West Indies cricket luvr'ly cricket ends in uga'ly impasse

It is obvious that the Board of Control for Cricket in India was upset that the West Indies stalled their tour of India and flew back with a one-day,Twenty20 and Three Test matches to be played owing to a pay dispute.

That the BCCI is a powerhouse in international cricket is widely accepted and to receive a snub is no doubt anathema to them and they are sure going to hit back at the West Indian Cricket Board with a vengeance.

The impasse between the WICB and their players was brewing and it was just a matter of time before it was going to boil over and burn both parties involved.

And with discussions failing to arrive at a settlement, it shocked the BCCI when Dwaynne Bravo and his men called off the tour after playing the fourth one-day international. Now this was sad for the game and could well have been avoided had the warring parties indulged in consultation, compromised and arrived at a consensus.

The BCCI quite rightly decided to suspend all further cricket against West Indies and several tours have been called off. The cash strapped WICB is sure going to be hurt and a financial crisis looms. The BCCI has also threatened to institute legal action against the WICB. Pity this fiasco which could have been avoided had the WICB and the players played straight.

Allan Gunesekera in town

In town from Melbourne, Australia were former sportsman Allan and his charming wife Pam (Diaz) and Allan's brother Errol. Allan was a stylish wicket-keeper batsman at St.Benedict's College in the late 1950s.

After his school career, he played a couple of seasons of Sara Trophy cricket for the Tamil Union and joining Havelocks he kept goals at hockey for the club.

The other night a few of his former Bens team mates and school mates hosted his wife and him to dinner at the Capri Club organized by Athula Senaratne and Nalaka Fernando.

Present were a galaxy of former Bens sports stars and their wives - Ranjit Fernando, Michael Joachim, Anton Abeysekera, Selva Perumal, Lal Wickrematunge, Ranjit Kodikara, Malsiri Perera, Moein Fernandopulle, Denzil Perera, Ranjit Senadhipathy, Gamini Kannangara, Tilet Perera, Tilak Pieris, Errol Gunesekera, Felix Dias, John Fernando and the writer.

An incident worth recalling during our school cricket playing days was this: St Benedict's was playing Nalanda at Kotahena and SBC was facing an inning defeat being 52 for 8 and the game poised to end before tea with left arm spinner Dharmsiri de Silva threatening.

It was at this juncture that the writer joined Allan at the wicket to fashion out a game saving partnership and take SBC to an honourable draw.

Allan made a scintillating 130 odd and the writer 62 and a big partnership of 160 odd ensued. That was one of the topics at the dinner where a lot of arm bending took place.

Allan was a member of the unofficial inter-school cricket champion team in 1957 under Lovellyn Rayen and was my vice captain and stumper at SBC in 1960.

Allan's wife Pam's father was an Officer and a Gentleman at the Police. He played football for the Police and Ceylon, while uncle Ivan sported Havelocks and Sri Lanka colours at rugby.

Wally de Zilwa's son recalls memories

Apropos my column of September 28, where commenting on the debacle that was the Incheon Asian Games and the bashing at hockey, I queried as to where are the hockey legends that the game of hockey gifted to Sri Lanka and and i mentioned the trophies that were contested for.

Among the many trophies I also mentioned the Wally's Cup. It came as a pleasant surprise to receive an email from his only son W.Howard de Zylva living in Australia which I am delighted to reproduce below.

Dear Elmo, A high school teacher of mine from St. Benedict's College, Mr.C. Pathmanathan, sent me a newspaper cutting of your 'SPORTSCOPE' - of 28 Sept 2014.

I am now 61 year old an only son of Wally de Zylva, you mentioned his perpetual trophy,Wally's Cup, plus many others that I now recall in your informative article. It was like a walk down memory lane.

Do they still run and award the Wally's Cup?

Thank you for having such a good memory, I must confess I had forgotten it and had it not been for my faithful school teacher sending me the cutting, it would have remained forgotten.

I was an Old Bens player, right wing, played under the guidance of Br.Mathias with players Rayen and Homer Fernando at the Kotahena grounds of St.Benedict's College and then when my dad's BRC team was short of players, I also played for the BRC at the age of 17 to 21.

I left Ceylon for Melbourne at the age of 21 (1974) and took up astro turf hockey many years later in my 50s, playing for a regional team Dandenong.

Anyway, just felt happy to read your article, dad (Walter de Zylva) played for Ceylon many times as the right wing in the team, until he dislocated his knee during a game many years later, then he refereed for many years, played tennis and golf until he and mum migrated to Melbourne in 1982.

He sold Wally's garage at 50, College Street, Kotahena, Colombo 13, to his neighabour who had a trucking business and the garage became the service centre for the trucks of VTV.

Dad passed away in 2000 and mum in 2006, my sister Rochelle and I visited SL in October 2004 and spread his ashes in the sea at the Surf Cub at Mount Lavinia, one of his favorite haunts, was President there, at the Otters and BRC, founded one of the motor racing clubs and raced at the Isle of Man TT, water polo goalkeeper, Otters and Ceylon teams etc.

Keep up the good work Elmo, wishing you the very best.

I wish to respond : It was nice hearing from you Howard, and having been a member of the BRC and having known your dad, I hope I have done justice to him. Talking about Wally's Garage I remember ace riders Kingsley Smith and Chris Redlich coming there to have their racing bikes repaired. That was the time motor racing was at its zenith.

On my recent visit to Tottenham in London I had the good fortune of chatting with Chris Redlich and his charming wife and doing an article on motor racing of old times with information provided by Chris courtesy my friends in Tottenham, Collin Fernando and Cass Jaleel.

Incidentally as little boys we used to play softball cricket adjoining Wally's garage in the 1960s. We had a club named Blue Star CC captained by Filbert (Tony) Embuldeniya and had players such as Kenneth Dabarera, Edgar de Zylva, Patrick Perera, Kunju Balendra, the Abeygunewardene brothers, Derrick Juriansz and a host of others whose names do not come to mind.

Enjoy life now. It has an expiry date on it.

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