Former Aussie allrounder Allan Davidson honoured

Remember former left arm medium pace Australian allrounder Allan Davidson? Well he made his debut in 1953 under Lindsay Hasett.

He had the honour of being invited into the Australian dressing room during the Sydney Test. The great left arm fast bowler will advice the Australian team. He will not be the first former player to visit the team. Former captains Mark Taylor and Steve Waugh also visited the team.

Other players who visited the team's dressing room were Dean Jones, David Boon, Greg Blewett, Adam Gilchrist, Allan Border and Mathew Hayden. Davidson was at the ground on Tuesday watching the training session.

Davidson 83, will be best remembered playing the first-ever tied Test in Brisbane against the West Indies in the 1960/61 series. With Australia on the skids and the Windies sniffing victory, he put on a big stand with skipper Richie Benaud that took the game to the wire.

It became the first tied Test in the history of the game.

Stand in memory of Greig

A SriLankan Lawyer in Toronto, Canada Mahendra Mapagunaratne an ardent cricket fan who was a close follower of the Late Tony Greig and the big way in which he promoted Sri Lanka cricket and its tourism has come up with a suggestion to Sri Lanka Cricket. He suggests to SLC to name one of the stands at the R.Premadasa Stadium - the TONY GREIG STAND. Now, this is a wonderful suggestion which SLC must work on and show its gratitude to the great Greig who was passionate about Sri Lanka and of Sri Lanka cricket.

Incidentally it was Mapagunaratne who christened Tillekeratne Dilshan's scoop as 'Dilscoop' and the delivery which Ajantha Mendis flicks as the 'Carrom ball'. Dilshan is in Australia while Mendis is expected for the one-day series.

Boycott on Greig

The sudden death of Tony Greig is still unbelievable and not a day passes with tributes pouring in. Here are some excerpts from a tribute from his former team mate, former England opener Geoff Boycott.

'Tony Greig was a fearless, combative cricketer but also someone who played the game with good humour and loved a challenge. He was a competitor in every respect. 'I remember him as an excellent cricketer. I don't say nice things

about people just because they have passed away. I tell the truth and Tony was a far better player than many people realize.

'He was also a far better player than some people want to give him credit for because even after all these years they have not forgiven him for leading the Kerry Packer revolution'.

Who's grovellin' now

The West Indies will always remember Tony Greig. When the Windies toured England and Greig was captain, before the series he said that they will make the Windies grovel. The Windies made him eat his own words by thrashing his side 5-nil. When he was in Colombo 'Daily News' freelance journalist Richard Dwight and this writer asked Greig why he said he will make them grovel and whether that statement went to inspire the Windies to whitewash his team. He replied by saying that he was misquoted.

MCG Media Box very poor

The Melbourne Cricket Ground is a pretty picture and a wonderful work of engineering and is what Lord's in England is to world cricket. The MCG is steeped in history. Many a heart stopping game has been played here with many adding to the glorious history of the grounds.

Sri Lankan cricketers, sadly, added to that history in reverse by losing the Boxing Day Test to Australia by an innings and 201 runs in two and a half days.

I took a walk round the outside of the ground before the start of the third day's play of the SriLanka- Australia Test and was amazed to see how wonderfully well it has been built.

One complaint

But while everything at the MCG seems tickety boo, the one complaint is its media box. It has been constructed so badly that the media men working are greatly inconvenienced. The seating accommodation is so tight, that one can hardly move. There is no leg space and every time a journalist in front of you moves his seat it loosens the plug on which the lap top lug is fixed and it makes working a hazard.The MCG and every other structure on it were given a facelift for the Olympic Games. But how the constructors and those owning the MCG overlooked the comfort of the media centre is inexplicable.

The Melbourne Cricket Ground can hold a near 100 thousand crowd with the Australia - West Indies game in that 1960'61 exciting Test series that brought in a crowd of 90 thousand.

Meeting old friends

It was indeed a nostalgic occasion meeting old friends and team mates and talking about the good old schooldays at St. Benedict's College, the truant we played, the teasing of teachers and the exploits on and off the cricket field at Kotahena and opposing venues.

The meeting was at a dinner hosted by another Old Ben Dr. Don Nimal Senadhipathy who is a psychatrist and his gracious lady Manel at their residence in Spring Vale, Melbourne. Present were former Bens wicketkeeper batsman Allan Gunesekera and his wife Pam and Frank Pereira and lady Therese and Percy Perera who needs no introduction and who was a legend in basketball in the school and for Sri Lanka in the 1960s.

SBC vs Nalanda

Gunesekera and Perera played in the SBC cricket team which I led in 1960. A match which we well remember was the inter-school match between St.Benedict's and Nalanda played at Kotahena in 1959. Set a victory target, the Bens were on the skids at 57 for 8 just before the milk break, when I joined Gunesekera who was battling the bowling and bating stubbornly.

At the milk break, the Nalandians were celebrating victory, but they did not bargain for a match saving fight back by Gunesekera and the writer. At the interval, Coach Bertie Wijesinha told us that game is not won or lost till the final ball is bowled.

Keep going

He asked Gunesekera and me to believe in our abilities and keep going.

The bowler causing the damage was a left-arm spinner named Dharmasiri de Silva. We put on a big partnership of over a hundred and batted till almost the close saving the game when I was out for my maiden 50 in school cricket. Gunesekera made a classic century which was one of the best in that school cricket season and we saved a game that looked lost.

The captains were Lionel Fernando for SBC and Sarath Silva for Nalanda.

After recalling nostalgic memories and the mentioning of teachers and Directors of SBC who understood and appreciated good fun that we youngsters were champions as we sang the College anthem - Boys of St.Benedict's young and old .... and brought the evening of laughter and merriment to an end. Teachers whose names were mentioned were Elgin Rosayro, Weerasuriya, Herman Candappa, Nathan Emmanuel, Ranjit Suwaris, Gunasingham, Suntheralingam, Albert Fernando, Wilson and Reginald. The Directors were Rev.Bro.Alban Patrick and Frenchman Bro.Athanasius.

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