Bertie Wijesinha:

Whatever he did he did with passion

Sharm de ALWIS

The annals of sports reveal sometimes vignettes of remarkable personalities who blazed illustrious careers with brilliance sustained over a lengthy period and then it is moot for us to feel the glow and put our hands together in rapt appreciation.

Bertie Wijesinha, C.I. Gunasekera, Tita Nathanilesz, Fairlie Dalpathado, Mahadevan Sathasivam, F.C. de Saram, Lucien de Zoysa and Channa Gunasekera played in a simultaneous period and every one of them was a demi-god of the same pantheon who was at ease in flannels.

As with CI, Bertie had cricketing genes in him. His father played for Trinity in 1900 under the captaincy of W. Aluvihare and scored 28 C.O.B. in a total of 56 against STC, captained by D.L. de Saram and in which team was also Sir Francis Molamure. Bertie’s maternal uncle, Willie Gunasekera played for Royal in 1906 in a low scoring game when his side gathered a paltry 71 and 34 to be beaten by 10 wickets by St Thomas’.

Two other uncles, Dr P.C. and F.L. [later to be known as S.P.] Wickramasinghe played for STC in 1917 and 1918, respectively. Uncle Albert, even though he never played school cricket, played for the Colombo Municipal teams which were in the forefront in inter-club cricket of the period with erstwhile team-mates being Bakelman, Dr C.H. Gunasekera, Jayaweera, J.C.O. Ernst, H.B. Kannangara and D.H.O. Melder. His leg spin had earned him the sobriquet of ‘Grimett’.

Bertie has twice taken a wicket with the first ball of a match. First victim was V.J.H. Gunasekera in the Big Match of 1939 in the second year of his captaincy and the second was under the captaincy of his son, Rohan in the last year when he played Nottingham Club cricket from 1976 to ‘84 and was 63 years old.

Brilliance sustained over such a lengthy period of time surely was obeisance to Spencer’s immortal ring “Sweet river, run softly till I end my song.” Bertie Wijesinha has been a contradiction of terms: ebony dark and as sturdy, he has been a matchless lily in thought and deed.

To pay homage with a thirsting memory of bright skies and brighter deeds on the cricketing fields is an honour I clasp to my bosom.

Men of Bertie’s ilk decorated Truth. They never dignified trash. Commerce never filled their purse to clog the brain like men who, tainted by lucre, play for food and feed because they play.

It is not easy to forget that the great and glorious Compton whose leg glance was compared by Keith Miller to the elegance of the Cliffs of Dover and Princess Margaret played for eight pounds Sterling.

To play for the country was a decoration and high honour and, like FC, Bertie also delined an offer made to him by Leslie Ames to play County cricket for Nottinghamshire.

Bertie poured his incandescent brilliance like wine and we, the privileged, drank deep.He aroused a passion within us but games were few and far in between that ours was an eternal thirst although we had drunk at the fount.

At the tender age of fifteen when boys are yet in short togs, Bertie was in Donald Fairweather’s STC team of 1936.He scored 6 out of 26 runs when ravaged by Sammy David and Duncan Reith of Trinity but the manner of his stroking those six runs had doyen S.P. Foenander declaring eureka: “Wijesinha will soon be playing for Ceylon.” Actually, Bertie got out, un-nerved, when his batting partner, George Ekanayake was felled by a bumper on the mouth from speedster Duncan Reith.

In the Big Match of ‘36 he scored 57 in partnership with Norman Siebel whose 151 n.o. stood the test of time until the advent of Ronnie Reid who scored 158 n.o. in 1956.

Royal countered with a bigger total on the ample shoulders of Pat McCarthy’s 98 and the match went the way of all flesh - a carnal draw.

That match gave birth to a myth. On his death, Siebel had faced the bearded Saint at the Pearly Gates who asked about his merits to be told of his 151 not out. Asked about his demerits, Siebel admitted that he had been out, caught behind first ball off Lucien de Zoysa and was re-assured by the Saint, “No, son, you were not out.”

A relieved Siebel had said, “Oh, that’s a great burden off my mind. Thank you, Saint Peter” and was again corrected by the bearded Saint, “No, son, I am not Saint Peter.

