Cricket’s greats bid farewell to Vijaya Malalasekara

A large gathering was present yesterday at Kanatta to bid farewell to former Sri Lanka Cricket chairman Vijaya Malalasekara.

Malalasekara represented Royal College and then Cambridge in cricket. He opened batting in the varsity match of 1967 against Oxford. Incidentally, Malalasekara and Mano Ponniah became the first Asian pair to open batting in a varsity match. Ponniah was one of the pallbearers at the funeral.

Along with family members, friends, parliamentarians, leading figure of the corporate and legal field attended the funeral. Former cricket captains Michael Tissera, Sanath Jayasuriya, Kusal Janith Perera were also present along with Sidath Wettimuny and Kushil Gunasekara, Malalasekara’s right hand man during his tenure as Chairman of SLC.

(Pix by Nimal Dayaratne)