That popular hit of yesteryear sung by the Dean of song Dean Martin ‘Memories are made of this’ brings to mind that Amal Silva’s exploits in the cricketing field were simply fantastic and are timely memories, so much so that old stages of the game still talk about him.
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| Amal Silva |
To say that cricket was in the family would be the greatest understatement ever. Amal’s father played for St. Sebastian’s and his son – Anuk later captained St. Peter’s College 1st eleven. Amal from his small days was literally mad on cricket and sure took to the game and excelled at Prince of Wales college where he was a member of the U-12, U-13, U-14 (captain) and U-16 (captain) during his formative years from 1965-1976. His talent was such that he represented Prince of Wales 1st eleven at just 16 years of age.
Moving over to St. Peters College in 1977 to continue his studies till 1980, this left handed entertaining bat cum wicket keeper continued the amazing talent he showed at Prince of Wales and in his first match for his new school against Thurstan was the toast of the team scoring a polished 68. Going into the big match against traditional rivals St Josephs College in 1980, Amal was 96 short of completing 1000 runs for the season.
Determination was written all over his face as he strode in to open the innings and the immense will power he had was reflected in his entertaining knock of 144 not out which saw him gain the coveted honour of scoring 1000 runs in his final year at school,
In 1981 Amal became a member of Nondescripts Cricket Club and did Yeomen service for them scoring two centuries in 1982 playing for them in the Sara Trophy tournaments thereafter he represented N.C.C. in the U-25 Club Tournament and scored heavily and consistently which saw him being inducted into the National pool and the selectors without any hesitation selected him for the National team’s tour of Zimbabwe.
In all Amal gained representative honours from 1982 – 1989 playing against India, Pakistan, West Indies, England, Australia, New Zealand and Bangladesh. In 1984 Amal was in the company of Sri Lankan greats like Siddath Wetimuny and Duleep Mendis on their tour of England. Sidath was unfortunate to miss getting a double century against their rivals and Dulip almost achieved a batsman’s dream of scoring 2 hundreds in the same match at Lords. Amal not to be outdone scored a fabulous 102 not out in the 2nd innings.
Then in the test series against India in 1986 Amal showcased his absolute talents scoring 111 not out and went on to establish a World record of 22 victims behind the stumps in a three match series. This was in addition to scoring 68 against Australia 86 Vs the West Indies and 52 against Australia again in 1986 in a triangular series. |
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