Michael Tissera has served Sri Lanka cricket well

By: Leslie FERNANDO

Cricket: Michael Tissera has been a dominant figure in Sri Lanka cricket for more than 40 years, serving the team as a player, administrator and manager.

As captain, of Sri Lanka, Tissera led the country in the first victory in an unofficial Test match overseas against Pakistan in 1964 and against India in 1965. Tissera also led Sri Lanka's first win in one day cricket against MCC in 1969. He also played in the Sri Lanka side that played in the inaugural World Cup in 1975.

Long before Sanath Jayasuriya was setting the cricket world alight with his spectacular batting on the way to the Sri Lankan victory in the 1996 World Cup, Tissera played in a Sri Lanka team in the One-Day International debut against the formidable West Indies at Old Trafford. In the second match of the three Sri Lanka played, Tissera scored 52 against an Australian side that had Dennis Lillee and Jeff Thompson.

After he retired, Tissera took on a variety of managerial and administrative roles in Sri Lanka cricket.

In 2002, he was appointed Chairman of Sri Lanka's national team selection committee. After a stint as the manager of the Sri Lanka `A' team, Tissera was made Sri Lanka's team manager for two years in 2005. During this period Sri Lanka secured a Test series draw and One-Day International (ODI) whitewash in England in 2006. In the 2007, World Cup Sri Lanka continued their ODI form, finishing runner-up to Australia in a reverse of the 1996 result.

Michael Hugh Tissera who will be 70 years on March 23 was educated at the S.Thomas' College, Mount Lavinia where he captained the Thomian cricket team in the `Battle of the Blues' on two occasions in 1957 and 1958. His first appearance in the Big Match was at the age of 14 years in 1954. He played a mature innings of 48 to save S.Thomas' from certain innings defeat in his debut.

He was a very consistent scorer in school cricket even though he made only one century (121) against Wesley, had several half centuries and had a rich harvest of wickets with his leg-breaks. Talking of allround ability he won his colours at school for cricket, tennis, hockey and athletics and later he represented the CR & FC at rugger.

Tissera was an allround sportsman with cricket being his forte and his early promise at school bore fruit and he turned out to be a fine batsman and a astute captain.

Leaving school, he joined NCC and in his first appearance against Saracens, scored an excellent 103. Later under his captaincy, the NCC won the Saravanamuttu Trophy for two successive seasons 1969-70 and 1970-71. He was also a member of the NCC team that won the Sara Trophy in 1957-58 and 1960-61. He changed clubs and joined CCC and he also led the CCC to win the Sara Trophy in 1979-1980.

He made Test centuries in both India and Pakistan. Sri Lanka scored their first international victory against Pakistan under Tissera's captaincy. Tissera has played against India, Pakistan, Australia, England and West Indies-captaining against all countries. He has also played in Gopalan Trophy matches against Madras.

Tissera has also played cricket in New Zealand, Malaysia and Canada. In 1966 he played for Karori CC from Wellington led by former New Zealand skipper John Reid in club competition. He also played for a North XI against South XI in Malaysia also in 1966 and for Westmount CC in Canada.

One of Tissera's memorable innings was the century in the `Daily Mirror' match against the wiles of Sir Garry Sobers and the combined pace and hostity of Wesley Hall and Charlie Watson. He hit over 20 boundaries. Tissera hammered the great Hall for 20 runs in two overs. When Tissera was at 96, Hall gifted with a simple full toss to Tissera to get his richly deserved century.

Tissera was a gifted batsman and he matched past greats as Pat McCarthy, Robert Fernando, Vernon Prins, Hubert Bagot, Stanley Jayasinghe, Malcolm Spittle, H.I.K. Fernando, Carl Obeysekera, Ranjit Fernando, David Heyn and Ranjan Madugalla while turning out for the Nondescripts Cricket Club.

Tissera, a dedicated cricketer, performed well in Mercantile Cricket Tournaments. He played for Brooke Bonds alongside C.H. Gunasekera, T. Jayalingam, Noel Perera, H. Juriansz, Gordon Dissanayake to name a few. He had the highest score in Mercantile cricket when he scored an unbeaten double century (212) against Walkers captained by that dynamic cricketer C.I. Gunasekera who captained Sri Lanka before Tissera.

Tissera was a Director at Brooke Bonds. In the year 1960, he won the Caltex Sportman of the Year Trophy, Horlicks Sportsman of the Year Trophy in 1962 and the Elephant House Sportsman of the Year Award in 1969.