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| Sunday, 09 March 2003 |
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Arthur Lankatilleke 99 not out reaches century end July by A. C. DE SILVA The Royal-Thomian cricket match has been filled with nostalgic memories in all the 123 year of its existence, but the 124th encounter that will be played from March 13th at the SSC grounds, will be of special significance to all those past cricketers who have played in this great match, as one of their fold - the one-time Thomian captain Arthur (P.B.A.) Lankatilleke is only a stone's throw away from completing 100 years. Lankatilleke is the oldest living cricketer of either school (Royal or S. Thomas'), but he is such a special gift of S. Thomas', having played in the series from 1920 and captaining in 1923 - his final year. The GRAND OLD MAN - Arthur, affectionately known as Artie is 99 years and will be celebrating the centenary of his life on July 30th and there is bound to be some celebrations in the family circle especially in the hill capital where Artie is residing with his daughter and son-in-law Tissa R. Bandaranayake. He will not be present at the coming week's 'Big Match' at the SSC as he 'is very feeble and recovering after a mild stroke', said Tissa Bandaranayake, Arthur's son-in-law. The great cricketer that he was at S. Thomas' Artie Lankatilleke is in high spirits and is recovering fast, but, the family circle does not want to leave anything for chance and probably will allow the 'GOM' to follow the proceedings on radio and TV if he so desires. At the turn of the century in 2000, he was present at the SSC grounds, where he got the opportunity of meeting old cricketers of the vintage era, like Bertie Wijesinha, Vernon Prins, Schaffter, Ian Pieris and Michael Tissera of S. Thomas', Ryle de Soysa (now dead), Gamini Salgado, Mahes Rodrigo, C. H. Gunasekera of Royal, to name some of the oldsters. It was as a 16-year-old boy that Artie Lankatilleke first played for S. Thomas' in 1920 and he was such a tiny boy that he wore shorts and played the match. The rest of the team wore longs and played and there was no objections in Lankatilleke playing in shorts. He was a wicketkeeper but he was taken to the team for his batting. Low scores were the order of the day in the early years and his best was 25 and 37 in the 1922 match - the highest scores in that game. S. Thomas' under the captaincy of C.E.L. 'Kalla' de Silva (now dead) was the S. Thomas' captain and S. Thomas made 143 and 137 while Royal made 128 and 95. Hard times However, everything was not rosy for Lankatilleke in the series, as in his first two years 1920 and 1921 playing under late P. B. Bulankulame and "Kalla' de Silva, the Thomians lost those two matches and when Lankatilleke captained the team in 1923, the Thomians lost again, but it was due to a fine sense of sportsmanship displayed by him. In the good old days, the match was confined to two half days and yet the cricket turned out to be absorbing and results were obtained. During the time Lankatilleke played for the team, the match was played at the old SSC grounds and at Victoria Park in the match that S. Thomas' lost under his captaincy, the Royalists won in the third ball of the last over. Royal was captained in that match by M. C. Dias. The Royal captain Dias took a return catch off his own bowling to dismiss Thomian Rudolph Jayatilleke for 42 and S. Thomas' were out for 102 in the second innings, having made 107 in the first turn. Royal made 116 and 52 for 8 wickets declared. Royal won by 59 runs. The 1923 match had some start-class performances by individuals from both sides. Arthur Lankatilleke who was a wicketkeeper at first, turned out to be the Thomian opening bowler and had a match-bag of five for 62, getting one for 23 in the first innings and 4 for 39 in the second. Henry Meedeniya (now dead) had a record match haul of 12 wickets for 55 runs, with 4 for 38 in the first innings and those amazing figures of 8 for 17 in the second innings, while opening the attack for the Royalists. Wicketkeeping record Then the Thomians had a champion 'stumper' in late Carl Cooke who created a wicketkeeping record of 8 victims - 6 caught and 2 stumpings and also a run-out (both innings) a record which has not been broken or equalled. Lankatilleke prefers cricket in the good old days to that of the present day. There is some sort of animosity among the players of both sides. In the past the teams were more friendly unlike the present day where the slogan is 'win at all cost'. One of the most respected Wardens of S. Thomas' - Warden Stone insisted that the boys played according to the book. You should play the ball for what is worth. The batsman should not play cross-bat shots. The leg-glance is a pleasing shot to watch, but of late the schoolboys hardly play that shot these days," Lankatilleke once said. He was first at Mutwal and came to Mount Lavinia in 1918 and life in the early days at Mount Lavinia was not rosy. The boys were lodged in cadjan-thatched dormitories. Even at cricket, there were no turf wickets at Mount Lavinia - only matting wickets and the ground was uneven. The Royal - Thomian was on turf at the old SSC ground at Victoria Park, but when the Royal-Thomian came by, the boys were taken for turf practice at the SSC grounds on Fridays. |
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