George Bailey with Tissa Abeywardena, Vice-President of the Colombo Colts Cricket Club, at a moment when Bailey came to the clubhouse afger a practice session to thank the Committee for the training facilities provided the Aussie T 20 squad during the World 20/20 tournament recently. They rated the grounds and the wickets highly.
Not many will know that the Colts Cricket Club was initially located in the Pettah and provided the cream of the Ceylonese ricketers in the late 19th century. Most were Burgher. Indeed, when a Ceylonese XI took on the Europeans in a “test of strength” in the mid 1880s all eleven were Burgher. and were mostly Colts. This challenge was an elliptical form of nationalism in an era where direct questioning of imperialism would have been deemed “seditious”. SEE Roberts, Raheem and Colin-Thome, People Inbetween, 1989, Sarvodaya, for details