Two anxious moments, one solid innings: Wettimuny at Lord’s, 23 August 1984

Michael Roberts

After Sri Lanka had been asked to bat first by David Gower in conditions that were expected to favour bowlers during their first Test Match abroad at Lord’s on 23 August 1984, Sidath Wettimuny was extremely nervous as he took guard.[1] Only those few cricketers who have gone through such an experience at a big match in front of a large crowd could really comprehend the tension coursing through his body at this moment.

  Pic by Getty Images

 Then, another shaft of anxiety penetrated Sidath’s being  as a crowd of some 20-30 young Sri Lankan Tamil men stormed onto the cricket field yelling and shouting. Anticipating the possibility of an attack,[2] he made a tactical move and withdrew to the cluster of English slip fielders.  The Englishmen asked him what was transpiring. No explanation was called for: by then, the Tamil demonstrators lay on the turf pitch with their placards voicing their grievances. It was clearly a protest against the political conditions facing Tamils living in Sri Lanka and an activity sponsored by one or other of the militant organisations in operation at this point of time; or even perhaps a combined operation.

    Unfortunately, Sidath Wettimuny cannot recall the details imprinted on placard or presented as shout. Logically, however, one can conjecture[3] that the pogrom that had been directed by both state functionaries and popular action against Tamils living in the south-western and central districts of the island[4] in late July 1983 was featured in the grievances expressed; and that the liberation struggle for Thamilīlam (Eelam in short) was a prominent emphasis.[5] I stress here that Sri Lanka had become an international pariah[6] after the pogrom of July 1983 coming as the latter did on top of a referendum that extended the term of J. R. Jayewardene’s government by plebiscitarian vote.

What Sidath recalls vividly however is that the protest demonstration helped him immensely by calming his cricket nerves and releasing his tension. Mingling with the ‘enemy’, namely, the English cricketers, altered his “conditions of being” as one could present it in the analytical terms of phenomenological anthropology. In his choice of trope the alteration in his bodily state of tension was likened to that of a soda bottle being opened. He affirms therefore that he “remains eternally grateful” to those Tamil activists who intruded upon the hallowed turf of Lord’s

   Indeed, after the Tamil young men had been shepherded away — without violence on either side — by the British policemen who had been hurriedly marshalled, Sidath took guard calmly and proceeded to grind the English bowlers into the dust. He chalked up 190 runs as Sri Lanka reached 491 for seven wickets (with Duleep Mendis scoring 111 and Arjuna Ranatunga 84) before declaring.[7] This total suggests that the wicket was batsmen-friendly, but the cricket world also knows that Wettimuny was a technically sound batsman who could be presented as the Sunil Gavaskar of Sri Lankan cricket. Those points noted, the fact remains that the initial foundation for his monumental innings was provided by Tamil political activists with other thoughts on their mind. Even conflict can occasionally be serendipitous in its impact.

 Pic from Lake House 

  

   Bibliography

Kanapathipillai, Valli 1990 “July 1983: the survivors’ experiences,” in Veena Das (ed.) Communities, riots and survivors in South Asia, Delhi: Oxford University Press, pp. 321–44.

 

 

 

 

 

Monga, Sidarth 2010 “Our early 1980s line-up was better than todays,” http://www.cricinfo.com/magazine/content/story/471084.html

Roberts, Michael 1994 “The agony and ecstasy of a pogrom: southern Lanka, July 1983,” in Roberts, Exploring confrontation. Sri Lanka: politics, culture and history, Reading: Harwood Academic Publishers, pp. 317–30.

Roberts, Michael 2006a “The Tamil movement for Eelam,” E-Bulletin of the International  Sociological Association No. 4, July 2006, pp. 12-24.

Sabaratnam, Lakshmanan 2001 Ethnic attachments in Sri Lanka: social change and cultural continuity, London: Palgrave.

Struthers, Greg 2006 “Caught in time: Sri Lanka’s First Test against England,” 21 May 2006, http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/article722654.ece.

Wilson, A. J. 2000 Sri Lankan Tamil nationalism. Its origins and development in the 19^th and 20^th Centuries, London: Hurst and Company. 

                     Test Match Scores

	Sri Lanka 1st innings		R	M	B	4s	6s	SR
	S Wettimuny	c †Downton b Allott	190	642	471	21	0	40.33
	SAR Silva†	lbw b Botham	8	17	11	1	0	72.72
	RS Madugalle	b Ellison	5	35	24	1	0	20.83
	RL Dias	c Lamb b Pocock	32	152	104	3	0	30.76
	A Ranatunga	b Agnew	84	248	183	8	0	45.90
	LRD Mendis*	c Fowler b Pocock	111	197	143	11	3	77.62
	PA de Silva	c †Downton b Agnew	16	29	27	3	0	59.25
	ALF de Mel	not out	20	35	25	3	1	80.00
	JR Ratnayeke	not out	5	25	18	0	0	27.77
	Extras	(b 2, lb 8, w 2, nb 8)	20
	Total	(7 wickets dec; 166 overs)	491	(2.95 runs per over)

