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| Sunday, 7 March 2004 |
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Sporting 'docs' Quintus de Zylva and David Young will look after Lanka's cricketers by A. C. DE SILVA When late Gamini Dissanayake was President of the Board of Control for Cricket in Sri Lanka in 1981, he did many good things for the promotion of cricket in the country. The first thing was obtaining full Test status for Sri Lanka in 1981 and in the following year, Sri Lanka played the first Test against England and followed it up with tours of Pakistan and India in the same year. The other good thing that Gamini Dissanayake did was to pick doctor Quintus de Zylva 'to look after the interest of Sri Lanka cricket in Australia'. It was difficult for Sri Lanka to obtain many Tests, but by arranging holiday games while on tour, Sri Lanka presence was felt not only in Australia, but in other parts of the world. Dr. Quintus de Zylva is an old boy from Kingswood College, Kandy and though he didn't want to talk about his academical qualifications, from all available information, he was a brilliant student. He entered the Medical College in 1957 and graduated in 1963 and went across to Australia the same year and then to England where he qualified as a doctor in 1967. He is a doctor on call at any time for Sri Lanka cricketers and he takes great pleasure in his official work and has an abiding interest in cricket too. Sri Lanka's great right-arm off-spin bowler Muttiah Muralitharan has been one of Dr. Quintus' favourite patients and besides the medical side of assistance, the cricketing doctor has arranged many fruitful programmes for young and promising cricketers from Sri Lanka to gain more knowledge in the game that will ultimately help them and the country in future years. Dr. Quitus de Zylva seemed to be the correct choice that late Mr. Gamini Dissanayake made to look after Sri Lanka interest in Australia. He is the official representative of Sri Lanka Cricket in Australia and is the Trustee, Sri Lanka Cricket Foundation of Victoria. Cricket has no barriers and the sporting doctor is a firm believer of this and he has treated many Sri Lankan cricketers in Australia and through the high position he holds in the medical fraternity down under, he has been able to woo the Australian medical personalities too to help him in the treatment of injuries to Lankan cricketers. Dr. David Young is a member of the Australian Arthroplasty Association, the Australian Knee Society and the Australian Shoulder and Elbow Society. As an Orthopaedic Surgeon, his special interests have been in Sports Medicine and Arthritis Surgery. He has treated almost every Sri Lankan cricketer who has had any injury. These include Arjuna Ranatunga, Aravinda de Silva, Muttiah Muralitharan, Sanath Jayasuriya, Prabath Nissanka, Nuwan Zoysa, Upul Chandana and a host of budding Sri Lankan cricketers. Whilst in Sri Lanka for the Champions Trophy in August 2002 David saw all the Sri Lankan cricketers who had any muscle or bone injury and provided Hemaka Amarasuriya - the then Interim Committee Chairman-with a report on each of them. He will be a guest of Sri Lanka cricket. David is the Orthopaedic Surgeon to the Western Bulldogs Footy Club. Murali spent many hours with David and was a guest of this club when he was in Melbourne with a shoulder injury that David treated at the Avenue Hospital. David is also a Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon to the Australian and Victorian Institutes of Sport Netball Australia and the Melbourne based National Basketball League teams. David continues to have active research interests in knee ligament injuries and patella instability problems. Prabath Nissanka had surgery for the latter problem when he was in Australia last year. David has also an interest in the management of stress fractures in athletes. It is heartening to note that Nuwan Zoysa is back as a menacing left-arm paceman in the line up against the Aussies - David Young treated him in Melbourne a few years ago. The Sri Lanka Cricket Foundation in Victoria played host to: Upul Chandana in June 2001, felicitated former coach Dav Whatmore in September 2001, had Muralitharan in May 2002, Dinusha Fernando and Dammika Sudharshana (both of whom were operated on), Entertained Sri Lanka team at Moorabbin Town Hall, attended to Prabath Nissanka and Carey Scholarship winners Sukitha Senaratne - the Royalist and Lahiru Peiris of St. Peter's were with the Foundation for three months - January to March last year. So, the Sri Lanka Cricket Foundation in Victoria has been somewhat a home away from home to Sri Lanka cricketers. The Foundation was formed in 1985 mainly through the efforts of a Sri Lankan expatriate Mr. Fred Van Buren, Labour MLC of the Victorian State Parliament and Dr. Quintus de Zylva - the official representative Sri Lanka Cricket Board in Australia, a special grant of 12,000 Australian Dollars was made available by the then Victorian Minister of Youth Sport and Recreation, Mr. Neil Trezise was requested to sponsor young Sri Lankan cricketers of Test potential to play with leading Melbourne cricket clubs. Seven trustees were initially appointed: Dr. Quintus de Zylva, Messrs Fred Van Buren, Robert (Bob) Parish, Ian Crawford, Tony McGoee, Astor de Silva, Edward Gray. Subsequently, Messrs Bertie Ekanaike, David Cruse and Nigel de Kretser were also appointed. The Foundation has, in consultation with the Cricket Board sponsored some promising cricketers from Sri Lanka. The sponsorship has borne fruit as far as three of the cricketers - Aravinda de Silva, Roshan Mahanama and Ruwan Kalpage have all made the grade. The other cricketers to benefit have been: Gamini Perera, Dileepa Wickremasinghe, Sanath Kaluperuma, Nilantha Ratnayake, Chelaka Hapugoda, Malintha Perera, Chanaka Wijesinghe of St. Sylvesters. |
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