He is on leave today. I am Saint Thomas.” In the Big match of ‘37 Bertie snared 3 wickets for 33 and 4 for 67 whilst chipping in with 55 in the 1st innings, helping STC to win by 3 wickets Willie Jayathileka [captain] scoring 62 and 110 n.o. against Royal who had McCarthy, Sathi Cumaraswamy, CI and R.L. de Kretser but only D. Vollenhoven showed any pluck with 37 and 82.

Bertie’s first year of captaincy was in 1938 against Pat McCarthy’s Royalists. Pat scored 81 and Bertie bagged 2 for 83 in Royal’s run-away win by an innings and 87 runs. Other Royalists who plundered were Vollenhoven [74], Macan Markar [86] and V. R. Perera [52no] In Bertie’s second year of captaincy in 1939, CI top scored for Royal with 59. Bertie scored 63 and in the 2nd innings 70 after a scare when the third wicket fell at 17.STC won by 5 wickets after W.E. Taylor’s 2 and 6 wickets helped get the chestnuts out of the fire. That year Bertie captained Combined Colleges.

Robust in health, Bertie remains the oldest living Thomian captain. The only Thomian to have scored a double century in inter-school cricket, Bertie holds the ground record at Mt Lavinia with 214 against St Benedict’s in 1939.

He was batsman, bowler, and fielder who was considered Electric Heels on par with Dr C.H. Gunasekera, Patsy Hendren and Learie Constantine. George Duckworth, Manager and Leslie Ames, captain, of a visiting MCC team said that Bertie was the best fielder they had seen on their entire Tour of India and Ceylon. He has fond memories of having played against Stan Macabe, Worrell, Weekes, Walcott and Kanhai and so many other International heavy-weights from 1949 to ‘56 and when SSC toured India under Sargo Jayawickema with the tour sponsored by Trinity’s prolific scorer of centuries and half centuries, S.A. de Silva, Bertie had achieved the bowler’s wanton dream of a hat trick.

One memory in fading days is that of a reporter having asked the great Don what he thought would be his average against a certain England bowling attack. Bradman who averaged 99.94 in 80 visits to the crease to amass 6,996 runs had pondered a moment and said, “Around 42.” Asked for an explanation, the Don had said with a smile, “That won’t be bad, you know, considering I am 86.” Here it is moot to make a correction brought to my notice by Mr T. Wijeratne who said that Bradman’s first appearance was in 1928 at Brisbane when he was 20 years old.

A stubborn foe, Bertie was a key figure in the country’s teams to do battle against Australia, Pakistan, India, West Indies, MCC and the Gopalan Trophy games but this is an essay, not a scoreboard and hence the statistics that filled the Grecian urn of his cricketing days for the country have been left out to make for wholesome reading. Even though froth there must be, the worst of beers do not float the malt and the hops.

A technically correct middle-order bat and a useful medium pacer in the country’s line up and having held eternity in his hands with bat and ball, when his playing days were closing in on him, he took to radio commentaries which called for comprehensive knowledge, free flow of language, eloquence and delivery.

He also took to making champion Derby horse winners at cricket. Having been coached by the iconic John Halangoda and Chippy Gunasekera, Bertie has taken STC, TCK and SBC to dizzy heights.

The champion cricketers he produced have been Michael Tissera, Anura Tennekoon, the sapling Kumar Sangakkara, Elmo Rodrigopulle, Lionel, Sunil and Ranjith Fernando and the Wettimuny brothers, Sidath, Sunil and Mithra. Ramsay Wettimuny built a special indoor grounds at the Health grounds for Bertie to train youngsters. He has coached the 14-17 age groups in the Nottingham CCC and was the National coach for the Prudential World Cup in England when Sri Lanka was captained by Anura Tennekoon.

He has taught English, Latin and Greek at STC and TCK and has been the curator of the Asgiriya grounds and I had sen for myself the loving care he lavished on the turf and sod. He has held the National record for 25 years in the Hop, Step and Jump and been an altogether all-round sportsman whose credo has been Truth.

Not content with what he had achieved in the realms of the game as cricketer, coach, commentator and curator and as teacher, he resigned his skills and resumed the pen which he had adroitly used as a sports writer at lake House.

“The Love of a Lifetime” is his homage to Cricket and Cricketers he has intimately known all his days in the sun and shade. At the Book Launch, Sidath revealed that Bertie’s wife, Dorothy, had confessed, “Whatever he did, he did with passion.”