In different eras three Anuras represented Ceylon/Sri Lanka at cricket and made memorable contributions towards the progress of the game.

Anura Polonowita and Anura Tennekoon were in limelight Sri Lanka’s pre-Test status era and later Anura Ranasinghe was there in the seventies and eighties.

There was a rare similarity among these three talented cricketers, all three being right-handed batsmen, left-arm bowlers and superb fieldsmen in the gulley position. I still remember as a nine-year-old, watching Anura Polonowita leading the Ananda College team in the Battle of the Maroons encounter in the mid fifties. Then after leaving Ananda he ran through the Nalanda batting line-up to bring an unexpected victory to Prince of Wales College, Moratuwa.

Anura Tennekoon with Anura Ranasinghe, Bandula Warnapura and Ajith de Silva at the balcony of the London Oval.

As a young schoolboy I witnessed Polonowita playing for the Sinhalese Sports Club in the premier cricket tournament at that time — the Sara Trophy and then later representing Nomads S.C. Polonowita as an all-rounder was an automatic choice for Ceylon. When Ceylon beat Pakistan for first the time in an unofficial test match played in 1964. Polonowita though not faring well with the bat captured three wickets in the Pakistan second innings which helped Ceylon to score a fine victory. He was a member of the national team that beat India in India in 1964 under Micheal Tissera.

In reply to the Indian total of 189 in the first innings Ceylon scored 144 for seven declared with Polonowita being the top scorer with a fighting 53. India were bundled out for 66 in their second innings and this all-rounder with his left-arm spinners captured 3 wickets for 7 runs to leave Ceylon a victory target of 111 which was achieved with the loss of only 6 wickets. The Indian test team was led by Nawab of Pataudi. Polonowita was a member of the national team that played unofficial test matches with all visiting foreign teams and Ceylon teams touring abroad. After his retirement from cricket he took up coaching and later was the national curator of the SLC.
Anura Tennekoon emerged from S. Thomas’ College, Mt. Lavinia dominated school cricket and won national colours on his selection to play against the visiting MCC as a schoolboy. Though Anura Tennekoon didn’t bowl his left-arm spinners at club level or national level, at school he was a useful change bowler and he captured the writer’s wicket – stumped by Odath Weerasinghe in the inter-school match against Nalanda in 1965.

Tennekoon played many memorable innings for Sri Lanka, and the most memorable inning was the marathon 169 he scored against India in 1974. He had the ability to cope with any type of bowling be it pace or spin. On his fine performance with the bat scoring heavily in the domestic tournament he was selected to lead Sri Lanka after Michael Tissera. The crowning moment of his captaincy was when he received the ICC Championship Trophy beating India in England in 1979. In the inaugural World Cup played in England in 1975 Tennekoon scored a fighting 48 against the Australians led by Ian Chappell in which little Sri Lanka came near the mammoth Aussie total of 328 in 60 overs.

Tennekoon was the first Sri Lankan player to score centuries against MCC and the West Indies, to score a century on debut as captain in an unofficial test (Vs India in 1974), record 1000 runs in unofficial tests and holds the record number of catches (60) by a Sri Lankan in that era.

To the surprise of the entire nation this gentleman cricketer announced an unexpected retirement from cricket at the end of a successful England tour for the 2nd World Cup at the young age of 32.

From 1972 to 1975 school cricket was dominated by a talented Nalandian – Anura Ranasinghe – a born cricketer and in his debut in the Nalanda 1st XI team this 16-year-old scored a superb century against Maliyadeva College, Kurunegala. From there onwards there was no stopping for Anura, scoring heavily, capturing a heavy load of wickets and taking magnificent catches, he was the most feared schoolboy cricketer at that time.

Leading the Nalanda team in 1975 Anura broke the Ananda-Nalanda series bowling record for the most number of wickets held for 40 years by P.W. Perera and was unfortunate to miss a well-deserved half century by three runs. As a schoolboy he was selected to represent Sri Lanka against the mighty West Indies led by Clive Lloyd and in the first test Anura stood alone against the fearsome battery of pace bowlers in Bernard Julian, Andy Roberts, Vanburn Holder and Keith Boyce to score an unbeaten 28 to see Sri Lanka out of danger in losing the match. Three memorable innings that remain in the hearts of every Sri Lankan cricket fan were the two half centuries he scored in the two ODIs against Australia and England and the swashbuckling 77 scored against India in the Test match played at Chennai. Playing for Bloomfield Anura entertained thousands of spectators with entertaining knocks and with fine bowling and fielding displays. Anura was the first schoolboy to play in the World Cup in 1975. Leading the Sri Lanka under 19 team Anura brought the first international trophy at cricket for Sri Lanka beating Pakistan Under 19 led by Javed Miandad to win the Ali Bhutto Trophy and later led the Sri Lanka under 25 team with great success.

The turning point of this talented young all-rounder was the axing of him from the team that played in the inaugural Test against England – just two days after scoring a half century in an ODI made way for him to make the tour to South Africa thus bringing a premature end to a bright cricketing career.