Versatile D.D.P. de Alwis pride of Dharmaraja

by Upananda Jayasundara

D. D. P. de Alwis is a product of Dharmaraja College, Kandy and a fine allround sportsman who participated in many sports and excelled in Cricket and Hockey.

His cricket career spans over 35 years and during this period he represented Dharmaraja College, Sri Lanka Schools and Kandy Cricket Club in the Donovan Andree Trophy Tournament. Joining the Air Force Alwis represented Adastrians in the premier league Sara Trophy Tournament from 1971 to 1981.

Cricket brought him rich rewards and he was known to be one of the hardest hitters of the ball at School level. This is clearly shown by the fact that he in 1967 hit M. Rahuman of Zahira College, Colombo for 30 runs in 1 over - Four sixes and a Four and Two runs.

In the same year in a 3rd term match against St. Thomas', Mt. Lavinia led by Praboda Kariyawasam, Alwis with a fine knock of 72 runs led the Rajans to register their 1st victory over St. Thomas'. Alwis was seen in an allround performance in this match. Having scored 73 in the Rajans 1st innings total of 140, Alwis went on to take 3 for 40 and the Thomians were dismissed for 130 in the 1st innings.

Dharmaraja had somewhat of a shock when they were dismissed for 65 in the 2nd innings and Alwis' contribution was 20. The Thomians had to score only 76 runs for victory in the 2nd innings, but Alwis' on the spot bowling helped him to take 5 for 13 and the Thomians were shot out for 65 runs and gave victory to Rajans by 11 runs. In the 'Big Match' against Kingswood that year and being a right arm off spinner Alwis had a match bag of 11 for 116, taking 6 for 61 in the 1st innings and 5 for 55 in the 2nd innings. His match haul of 11 wickets for 116 runs stood as a record for many years.

He played for Kandy Cricket Club under Malcolm Berenger in 1970 and when he joined Sri Lanka Air Force, he played alongside Dr. Cyril Ernest, Dr. Nihal Gurusinghe, Tony Opatha, Brian Obeysekera and Ajith Jayasekera to name a few. Alwis also has the record of playing for Old Rajans in the Col. Olcott Memorial Cricket tournament from the inaugural year 1999 and led the team to their solitary victory so far in 2001.

He also represented Defence Services at Cricket from 1978 to 1980, represented Up-country and Central province teams under Berty Gomes in 1968 and before joining the Air Force played against Pakistan and Madras.

At Hockey, Alwis played for Dharmaraja from 1966 to 1968 and represented Kandy Combined Schools from 1967 to 1968. Kandy District team from 1969 to 1970 in the National Championship and also toured India with the District team in 1969 under Ananda Jayasundera.

Having joined the Air Force, he played Hockey from 1971 to 1982, Captaining the team in 1979. He represented the Defence Services in 1979 and 1980 and toured India with the Air Force team in 1981.

He was also in the national pool in 1979. At Football, he captained the School in 1967 and led the team to victory at the Central Province tournament. He captained the Kandy Combined School in 1968. As a Rugby player, he played for Kandy Sports Club "Lions" in 1969 and 1970 and later-on coached the 1st Dharmaraja College Rugby team in 1970. He played for the Air Force Rugby team in 1979.

After qualifying as a Cricket Coach Alwis started his own Cricket Academy before joining the SSC School of Cricket. Now he is functioning as the Head coach together with Vishan Silva, Prasanna Priyankara, Sameera Samarasinghe, Nishantha Perera and Kavinda Perera. Last year he was appointed as Head Coach of Sri Lanka Architects team which participated at the World Architects Cricket Tournament in which former Indian Test Cricket Captain Ajith Wadekar was the Chief Guest. Alwis was the writer's team mate at Dharmaraja College, Kandy in 1965.