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| Wednesday, 4 February 2004 |
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A man with a vision : Batting machine Jayawickrama Perera by Premasara Epasinghe Gamini Jayawickrama Perera, celebrated his 63rd Birthday this week. Going down memory lane, I can vividly remember an incident woven around Jayawickrama Perera. The champion outfit of 1957 was popularly know nas the "Batting Machine" by the media, at that time. Up to the Big Match against Ananda, the entire Nalanda eleven never occupied the batting crease. The main reason was that the "Engine Room" functioned properly and smoothly. The Engine Room consisted of Premasara Epasinghe, Sarath Silva, Mithra Siriwardana, Daya Illukumbura, Skipper Chandrasiri Weerasinghe and Shirley Weerasinghe according to the line-up. But, against St. Peter's College, Bambalapitiya, the "Nalanda Engine Room" did not click and started to give hiccups and they found themselves on the brink of defeat. On a "Bouncing Pitch", on the last day, Peterite paceman Serasinghe and Paulpillai were firing on all Cylinders. Jayawicrama Perera, as the one before the last man, walked in slowly and joined the other tail-ender. Jaya took the challenge. He batted for Two Hours and Forty minutes and saved the day for Nalanda. Jayawickrama Perera's Horatius like effort, defied all Peterites attempt to breakthrough. Thus, the match ended in a draw. Incidentally, this was the first time during this season that the two of them got the opportunity to show their batting prowess. Together with his two brothers, he created history by Captaining Nalanda College Cricket team in 1960. His elder brother Lincoln Captained College in 1948/49 and his younger brother Asoka skippered Nalanda in 1963. His twin brother, late Parakrama Perera played for Nalanda in 1957 along with him. I still remember "Para" capturing 8 for 42 against Royal and I accounted for three of them behind the wickets. |
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