Glimpse of history from ANCL Archives:

Sathasivam the legendary cricketer

by Indeewara Thilakarathne

Mahadevan Sathasivam fondly known as Satha was, perhaps, the most talented cricketer Sri Lanka has ever produced. Garry Sobers described him as "the greatest batsman ever on earth" and Frank Worrell called him "the best batsman he had ever seen". He dominated Sri Lankan cricket in the 1940s.

Through 1940s Sathasivam was the first, and perhaps the only Sri Lankan cricketer who had the honour of captaining three national teams. He was the captain of the Ceylon team in 1948, then captain of the Singapore team, when he left the country after winning the murder case against him, and finally, captain of the Malaysian team.

In a controversial decision of the Ceylon Cricket Association in 1948, Mahadevan Sathasivam of the Tamil Union was elected to lead the All Ceylon XI team.

In 1951, Sathasivam was charged with the murder of his wife. However, after a high profile protracted the trial involving forensic experts, Sathasivam was acquitted. The Sathasivam case is the most publicized case in history and is still considered as a landmark case in the annals of legal proceedings.

The Sathasivam case, inter alia, marks the significant phase of Dr. Colvin R. de Silva's illustrious legal career and he was hailed as one of the finest criminal counsel, Sri Lanka had ever produced. Dr. Colvin R de Silva, who successfully argued the case for Sathasivam, went to the extent of calling for international forensic experts to testify before the court.

Following the acquittal, Sathasivam left Sri Lanka for good and settled down in Singapore where he captained the Singaporean cricket team. Later, he also captained the Malaysian team. Sathasivam's illustrious sports career was ruined by the protracted murder case and the resultant negative public.

Mahadevan Sathasivam died of heart attack in Colombo on July 9, 1977.