Fairlie Dalpethado:

Incomparable Guru and Duke of pace

by Rohan WIJESINGHE

CRICKET: Sportsman par excellence cricketer of much eminence, quietly courteous modest of manner and of unassailable integrity. I bow my head in reverence to the memory of my late mentor Mr. Fairlie Dalpethado who passed away peacefully in the hearts and minds of his endearing spouse.

Therese and three precious children - Dilhara, Duleep and Dinusha on the 6th of January 2010, aged 85.

It was with much excitement flavoured with such anticipation that we 11 year olds awaited the arrival of the jaunty Volkswagen bearing its precious cargo as we sat by the grassy banks of the Beira, in the summer of 69.

Having parked his Volks astride the masters room, he would emerge from within the majestic corridors of his beloved St. Joseph's College togged in his jaded creams and archaic brown cap to nurse and nurture us juvenile Josephians in the rudiments of cricket. His gap toothed well, meant greeting of well chaps was the cue for us tots to raise dust and disarray at the feet of our beloved Guru. It was a time for joy and happy perspiration.

Two priceless stints

Most coaches are awash with more theory than Darwin, not so with Fairlie. Having played with distinction for his school from 1940 to 1943, he went on to coach the school in two priceless stints from 1968 to 1974 and then again from 1978 to 1988. Employing a tactful blend of velvet glove and fatherly eye he gave his wards the freedom to flourish giding them from potential to performance. In nudging them to the top it was gently kneaded into the hopefuls that to win was fine but to lose gracefully was even finer as true cricketing tradition dictates, a dictum so sadly misted with time.

Despite his aversion to all out glory hunting, so much honour came to roost at Darley Road on the wings of his precious produce, Lalith, Manik and Rohan de S. Wijeyratne, Brian Obeysekere, Nimal Ranchigoda, Wendell Kelaart, Gary Melder, Ranjan de Silva, Rajiv Benedict, Ashley de Silva, Jeevaka Candappa, Rohan Weerakkody and Nirmalal Perera among others plus three champion schoolboy teams, four best schoolboy captains, three Schoolboy Cricketers of the Year for added value.

Born in the deep Western outpost of Chilaw, in 1924, dad George stacked little Fairlie's imagination with cricket and tennis. With his early years smudged by war Fairlie added his boundless energy to the Josephian cricket XI in the year 1940, aged 15 years to open the bowling and bat at number five. Elevated to the leadership in 1942 and allowed a repeat in 1943, the Schools Cricket Association pitted Fairlie's crack Josephian team against a star-studded Combined Colleges XI led by Vernon Prins that consisted of 8 schoolboy captains and 9 centurions. Dalpethado led the Josephian way with an elegant 59 in his sides 227 and proceeded to bundle out the starry eyed stars with a telling burst of 6 for 19.

Fairlie would turn his arm over occasionally at practices. A lovely measured trot enabled him to move stitched leather this way and that, and pretty sharply too, and his Yorker would come yapping at the heels. The well masked slower ball was of a loopy float and flight and would turn on landing. When I did have the privilege of squaring upto my Guru he was well into his fifties. He could bat too, using his ancient looking twine bound bat for good measure.

SSC stacked with pace

SSC were well placed for pace in the 1940s with some stirring performances spearhead by Fairlie aided and abetted by Gilmore Jaysuriya. In 1949 he welcomed the great West Indian test team with a fiery burst of 3 for 41 inclusive of the prized scalp of Everton Weekes and topped it up with a flamboyant 35 with the bat. In the year 1950, he greeted England's Sir Len Hutton by crushing his knuckles and incapacitating the knight for well nigh one month and later in the day he proceeded to devour the beefy British batting line up of Brian Close, Gilbert Parkhouse, and Aurthur Mcintyre. He also toured Pakistan with Ceylon for two Tests, extracting marginal success, though.

Betwixt his exploits with the bat and ball, Fairlie raised a racquet with his tennis racquet annexing the Junior National Title in 1941, rubbing strings with the likes of L.P. Ernest, C.I. Gunasekera and Koo de Saram. His many tours to the sub continent brought a multitude of accolades for Ceylon. Fairlie unveiled a bouquet of champagne tennis against Indian stars, reserving however, his prettiest bouquet to woo and veil the lovely Indian lassie Therese Abrahams to mother his three precious children.

Oozing with old world charm and untainted by commercial avarice, he gave so much for St. Joseph's College, Sinhalese Sports Club and for his Country. Our appreciation of him has been terribly tardy at best. And now that he has galloped away into the sunset, it is more than fairly certain that his simple Christian faith and saintly humility would be so welcome up their among the clouds.