 

Did not bat DS de Silva, VB John

 

Fall of wickets1-17 (Silva), 2-43 (Madugalle), 3-144 (Dias), 4-292 (Ranatunga), 5-442 (Wettimuny), 6-456 (Mendis), 7-464 (PA de Silva)

 

	Bowling	O	M	R	W	Econ
	JP Agnew	32	3	123	2	3.84
	IT Botham	29	6	114	1	3.93
	RM Ellison	28	6	70	1	2.50
	PI Pocock	41	17	75	2	1.82
	PJW Allott	36	7	89	1	2.47

 

	England 1st innings		R	M	B	4s	6s	SR
	G Fowler	c Madugalle b John	25	50	41	4	0	60.97
	BC Broad	c †Silva b de Mel	86	341	242	8	0	35.53
	CJ Tavare	c Ranatunga b DS de Silva	14	138	95	1	0	14.73
	DI Gower*	c †Silva b de Mel	55	196	151	5	0	36.42
	AJ Lamb	c Dias b John	107	266	195	10	1	54.87
	IT Botham	c sub (DM Vonhagt) b John	6	7	6	1	0	100.00
	RM Ellison	c Ratnayeke b DS de Silva	41	112	79	7	0	51.89
	PR Downton†	c Dias b de Mel	10	65	53	1	0	18.86
	PJW Allott	b de Mel	0	1	1	0	0	0.00
	PI Pocock	c †Silva b John	2	37	21	0	0	9.52
	JP Agnew	not out	1	6	8	0	0	12.50
	Extras	(b 5, lb 7, w 5, nb 6)	23
	Total	(all out; 147.1 overs)	370	(2.51 runs per over)

 

Fall of wickets1-49 (Fowler), 2-105 (Tavare), 3-190 (Broad), 4-210 (Gower), 5-218 (Botham), 6-305 (Ellison), 7-354 (Downton), 8-354 (Allott), 9-369 (Lamb), 10-370 (Pocock)

 

	Bowling	O	M	R	W	Econ
	ALF de Mel	37	10	110	4	2.97
	VB John	39.1	12	98	4	2.50
	JR Ratnayeke	22	5	50	0	2.27
	DS de Silva	45	16	85	2	1.88
	A Ranatunga	1	1	0	0	0.00
	RS Madugalle	3	0	4	0	1.33

 

	Sri Lanka 2nd innings		R	M	B	4s	6s	SR
	S Wettimuny	c Gower b Botham	13	22	21	2	0	61.90
	SAR Silva†	not out	102	320	255	12	0	40.00
	RS Madugalle	b Botham	3	8	9	0	0	33.33
	RL Dias	lbw b Botham	38	112	79	5	0	48.10
	A Ranatunga	lbw b Botham	0	7	6	0	0	0.00
	PA de Silva	c †Downton b Pocock	3	4	6	0	0	50.00
	LRD Mendis*	c Fowler b Botham	94	123	97	9	3	96.90
	ALF de Mel	c Ellison b Botham	14	12	8	3	0	175.00
	JR Ratnayeke	not out	7	18	15	1	0	46.66
	Extras	(b 5, lb 4, nb 11)	20
	Total	(7 wickets dec; 80 overs)	294	(3.67 runs per over)

 

Did not bat DS de Silva, VB John

 

Fall of wickets1-19 (Wettimuny), 2-27 (Madugalle), 3-111 (Dias), 4-115 (Ranatunga), 5-118 (PA de Silva), 6-256 (Mendis), 7-276 (de Mel)

 

	Bowling	O	M	R	W	Econ
	JP Agnew	11	3	54	0	4.90
	IT Botham	27	6	90	6	3.33
	RM Ellison	7	0	36	0	5.14
	PI Pocock	29	10	78	1	2.68
	PJW Allott	1	0	2	0	2.00
	AJ Lamb	1	0	6	0	6.00
	CJ Tavare	3	3	0	0	0.00
	G Fowler	1	0	8	0	8.00

 

Match details

Toss England, who chose to field Series One-off match drawn

Test debut PA de Silva (Sri Lanka) Player of the match S Wettimuny (Sri Lanka)

Umpires HD Bird and DGL Evans

Close of play 23 Aug day 1 – Sri Lanka 1st innings 226/3 (S Wettimuny 116*, A Ranatunga 54*) 24 Aug day 2 – Sri Lanka 1st innings 434/4 (S Wettimuny 187*, LRD Mendis 100*) 25 Aug day 3 – England 1st innings 139/2 (BC Broad 69*, DI Gower 16*) 26 Aug rest day 27 Aug day 4 – England 1st innings 370 28 Aug day 5 – Sri Lanka 2nd innings 294/7d (80 ov) – end of match

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Match notes

General SL 1st innings Wettimuny: 190 runs, 471 balls, 636 min., 21 fours Mendis: The first SL captain to score 100+ while in office Fastest of the 8 SL centuries scored until then (144 min.)

 

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