Inaugural Test, Arjuna’s memoirs

by Rex Clementine  

When the England cricket team landed in Colombo in February 1982 for Sri Lanka’s maiden Test match, Ian Botham was their biggest star. Just six months prior to that, Botham had become the cynosure of all eyes when he played a couple of stunning knocks to secure the Ashes as England snatched victory from the jaws of defeat. So much so, the 1981 Ashes is known as ‘Botham’s Ashes’. This week marks the 40th anniversary of Sri Lanka’s inaugural Test match and Arjuna Ranatunga recalled with us memories of the nation’s greatest moment in sports since Duncan White’s Olympic medal.

“The first ball I remember, I attempted to hook. I was late on the shot and in no time it was in the wicketkeeper’s gloves. Botham was the big star, but Bob Willis was really quick. I was telling myself I had never faced anything quick like this before. You start even wondering whether you are good to compete at this level,” Ranatunga recalled.

Fair enough. After all, Arjuna was a schoolboy. He was 18. It must have been quite a thing to walk in to bat when your side is 34 for four. All the big boys, Roy Dias, Duleep Mendis, Sidath Wettimuny and skipper Bandula Warnapura back in the pavilion.

“I think I was lucky to play the first Test. What actually happened was the team was searching for a left-handed batsman as England had Derek Underwood (left-arm orthodox). We didn’t have many lefties. So I got a break,” Arjuna said.

“By nature, I am a fighter. I had a lot of respect for guys like Willis and Botham, but then Mr. Lionel Mendis had given me one good advice when I was 11-years-old. That was, no matter how good a bowler is don’t forget that you have to face only one ball from him at a time.”

“Coming back to the game, Ranjan Madugalle is one of the sharpest cricket brains I have seen. I would say, he is the best captain Sri Lanka has produced. He told  me, let’s just pick up the singles, keep the scoreboard moving and then we will reassess. He reminded me not to be overawed by the occasion. Obviously, we had never experienced anything like that before. So we just took it ball by ball. Once we spent time in the middle, it got easier and we cashed in,” Ranatunga added.

Ranatunga became the first Sri Lankan to score a Test half-century and Madugalle soon followed as the pair added 99 runs for the fifth wicket.

“There was this misconception that there was a battle for the final slot between late Anura Ranasinghe and myself. But the truth is that it was a toss up between Lalith Kaluperuma and Anura. It was a great atmosphere to be around that team. These were guys who were several years my seniors. D.S. de Silva was I think 40 whereas I was 18. We had a caring skipper in Bandula Waranpura. He was so protective of me. He called me ‘podi eka’ (small fellow) while Roy Dias called me ‘chuti’ (little one). They were fond of me and they still call me that. During the first Test match, when they were socializing, they wouldn’t even let me come near the table. I didn’t like it initially but later I realized they were protecting me.”

“It was a brilliant Test match and we showed to the world that our cricket was very strong. But we lacked experience. That’s what happened on day four. We had done so well in the first three days but on day four in half an hour we lost some seven wickets and ended up gifting the game to England. But it was a massive learning experience.

The atmosphere in 1980s helped Arjuna to grow into the leader he is. “One good thing in our cricket was that we had some superb gentlemen around. We had Mr. Gamini Dissanayake as President of the Board. Then Mr. J.R. Jayewardene was the President of SSC while Mr. Lalith Atulathmudali was the President of NCC. These gents may have not played big cricket, but they were good administrators. They were surrounded by brilliant cricket brains and despite their political stature, they were willing to listen to people who knew cricket. There was so much to learn from them.”