Bertie Wijesinha - cricketing giant still stands tall
Sporting personalities with Ken de Joodt
SPORTING PERSONALITIES: At 86 years of age, still stocky and
strongly built, he could surely run for the man of the millennium and be
voted in as one of Sri Lanka's best cricketing giants - who continues
teaching and coaching the young, even at this age! Considering the
glorious certainties of Bertie Wijesinha, as against the glorious
uncertainties of cricket, he has taken the correct stance practising the
basics of life right from the start with grit and determination! It
would be appropriate to use an 'A', 'B', 'C' for his success and
dedication by applying it to his glorious stand in life - beginning with
active - alive and energetic at all times, bountiful - blessed in his
blistering batting, bouncy in his bowling, copious - complete and
plentiful in his vast reservoir of knowledge, with the true character
and traits of a distinguished gentleman! On and off the field, his
absolute consistency and lifestyle has established Bertie Wijesinha as a
true cricketing legend!
Bertie Wijesinha (on right) with his wife Dorothy
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Out of learning from the university into teaching at his Alma Mater (STC
- 1946 to '51) and then to become a well-known Daily News Sports Editor
and Observer Features Editor between 1951 to 1969 proves his excellence
and prowess in writing which impacted the journalistic field of Sri
Lanka.
As a witty cricket commentator along with Lucien de Zoysa, he
entertained cricket fans over the Radio Ceylon for nearly 30 years! Now
as an author, his latest book "Cricket the Love of a Lifetime" - is a
popular book many cricketers, cricket lovers and fans have read and
found it to be an interesting and exciting coffee-table edition, which
will be a priceless possession in the future.
It expresses the love for cricket from his heart, which also covers
the history of Sri Lanka cricket from its small beginnings to the huge
following it has today! It has a superb foreword by Sri Lanka's former
winning cricket captain and current Sri Lanka cricket team manager, the
magnificent Michael Tissera.
Many top cricket personalities are featured in it, from Sri Lanka and
other foreign countries together with fine photographs, funny
caricatures, anecdotes and classic informative write-ups, mixed with
humour, which positively draws greater reading interest! As a gift of
gratitude Siddath Wettimuny printed this book for their former 'Guru'
who coached Sunil and Mithra too and taught them to play a 'straight -
bat' in the true spirit of the game.
Siddath's elegant and delightful 190 runs in the 1984 Lord's Test
match versus England will be long remembered! Bertie Wijesinha was born
on the 24th of May 1920 into a family of cricket fanatics!! His father,
Alexander Wijesinha played for Trinity in 1900 and proved his mettle by
carrying his bat through and scoring 28 runs out of a paltry Trinity
total of 56 against STC! Bertie followed suit and played splendid
cricket from the tender age of 15 years.
His first Big Match for S. Thomas' College, Mt. Lavinia was in 1936
scoring his first fifty in a record match-saving partnership with Norman
Siebel who scored 174 runs. In the years that followed Bertie piled up
the runs scoring 1006 runs in one season, capturing 19 wickets with
brilliant bowling and in the 1939 Big Match he took a wicket with the
first ball of the match - Royal's opening batsman was out LBW!
Batting on and bowling his way through, he captained the school in
1938 and '39. In 1939 he led S. Thomas' to victory in all their school
matches, winning the great "Battle of the Blues" against Royal College,
Colombo and ended up being appointed the Combined Schools captain.
In 1936, Bertie Wijesinha took his first hat-trick in their school
encounter with St. Benedict's and then in the Daily News Trophy at the
age of 55, while playing for Kandy - he did it again! Almost 50 years
later, Bertie performed a hat-trick at the age of 65 in his last County
Club game in Nottinghamshire, England - to make it a distinguished
unmatchable record!
While in College, Bertie's keen eye in cricket, wondered out of the
Chemistry class and behold, it was on a beautiful lass! Taking a great
catch as quick and agile as he was on the cricket field, he trapped a
'Beauty Queen' Dorothy Weerakoon and mutually agreed to take the 'Run of
Life' and married her in 1949! Dorothy was the eldest daughter of Bobby
D.E. Weerakoon who was a former News Editor at Radio Ceylon and Sports
Editor at Lake House.
In a productive partnership they scored-well with four children, two
daughters, Maya (who sadly passed away in 1999 at the age of 57) and
Nedra (55) married to Ananda Wijeratne who have both recently returned
from the UK.
Then came two sons, Rohan (45) who received a Doctorate in Sociology
from the Nottingham University, UK and is presently the Personnel
Manager at Janashakthi in Colombo - and Dameskh (41) yet in the UK,
employed in accountancy. Throughout his lifetime, Dorothy and the
children have extended their love, care, concern and support, with great
admiration for Bertie as their cricketing hero!
Apart from a lengthy string of achievements on the cricket field,
Bertie won his Colours at College for 8 sports and went on to represent
the country in athletics. He held the hop, step and jump national record
for over 25 years. He played cricket for the country between 1948 and
1956 and proved himself to be an incredible bowler by opening with
medium pace
Swingers - then re-introduced later in the game, to bowl both
off-spin and leg-spin. Batting was Bertie's forte, as he was equipped to
confidently face up to fast-swing bowling or bat lower down in the order
and take on the spinners with equal aplomb! It was Leslie Ames, the
England captain, who offered Bertie a contract to play County Cricket in
England, purely because of his outstanding performances in fielding
alone.
