George Steuarts pull off the impossible during LPL 

Reputed banker and former Chairman of Sri Lanka Cricket Rienzie Wijetilleke insisted on recruiting sportsmen when he was the Managing Director of Hatton National Bank. A reporter once asked him why he was insisting on sports people for a banking job. His answer was interesting. “They are efficient. They persevere against numerous odds. They don’t give up and above all they are team players. What more do you want.” 

George Steuarts, the nation’s oldest mercantile establishment has followed a similar blueprint in recruiting people for the company and they have done both the country and company proud. 

In recent times, there was S. Skandakumar, former Royal College , Colombo University and Tamil Union cricketer. He went onto reach the pinnacle of the company. Under his charge, Bernard Wijetunga, a former St. Peter’s cricketer and Channa Wijemanne the current CEO pulled off the impossible when a midnight meeting of the three executives at the Boss ‘ residence , immediately after we qualified for the final, led to a chartered flight being arranged with visas secured in record time for the final that took place three days later !

That flight took hundreds of Sri Lankans to Lahore and flew back the same night after the national cricket team became World Champions. 

Last week the company under the dynamic leadership of Channa Wijemanne , , pulled off another task that many conceded as impossible. Sri Lanka Cricket and Innovation Production Group to whom the Lanka Premier League had been outsourced owe it to George Steuarts for helping them to conduct the event so successfully. 

Wijemanne  a former leg spinner was Aravinda de Silva’s captain at D.S. Senanayake, and made his debut in P. Sara cricket as an 18 year old with the Tamil Union under his cricketing skipper Skandakumar.

Conducting the Lanka Premier League in these testing times was a tough ask. Wijemanne and his team did a terrific job in ensuring the event went on smoothly.

After being appointed travel partner for the LPL, George Steuarts had to ensure the logistics was top-notch. They had to bring down players, support staff, team owners and television crew from all over the world. 

From flight bookings to arranging visas, there were many obstacles. Flights were limited and getting visas in double quick time was a nightmare. 

Once everyone landed in Colombo, another tedious process had to be followed as all had to be put in quarantine and go through regular PCR tests. Everyone involved in the competition had to be secluded and it had to be ensured that they had no contacts with the outside world and as a result not a single person’s PCR’s testing turned positive. Every person had to do a minimum of ten PCRs during and before the tournament.

It was a demanding task no doubt. But like true sportsmen Channa Wijemanne and his team were up to the task with guidance from the company’s Chairman Dilith Jayaweera. Rienzie Wijetilleke doesn’t often get things wrong and his assessment on sportsmen was spot on.

For the Board of Control for Cricket in Sri Lanka , now renamed Sri Lanka Cricket the relationship with George Steuarts Travels as a Service provider has spanned over three decades built on professionalism and trust.