hinged on the outcome of this game. Lever tried to calm Stevenson down. "Look here, if we get in together, we'll try to confuse them. If I shout 'yes' I mean "No"- so don't move. But if I shout 'No', I mean 'yes'. So run like hell". There was a pause as Stevenson worked it out. 'I don't know. Sounds ruddy complicated. Don't know about confusing them, you've lost me already," said Stevenson. What began in England in the time of Grace, ends in Sri Lanka in the time of the Sri Lankans were playing one of the leading international sides in a three day game. The end of day one was approaching and as the colourful paceman was trudging back to the top of his mark, the fielder at mid off (who happened to be a mate in the same institution) called out "............. damala gahapang, damala gahapang". The umpire, one of Sri Lanka's best, but one with a particularly bad stammer started saying "M.M.M. Monawa!" The ball was duly delivered, not with standing the umpires protestation, and the middle order batsman's furniture was rearranged, as they say. The middle peg was tilted back at a rakish angle. The batsmen were on their way, the bowler prised his cap from the umpires grasp and started trudging off. All the while a bemused, if helpless, umpire stood there with an incredulous look on his face. Though
second best Though ending up as the second best junior team in Asia the boys got the much needed international exposure and they need not get disheartened as Angelo took the major honours at the award ceremony when he carried away the player of the series award for his outstanding performance right throughout the tournament. The tournament which was for the first time organized by the Emirates Cricket Board together with Asian Cricket Council gave ample of opportunities to the future cricket stars of the Asia region. In general cricketers in the middle east and associate member countries would be the teams that would have benefited in developing their cricketing skills whilst playing against the test playing nations. After their successful tour the team returned to the island in the early hours of December 24 and the Sunday Times had an opportunity of speaking to the manager of the team Jayantha Seneviratne who also needs no introduction, a top class cricketer during his school days and later played with distinction for Bloomfield. Jayantha stated that our team was a strong side, of the 14 players that went on the tour five of them Angelo Mathew (St Joseph's) , Lahiru Peiris (St Peter's), Shalika Karunanayake (Maliyade-va), Thulanidu Thiramanna (Prince of Wales) and Muditha Kauashalya (Dharmasoka) had captained their respective schools. The other nine picked were the cream of junior cricketers in the island. He said he was confident that the team would put up a good show as they had been given all the necessary training before embarking on this tour. We should have won the final, though we lost to Pakistan in a preliminary game we had them in shackles in the final with 69 for 4 in the 20th over and in the 30th over they were 113 for 4. The inexperience in international tournaments made a toll and in the next ten overs the Pakistanis blasted our bowling to all corners of the field in scoring 120 runs. Being a 40 over game the asking rate was too much for the boys, nonetheless they made them fight for a win. At the end Jayantha was satisfied with the performance of the youngsters saying they got the much needed experience of playing in foreign soil. The boys were lucky too to have played in the latest cricket stadium which is under construction yet. The Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi where the final was played when completed is set to be the best ever cricket stadium in the world. There were Sri Lankan supporters who went to witness the Asia Cup and some were of the view that some teams had players who were not in the Under 15 category. At a official held meeting held among the officials of the participating countries Bangladesh had objected over this issue but the organizers had been helpless, but a final decision had been taken that in tournaments that are to be held in future a medical test would be conducted to ascertain the age of a player at least to the nearest of the person concerned. Jayantha further said that the boys had no difficulty in winning the first two matches they beat UAE convincingly by nine wickets with skipper Angelo and Shalika taking two wickets to bundle out UAE for 79. And reached the winning target in 13.4 overs. In the second match against Oman the youngsters scored an imposing 287 for 4 with Sameera Soysa (95), Sachitra Serasinghe (62), skipper Angelo (69) and Lahiru Peiris (35) doing the scoring and then skittled out Oman for just 67, skipper Angelo, Shalika and Malinda Pushpakumara sharing the wickets. But lost to Pakistan in the third match by six wickets. With their two wins the Sri Lankans qualified to the semi finals and the opponents were India. Though we got the better of India in Jayantha's view India was the best team of the tournament, they played cricket of high class. Their batting technique was the best among all the teams that participated, they were very unlucky to have not entered the finals. There were many candidates for the man of the series award but Angelo with his consistency in both batting, bowling and his leadership qualities was rewarded with this award. When the Sunday Times inquired from Jayantha at the end of the tournament who were the players that impressed him in the Sri Lanka team. Skipper Angelo Mathew is a player with potential who could be groomed as a allrounder and the other players that impressed him were Lahiru Peiris, Sameera Soysa, Shalika Karunanayake and Malinda Pushpakumara. |
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