Being patriotic, he followed the fine example of his mentor F.C. De
Saram, who also turned down foreign offers and decided that he would
play only for his own country, Sri Lanka!
In the 125th anniversary joint celebrations of the Royal-Thomian
cricket match (which is the longest unbroken series in the history of
cricket, uninterrupted during the two World Wars and has now gained
recognition in the Guinness Book of records) - Bertie Wijesinha, the
oldest living Thomian cricket captain (1938-'39) and Gamini Salgado, the
Royal captain (1942) were regally seated in a horse-drawn golden
carriage, along the streets of Colombo, in the joint walk carried out on
21st February 2004.
To borrow Bertie's quote - "All in all, cricket has been and still is
a connoisseur's dream of athletic prowess - a classic of sport, a
symphony of action and sound - and beautiful to the discerning eye and
mind!"
With a true love for the game, he emphasized that cricket must be
played for the sake of the game and not for mere fortunes which can
change either way! Be guided by the laws of the game - instead of
'splitting basis' over technical issues! He also observed that the
standards of school cricket had dropped in recent years and feels very
strongly that the cricket administration must take quick, suitable
remedial action.
He quoted the fine example of the SLRFU Rugby Divisional structure
which can be followed by grouping the strong teams into one division,
which will enable those strong teams to play against each other and
match their strengths. This would increase the levels of performance and
help in raising the standards of play.
Likewise, other groups would have teams that are weak playing against
equally-matched weak teams... (Matching weak teams against strong teams
does not help!). For example, Group Ten strong teams into the 'A'
Division, weak teams into the 'B' Division, weakest teams into the 'C'
etc.
Based on the results and points table of the groups at the end of the
season, teams that have performed well in the lower divisions can be
promoted to the higher divisions and the weaker teams from the higher
divisions can be relegated to the lower divisions.
This is where the "Weaker" teams will strive to get to the top and to
be promoted with justification to the higher groups - they have to
improve to do that! Of course, the 'Traditional Big Matches' of the
respective schools should go on unaffected and not accounted for in the
'Point Table'. That's Bertie's desire, to keep improving methods to see
cricket standards getting better all the time!
When he thinks back on the sparkling performances of past players in
schools and clubs, such as F.C. De Saram, C.I. Gunesekera, Sargo
Jayawickrema, M . Sathasivam, Mahes Rodrigo, Gamini Goonasena, C.H.
Gunesekera, Lucien de Zoysa, Makin Salih and a host of others, it brings
back wonderful moments of joy, coupled with excellence in cricket.
He recalled his numerous centuries, half-centuries. Hat-tricks and
record partnerships he has scored from 1936 to 1968 for school, club and
country. One instance he recalls with glee, is his 7th wicket
partnership with C.I. Gunesekera in their game, for SSC against the
Tamil Union, when SSC were just 50 for 6. C.I. and Bertie joined up to
clobber the bowling and score over 200 runs in a partnership that took
the total to 300 runs!
From the classrooms of teaching Latin, English and Greek, Bertie
spread out his sporting wings to fly high in coaching schools like S.
Thomas', Trinity, St. Benedict's etc; Clubs in Kandy and Colombo, the
Country in 1975 when Sri Lanka participated in the first World Cup
cricket championship in England captained by Anura Tennekoon.
He was also Chairman of the Selection Committee for a short period.
With the setting up of Bertie's dream, an indoor cricket school was
considered and absolute necessity for teaching and coaching those
desirous of playing cricket skilfully and attractively.
He continues coaching the very young (10-12 years age group) to this
very day!
Bertie's proud products from his coaching may go into pages but some
names that stand out in his mind are: Sunil, Mithra and Sidath Wettimuny
(Ananda), Michael Tissera, Anura Tennekoon (S. Thomas'), Kumar
Sangakkara (from the age of 10-17 years at Trinity), Lionel, Sunil and
Ranjith Fernando (Cricket Commentator), Dr. Elmo Rodirgopulle (Captained
St. Benedict's in 1960 and with his right arm leg-spin claimed a
hat-trick against St. Peter's).
In 1964, St. Benedict's beat St. Joseph's after 50 years coached by
the versatile Bertie Wijesinha. As a great curator of the Trinity,
Asgiriya Cricket Stadium and Test Ground in Kandy, Bertie drew
commendation from visiting foreign teams as well as our Sri Lankan
cricketers for well-prepared turf-wickets suitable for good and fair
cricket to be played on.
Many more accolades and attributes have been paid to Bertie, as a
brilliant cricketer, a competent coach, an excellent journalist, an
entertaining commentator, a cracking curator and a solid, dedicated and
disciplined teacher.
Today, Bertie finds time amidst his busy schedules to encompass
interest in literary works, wildlife and nature, environment and
gardening - but his greatest recreation is in classical music and the
classic word of God in the Holy Bible.
As it was told "one man in his time plays many parts" - the same
applies to Bertie who has played his parts so well that he is deserving
of what the word of God says "like a good and faithful servant" he has
served with modesty and in humility.
May God bless bertie, Dorothy his lovely wife, their precious
children and grandchildren with good health, prosperity and long life! |