To Sir with love

To Sir with love goes this article as a gift from me a former pupil of that cricketing legend of a bygone era Reginald Bertram Wijesinha, who celebrated his 90th birthday yesterday.

Wijesinha was arguably one, if not the best all-rounder produced by Sri Lanka in the pre Test era. As a dashing right batsman, a devastating right arm paceman with a classical action and a fielder in the class of a Jonty Rhodes, Wijesinha had no peer during his time.

It is said that crowds used to flock to watch the maestro in action even when he was showcasing his talents as a schoolboy at S. Thomas College Mount Lavinia where he learnt the rudiments of the game under that famous coach John Halangoda.

Great pride and joy

National colours was not long in coming for the talented Wijesinha. He sported the Sri Lanka cap with great pride and joy and always performed to the best of his ability and was always a captain’s dream to have in the team.

I was fortunate to have been a pupil of his when he was coach at St. Benedict’s College, Kotahena in 1960 the year I captained the College. After that former All Ceylon cricketer Edward Kelaart who coached the green, white and green school to unofficial championship honours in 1957, it was Wijesinha who coached the 1964 team led by Sunil Fernando to emerge champions defeating all schools that season.

It was during his tenure that St.Benedict’s beat St. Joseph’s College, Darley Road after over 40 years of cricket between the two great schools. All credit for that wonderful season enjoyed by the Kotahena school goes to Wijesinha for the wonderful manner in which he coached that team to be a winning force and thrash all opponents.

Good fortune

In later years I had the good fortune of playing with Wijesinha when he captained the Combined Press X1 against a Indian State Bank X1 captained by that former great Indian captain and batsman Ajit Wadekar at the NCC ground.

The Bank side batting first rattled up 260 for 4. The batsmen who helped the touring team make that big score were Vijaya Mehra 39, Budhi Kunderam 41, Ajit Wadekar 45, Hanumant Singh 62, Ramesh Saxena and Goswami 36 and 29 not out respectively.

The Press X1 was reeling at 40 for 5 when Wijesinha and yours truly gave the Press X1 batting a bit of respectability putting on 58 runs for the sixth wicket to delay the victory push by the Indian Bank team.

Old touch

Wijesinha who had long retired from the game showed that he had not lost his old touch as he took on the Bank X1 bowlers to score a classic 60 runs before being run out. His all round stroke play of old was all on display as he peppered the Indian bowlers. I made a patient 24.

That Indian Bank X1 had cricketers of the calibre of Vijaya Mehra, Budhi Kunderam, Ajit Wadekar, Hanumant Sngh, Goswami and Ramesh Saxena. The Bank X1 was quite a strong one.

We wish Wijesinha all the best and long life and may he reach the magical three figure score.

Do wicket keepers make good captains?

Do wicket keepers make good captain? That was the topic of discussion after watching two wicket keeper captains Kumar Sangakkara and Mahendra Singh Dhoni blow it all up in the ICC World Cup Twenty20 Tournament in the Caribbean.

The consensus was that it is preferable not to have a captain as wicket keeper. And we too were in agreement with that way of thinking. A captain will do better if he stands in front of the wicket at mid off or mid on.

Watching Sangakkara and Dhoni perform as captains from behind the wicket showed that they were not capable of talking to their bowlers which is so very essential during a game and telling them how they should go.

Time wasting

As wicket keepers it would have been time wasting and also an ugly and disgusting sight to watch if they were to run up to their bowlers all the time and tell them which line or length to deliver.

During the Twenty20 in the Caribbean, what one saw was Sangakkara and Dhoni just shouting instructions to their bowlers with their hands folded most of the time.

They would have liked to go up to the bowlers and tell them. But circumstances did not allow them.

Most of the time what one saw was former Sri Lanka captain Mahela Jayawardena advising the bowlers and even setting fields.

Jayawardena would not have liked to do what he was doing, but he did it with the game at heart and not to belittle the captain. And Sangakkara being the sport that he is would not have faulted the former captain.

Jayasuriya helps

In the game against India left hander Suresh Raina was hitting the bowlers all over the place, especially in the mid wicket area and threatening to deprive Sri Lanka’s push for a semi-final place.

Sanath Jayasuriya another former captain ran up to Sangakkara and forced him to place a fielder at mid wicket.

And next ball Raina skied a catch to that fielder. Had Sangakkara not taken Jayasuriya’s advice, Raina would certainly have taken the game away from Sri Lanka. In the circumstances, many felt that Sangakkara if he was to continue keeping wickets, then the best thing the selectors could do, was to bring back Mahela Jayawardena as captain for the limited over games.

Longer versions

But that would be too harsh on Sangakkara. To his credit it must be said that he has proved and performed well as captain in the longer versions of the game.

The selectors would do well to have a chat with Sangakkara and get him to switch gloves and be in a position on the field where he can constantly converse with his bowlers and fielders.

Cricketers and cricket fans voice their opinion on Sangakkara with the game at heart and it is hoped that the think tanks with Sri Lanka cricket will give a thought and convince Sangakkara that he would be better off as captain in front of the wicket and not behind it.