Rangiri Dambulla Stadium comes alive again, thanks to SLC

SRI LANKA CRICKET must be congratulated for waking up from their slumber and finally donning pads to bat and refurbish and bring the long neglected Rangiri Dambula International Cricket Stadium to its intended stature.When the stadium is being spoken of one cannot forget the man who made it all possible and who is now a conveniently forgotten figure- Thilanga Sumathipala -- who was chairman of cricket at that time.

To Sumathipala’s credit it must be said that he must easily be the only one to head Sri Lanka Cricket carrying with him the distinction of having played the game at the highest level representing his school Nalanda and playing Sara cricket for Colombo Cricket Club.

What prompted Sumathipala to build a stadium in Dambula was because it was a rain free zone and allowed cricket to be played without being rain spoilt. The International Cricket Council also wanted Test playing countries to conduct matches with least hindrances.

Did a lot for player, game and administration

Sumathipala who did a lot for the player, the game and the administration during his successful tenure is one who should not be just benched in cricket’s wilderness.

He did a lot and must not be forgotten. One incident that he can crow about is the clever job he did to clear and save World Cup winning Captain Arjuna Ranatunga and keep him in the game.

Ranatunga was involved in a finger wagging incident with Australian Umpire Ross Emerson over the ‘calling’ of off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan in Adelaide in a game against England in 1999.

Ranatunga was also wanting to take the team off the field. But the officials on tour Ranjit Fernando and Saliya Ahangama immediately got on the line to Sumathipala who requested the team to get on with the game and that he would do the needful.

Played in an explosive atmosphere

That match was played in an explosive atmosphere and the vociferous Australia media tore into Ranatunga and his unbecoming behavior on the field with cricket writer Robert Craddock headling his story – THROW THE STATUTE AT RANATUNGA – in the ‘HERALD’ newspaper the next day.

England skipper of that match Alec Stewart described Ranatunga’s behavior appalling for a skipper. The Aussie media was fuming wanting to take to task Rantunga at the end of the match press briefing.

Ranatunga cleverly skipped it and it was Manager Ranjit Fernando who took the blows from the Aussie media.The remaining days were pregnant with rumours that match referee former South African Captain the likeable Peter Van der Merwe was going to press for Ranatunga ban from the game.

It was then that Sumathipala batted. He immediately requested the officials in Australia and with the team to get the best available lawyers to defend Ranatunga and in the subsequent hearings that followed in Adelaide and Perth Ranatunga was lucky to get away with a reprimand.

Ranatunga slapped a reprimand

When Fernando broke the news to the media that Ranatunga was slapped a reprimand the Aussie media were fuming. It also hurt the match referee who gave up the job. To toot my horn a bit. When the first hearing was in Adelaide I prompted cheer leader, Lionel ‘the legend’ and along with Saddhatissa another Sri Lankan supporter we organized placards, one of which read – ARJUNA HERO –EMERSON ZERO – and getting together a few of the Sri Lankans domiciled in Adelaide and Perth, we began a crusade shouting slogans watched by the milling crowd queuing up to watch the England-Australia game on the day of the first hearing in Adelaide.We did similarly in Perth where the final hearing was, where Ranatunga was cleared. Manager Ranjit Fernando, his assistant Saliya Ahangama and Sri Lanka’s cricket representative in Australia the energetic Dr. Quintus de Zilwa who did a lot of background work will bear testimony to what I have said.

Sad that Sumathipala and Ranatunga have gone their different ways.

Having been sportsmen, pity that they have forgotten the axiom – that sport is a great leveller. Had they been together they could have done wonders for the game all round.

Chitra and Somapala perennial

To get back to the Rangiri Dambula Stadium and what comes to mind when you enter the premises is that perennial sung by Chitra and Somapala – RANGIRI DAMBULU GALEY .My first visit to the stadium was with former Kingswood cricketer and the guy who produced the fielding machine which he termed ‘CATCH IT’ Bertrem Jayasuriya and which was a big hit here and with Gerald Solomons, the St. Aloysius Galle cricketer who has a sports shop in Sydney, Australia marketing the product there.The entrance and the pathway all along to the venue was lit up and what a wonderful and spectacular sight that greeted every visitor and cricket fan. Once inside the stadium it was picturesque.

While the stadium was expected to cater to a lot of cricket and be one of the best in the country, Sumathipala fell foul with the authorities of that time for no fault of his and with that his wonderful piece of art went into oblivion.

Faced many vicious bouncers

Sumathipala faced a lot of bouncers when the stadium was being built. But having been a batsman of repute, he hooked every vicious bouncer.But when his detractors banded together to bounce at him, he had no helmet for protection and lost his wicket.

It is said that you cannot keep a good man or his good deeds down. It is heartening to note that the Jayantha Dharmadasa administration has finally decided to bring to life again the stadium that Sumathipala built and have international cricket played on it again. This speaks well for the magnanimity of Dharmadasa.Thilanga Sumathipla who was President of Sri Lanka Cricket and the Asian Cricket Council was nicely in line to be the President of the International Cricket Council which would have been great credit and honour to the country. It is an ugly jealous trait in most Sri Lankans to pull down their own countryman when he is aiming high. And it was no different with Sumathipala. Sumathipala’s first love was cricket. But he is now donning political pads and is doing a good job at that.

Silicone tape and ‘HOT SPOT’ raging on

All protective coatings from bats must be removed in order to achieve the most accurate thermal imaging results insists Warren Brenan inventor of HOT SPOT. He did not mention Silicone-tape but said that thermal signatures of cricket bats were ‘unquestionably’ affected by their protective coatings.

‘HOT SPOT’ had come in to question in the on-going Ashes series between England and Australia in England leaving the players uncertain of whether to use reviews or not. THE ‘HOT SPOT’ controversy propped up during the on-going Ashes series between England and Australia after Australia’s Channel Nine reported that the International Cricket Council was investigating the possibility that players were using silicone-tape on the edges of their bats during the series to deliberately fool ‘HOT SPOT’.

A range of cricket bats tested

Brenan who heads BBG Sports said that his company had tested a range of the latest cricket bats over the past week and found that their protective coating can reduce the likelihood of edges showing up on ‘HOT SPOT’.

‘BBG SPORTS believes that in order to achieve optimum ‘HOT SPOT’ results the removal of the protective coating from bats and edges need to occur. This will allow for the best thermal signatures between cricket balls and natural timber cricket bat’. But as usual the ICC is helpless and is unlikely to enforce any such rules, because batsmen have been using protective coatings on their bats for several years. Australian Captain Michael Clarke is on record having said that since the age of 12 every bat he owned featured a protective layer in order to increase the bat’s longevity.

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