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| Sunday, 26 January 2003 |
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Dion Walles, grand old man of Peterite cricket says : Too much weight training not ideal for fast bowlers by PELHAM JURIANSZ Dion Joseph Walles, Peterite skipper of 1946/47 has returned to the land of his birth after 50 long years and says, "I want to stay". Dion was an astute captain and has been acclaimed as one of St. Peter's outstanding skippers of all time by one of the foremost writers on cricket, Harold de Andrado, the old Josephian. Walles, now 75 years held the "Big Match" bowling record of 9/53 in 1947. The fair, lanky, former fast bowler, had a lot of reminiscing to do when he very proudly dished out the coin which he used to toss in the "big match" of 1946, which the Peter's won for the first time. Being treated as poor cousins by the Thomians he recalls that the Mount Lavinia school did not give them a fixture till 1946 and didn't they give them a hiding when they painted the Thomians "Blue, Black and Blue" at Mount Lavinia, by an innings. "Dion is a legend at St. Peter's " commented Maurice Perera, the veteran Peterite Commentator. Indeed he is. At a time when about 5 to 6 matches were played in the first term, Dion captured 46 wickets in four and a half games of school cricket when matches were just confined to the first term way back in 1944, when he made it to the first eleven side. Dion was somewhat perturbed that after 50 years in Scotland he did not receive a good "welcome" back to the land of his birth, after his retirement. A Chartered Accountant by profession, he is on a one year extended visa till December 2003. Some of Dion's contemporaries in the Peterite team were Maurice Perera, Bernard Wijetunga (Snr.) and the late Michael Chanmugam. Bernard was a good cover fielder in his day, somewhat like David Heyn, another Peterite and was a Joe-Pete specialist in that he made good in the "Big Match". It was coach Cyril Ekanayake who first "spotted" Dion as he played under 14 cricket and got him to bowl fast. Maurice recalls that Dion was one of the best captains in school cricket at the time, and certainly one of the finest skippers of all time. He captained St. Peter's for the first time in 1946 and they were a Champion side in both years. He skippered the side in 1947 as well. As mentioned earlier, one astonishing fact was that Dion thrust his hand into his pocket and pulled out an ancient Rs 5 coin which he calls his lucky coin. "This is the coin that I tossed with and won the Joe-Pete" he said with pride. Uncovered wickets helped "In those days we played on uncovered wickets and this probably helped, but still I managed to average around 46 wickets in the 1946 season that consisted of around just four and a half matches", he went on. "The matches in those days were played at the old SSC grounds at the Municipality (Nomads). Go back to the year 1944 and the young Dion Walles just 15, swinging his way into the Peterite team. Averaging almost ten wickets a match with only first term fixtures against Royal, STC, Zahira, St. Benedicts, and of course the big 'un, in current terms he would have broken all records by capturing well over 150-180 wickets a season at the rate matches are played today. Beat Royal Having played four years from 1944-47, and skippered in the last two years, Dion's Peter's humbled the Josephians led by Neil Weerasinghe, by an innings. Dion recalls that in both years of his captaincy they beat Royal, which gave him a lot of pleasure. He showered accolades on the late Chanmugam who in his opinion was a fine opening bowler for St. Peter's. Also, on his list of tributes was the late Major General B.R. Heyn who was his coach. Dion is keen to witness the Joe-Pete this year and in fact he would be a kind of celebrity at the traditional clash in a year in which the Peterites will be one of the key attractions at the Lemonade Trophy as St. Peter's are runners-up in the knockout version of the game. For a school that has a proud cricketing history from 1927 when cricket started and Norman Patternot captained the school, they seem to be continuing the renaissance that began with Roger Wijesuriya, their former coach. It is evident that the school, under the tutelage of Rev. Fr. Felician Perera, has taken a turn for the better. It is also evident that for the past 7 decades from the time George Jayaweera skippered the Peterites in 1933 to the present, that the Peterites are on an upsurge and looking to reach greater heights. Labled as the best team for the past few years they all but pulled off a win last year in the "Big Match", which could have gone either way. They came so close to winning and yet losing when the Joes fell short by 3 runs of their victory target, and the Peter's failed to capture that elusive last wicket. Kanhai and Manjrekar The most celebrated batsman that he bowled to was Rohan Kanhai of the West Indies when he played against him in Scotland. Another batsman that comes to mind was the father of Sanjay Manjrekar, Vijay. What of the late great Mahedevan Sathasivam? Surprisingly, there was little reaction when I mentioned his name. His most memorable match was when in 1947, he had a match bag of 11 wickets for 110 and followed it up with 13/107 the next year. He has four notable bowling performances at the "Big Match", namely 6 for 105 in 1945, 5 for 38 and 6 for 72 in 1946 and 9 for 53 in 1947. Dion continues to occupy a special place in the record books in the "Battle of the Saints". His feat of capturing over five wickets at the "Big Match" on over 4 occasions have yet to be emulated or eclipsed and the other occasion that he almost claimed five wickets and over was in 1947 when he captured 4/54. The question is "Will the Joe-Pete see such a wonderful bowler and skipper in the future?. What does he think of the present day cricketers? One thing that the Grand Old Boy noted was the fact that the cricketers of today do not walk when they edge the ball. "They are not honest enough to walk off. The reason being that there is too much money in the game and the stakes are high". One glaring example was that Nasser Hussain did not walk when he gave a catch behind the stumps in a recent match between England and Australia. "In our days we walked" rasped Dion in his conviction of upholding what is sacred to the "gentleman's game". Having arrived only in December he hasn't seen much cricket and therefore did not want to comment on the state of the cricketers. But he said that our cricketers need to improve their fielding if they want to win matches. "Catches win matches" is a familiar cliche and should be taken seriously. "There is no point in bowling your heart out when the fielders drop catches and especially the keeper should be reliable. The fast bowlers are good, especially Vaas and Dilhara. I do not think that they need to do too much weight training as we did not do too much ourselves. Too much weight training makes you muscle bound". |
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