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| Sunday, 10 November 2002 |
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For Daniel, the world is an oval one by LAL GUNESEKERA Twenty four years ago, Austin Willibrord Daniel, left the shores of Ceylon for Hong Kong and a sub editor's post with the Hong Kong standard. In December of the previous year (1971), Daniel was nominated by Rupert Cherry, Chairman of England's Rugby Union Writers Club as an Honorary Member. Now 42 years later after the club was formed in 1960, the RUWC has just 14 honorary members, including Daniel, who remains the one and only Asian in this august body. Other names of note are Terry McLean (the doyen of New Zealand rugby scribes), and former Welsh captain and British Lion of the 1950s Bleddyn Williams, who led the Lions against All- Ceylon on their way to New Zealand in 1950. When Carl Myatt, Sports Editor of the South China 'Morning Post', met Daniel at the Kai Tak Airport on that humid August Afternoon and drove his Sri Lankan friend to Causeway Bay to stay with his aunt, Daniel was quick to find out that the rugby scene was to earn him memorable plaudits in the former British colony. That same month (August), France, Grand Slam winners, on their way to Japan scrummed down against Hong Kong at Sports Road and Austin Daniel scooped the rival SCMP with stories and features on the Triclours. To cap it all, he was given several bylines even before "the recent arrival" had officially started work on September 1. This prompted the chief sub-editor, Ken Martinus, a cousin of the late Lawford Martinus, to raise eyebrows in disbelief. (In fact, Daniel, took over as the chief rugby writer for the Ceylon 'Daily Mirror' after Martinus retired) before going on to sample life as a free-lance reporter and feature writer with the 'Daily and Sunday Observer' and a couple of years later on the 'Times of Ceylon' and 'Sunday Times'. Daniel published Ceylon Rugby, a fortnightly tabloid in 1977 which was sold at various rugby grounds in Colombo and at the Lake House bookshop. He was fascinated with Hong Kong's sporting life, particularly the Cathay Pacific Hong kong Bank Invitational 7s, which in fact pioneered 7s events all have sprouted like mushrooms all over the oval world. during my visits to Hong Kong to cover the tournament (and on other occasions too), Daniel, was always on hand to talk about the good old days in Ceylon and the fine brand of rugby that was played in the 1950s and 1960s. Daniel's rugby colleagues and I also dropped in at his "pigeon hole" of an apartment which was aptly known as "The Rugby Den". The walls were cluttered with rugby mementos and the conversation seldom strayed from rugby. Daniel's passion for the sport goes back more than 50 years when as a boy of eight, his father walked the two elder daughters and only son to the Badulla Esplanade to watch the Merry Men of Uva play host to all the major low country and up country clubs each Saturday. The seed that was sown in 1948 grew into willowy proportions as a rugby player for the Royal Ceylon Air Force between 1960 and 1962 when he then succumbed to his passion for writing. Daniel has met quite an array of rugby personalities during his time as a journalist starting with the Springbok captain of 1972 Piet Greylin whom he immediately recognised when the South African businessman stepped out of a taxi in front of Aristons where Daniel also ran the Tours department. Next year the Rugby Club of London operated by former England captain and British Lion Jeff Butterfield, were planning a visit to our island nation to help celebrate 100 years of rugby. For lack of numbers the tour did not materialise, but Daniel was to strike a firm friendship with the ex-England centre three-quarter. Daniel stayed at the Rugby Club in Hallam Street on his visit to coincide with the International Rugby Board (IRB) centenary held in 1986 in England. New Zealand's Grand Slam tour of the British Isles in 1978-79, captain Graham Mourie became a friend of Daniel, although their views on contact with South Africa for playing rugby were poles apart. Tokki Smith, considered the father of the Hong Kong 7s and a true-blue South African living in Hong Kong, had met Daniel during the Rugby Asiad held in Colombo in 1974 and were great friends till the five-time Chairman of the Hong Kong Rugby Football Union was killed in a car crash in the Cape. Daniel was invited to South Africa where he was welcomed by the legendary Dr. Danie Craven in 1980 and watched his first International Test at Loftus Versfeld in Pretoria between the Springboks and France when famous full-back Serge Blanco made his debut for the Tricolours. Other important visits to South Africa were for the 1983 International Rugby Media Congress and the Rugby Board's Centenary in 1989. Coming to Canada in 1990, Daniel found some comfort in writing for the National Rugby Post, but his most vivid memories are from "his beloved Ceylon" watching two famous Capper Cup victories by Up-country over the Colombo Clubs in 1963 and 1969, as well as that "magic game" at Havelock Park when Uva outplayed Havelocks in 1961. Daniel says that he will return to his motherland in 2005. |
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