David Heyn, sign of class

by Rohan Wijesinghe

CRICKET: Peter David Heyn, of a somewhat princely demeanour and manner, was born just a kilometre away from the sturdy gates of St, Peter’s College, Bambalapitiya on the 26th of June 1945 at Harmers Avenue, Wellawatte. The prince stalked the then humble hamlet of Wellawatte and its environs till dad Major Russel Heyn enrolled the restless lad at St.Peter’s College in the year 1951 or so.

David is in fact a delightful fusion of the ethnicities that ruled this country for over 400 years, the Dutch and the British. Dad, Major Russel Heyn was of Dutch ancestry and David’s “loveliest of mums” Edna was of British roots, a Lancastrian lineage in fact with a drop of American blood running through her as well. Major General B.R. Heyn captained Royal College at cricket and hockey and Ceylon at cricket, and went on to head our cricket board for a long while.

Professionally he retired having commanded the country’s Army. Brother Richard Heyn captained St.Peter’s at cricket and hockey. Mum Heyn was for a while the president of the country’s women hockey federation. Bloodlines cluttered then with such prodigious pedigree. With 9-year-old David swinging his little bat for the Peterite under 12’s by the year 1954, it didn’t take coach Cyril Ekanayake long to discover that the energetic little chap was blessed with a rich repertoire of resplendent run getting shots, and without batting an eyelash, pencilled him for whopping stardom. Ironically David didn’t set the canal on fire with big scores.

Not a single hundred in the time between issuance of his birth certificate and school leaving certificate. His assertiveness for one so young saw him leading the school in 1964.

He played for them from the year 1961 onwards, sharing pegs in the Peterite dugout with the likes of Darrel Wimalaratne, Peter de Niese, Travis Fernando, Tony Opatha and Tyronne Le Mercier, Adiel Anghie among others.By 1965, David had paddled his way to independence gaining employment in a shipping company, by which time he was potentially and soon actually the finest left-hand batsman in the country.

First at BRC

Having been cradled and weaned on the mat at the Burgher Recreation Club, David was thought of as a matting wicket cricketer, and was marked for definite doom on the faster turf tracks. Hence the well advised move to the Nondescripts Cricket Club in 1970 to munch some grass. The dashing Dave could not have settled for a lovelier setting, nicer people, a truer wicket, or that carpet of an outfield, lovingly manicured by irrepressible groundsman Junaid. The change in clubs changed Heyns cricketing fortunes so profoundly.

Heyn made a somewhat stuttering debut against the Pakistanis in 1966 whence the umpires won more attention than the cricket itself. That tour is best left to forgotten history.

Our pathfinder of a tour to England in 1968 ended in utter shambles. Despite our cricket being in steep ascendancy in the sixties our selectors were in utter disarray, selecting and discarding, squabbling and manipulating, recalling and rediscarding and laughingly even selecting themselves as we squirmed in shame. So sad that it ended as it should not have ended. David was a standby for that tour and by right should have been one of the first to be picked. Understandably the left-hander still bears a bitterly fierce slant towards the administrators of that era.

I suspect his razor edged candidness may have even bucked the trend at times. Back in Colombo pitted against Sobers’ West Indians in 1967, I well remember David parting a sea of mindless morons baying for his head, halo of curls and all, as he walked into the middle and parked his bat at middle and leg. The babble of louts were booing their heads off against his selection.

With the big guns all gone and Ceylon tottering at 95 for five. It must have been pure purgatory for him as he pottered around for 20 minutes collecting just one run. David then decided to crack the whip, by bringing Wesley Hall to heel and Gary Sobers and Lester King as well as he incinerated the place with his left-handed panache.

Steadied ship

To steady our sinking ship he sank to his knees and swept Sobers so sweetly, picked Hall so delectably off his bootlaces, besides cutting and pulling so belligerently and scurrying so characteristically for the singles. Daves 69 saved our day, swelling our total beyond 400. Those who came to scoff had stayed to cheer. By which time Wesley Goliath Hall had quietly taken to keeping wickets.

The 1975/76 tour of India could be considered the summit of the left handers career. India was a beehive of spin in the 60s and 70s, led by those frenzied bumblebees Bedi Chandrasekar, Prasanna, Venkatraghavan, Shivalkar and Doshi amongst others. That Heyn swatted them all with such scornful panache is rich history, first at Hyderabad and then at Nagpur for scores of 100, 84, 30, and 50, in consecutive innings.

He was named as one of the four cricketers of that year in Indian cricket. Indian wickets seemed to be right up his three quarter length sleeves as he netted shoals of runs in the Tests as well as in the Gopalan Trophy and Moin-Ud-Dowla fixtures.

It was Davids view that we should be eternally grateful to the Indians who availed us of those precious opportunities. In 1972 against Pakistan in Colombo, David came up trumps with two gallant knocks of 22 n-o and 49 n.o. respectively.

Fine fielder

Aided by his relatively small build and low centre of gravity, David was a captains prayer on the field. He would vault over the sacred pitch, moving from cover point to cover point as the over changed hands, such was his importance in that neck of the woods.

The effortless grace with which his palms sucked up the cracking square cuts and booming cover drives of Nurse, Butcher, Lloyd and Sobers were followed up with snappy returns to graze the bails.

No ugly sliding all over the place, as he was there for the collection well before time. Loosely translated, despite all the hullabaloo and fads on fitness, diet, rankings and what not, Heyn ranks among the best Sri Lankan fielders of all time.

That he bowled so little remains a mystery.

Dave thundered in from a 15 yard run, wrist giving him loads of whip for his darting medium pace. He could put a cork on the run rate as we saw in the hotly contested six-a-side battles between first class clubs in the seventies. Dave did open the bowling for Sri Lanka in unofficial Tests and is immensely proud of the three wickets he got at Ahmedabad against India.

Top score 136

The legend played 50 first class matches for 2,625 runs at 35.95 and 136 runs as his highest in a career spanning the years 1964 to 1976. At the height of David’s power, Sri Lanka was aeons away from the test arena. These legends had no stage to bare their whopping wares.

Following that 1975 76 tours to India, David sank at once without a trace, taking the plunge from tropical heat to near artic weather severing all ties with Colombo it seemed, settling down with his lovely British wife Sue, in Richmond England. Whilst in the UK he played some good cricket for Richmond CC and Berkshire CC and by the year 1985 aged 40, he had burnt his bats for firewood.

David is justifiably proud of his two daughters Alexandria 27 and Georgina 25. Alexandria is an accountant by profession and Georgina is aspiring to swim for Britain, no holes barred.

Back in the island in February this year to revive dusty memories, a tad heavier around the midriff, he may have lost the twinkle in his toes. Thankfully the twinkle in his eyes are as yet intact. The Peterite victory over the Josephians in their 76th Big Match on the 6th of March, 2010 made his match trip all the way from London utterly joyous, for David wore that Peterite cap with so much pride. Few Peterites have had a better right to wear one.

David Heyn’s claims to eminence is wholly justified in terms of the joyous sunshine he gave to us.