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| Wednesday, 16 June 2004 |
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Brilliant afterthought: Ideal man for the job! Great news for Sri Lanka cricket! It has been announced that the Board of Control for Cricket, or Sri Lanka Cricket as it has chosen to call itself has seen some light and appointed Michael Tissera as Manager of the Sri Lanka 'A' team to tour England next month. Better late than never; someone with the required knowledge and experience and tact has at last been put in-charge of a young set of cricketers who are still in the process of learning! Sri Lanka Cricket is to be commended on this decision to send one of cricket's most illustrious personalities to accompany the team. A tour of England is the ultimate of cricket education, and one cannot imagine a personality more appropriate and capable, for Tissera is well-acquainted with cricketing conditions in the home of the game. Tissera's standing, both in the sports world and in the community, has been, at last, acknowledged and given due recognition. He has the game in the heart and the head with his knowledge of the "INS" and "OUTS" of cricket. Tissera has also had the experience of managing a team to England in the 1980s, and it is a fact that some of the members of that team have represented Sri Lanka at the highest level. Chief and most notable of them were Aravinda de Silva and Arjuna Ranatunga! It is difficult to figure out why Tissera's services of a practical nature have not been exploited. He did spend some valuable time in the administration of the game, first in the company of P. I. Peiris (President, BCCSL) and later in two Interim Committees with Sidath Wettimuni and Vijaya Malalasekera, men of integrity and a sense of dedication to cricket together with high standards of public conduct. At the same time it is well to remember that it is the closer association with the practical aspects of cricket that demand Tissera's attention. His closer contact with the players themselves! Non-representative personnel have, for the most part, had the handling of Sri Lanka cricket so that now it is a comfort to know that a personality worthy of the task and its challenges has been asked to take charge, and been entrusted with the care and responsibility of moulding young players' careers. Micheal Tissera is well-known wherever cricket is played. He has a reputation as an all-round cricketer with a charm of personality. He has a host of cricket friends who have played with and against him at high levels. They carry a special regard for him as a player and Test captain. They have admired his selfless service to cricket which he has always played before self. Tissera began his cricket career at S. Thomas' College at the age of fifteen. He went onto captain the college team (late 1950s) and joining the Nondescript Cricket Club had a very successful First Division competition record, finally to lead the club team for several years. For his country among other sterling performances, Tissera scored an outstanding Test century against Pakistan at Karachi in 1966. For the record, Tissera took over the captaincy of Sri Lanka from C. I. Gunasekera in the 1960s and was superceded by Anura Tennekoon just before the first tour of England by a Sri Lankan team, in 1975, for the first Prudential Trophy. Sri Lanka achieved Test status in 1982 but by then Tissera had retired from First Class Cricket. We would like to wish him and his team a happy tour and a memorable one! Bertie Wijesinha |
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