When Kehel became Boycott’s Nightmare

The respect and regard for Sri Lankan cricketers continues with the manner in which Sri Lanka played last week. Sangakkara’s showing drew reverence for the cricketers’ skill and ability to make difference not only in the best of times, but also when the chips are down. There are some Sri Lankan cricketers who to this day figure in the nightmares some of England’s greats. Take the case of Geoff Boycott. Meeting him was lasting experience:

The former England stubborn opening batsman Geoffrey Boycott was talking about his tours to Sri Lanka and his encounter with former Sri Lanka pace ace and how ‘Kehel’ knocked back his middle stump, with what Boycott swears was an illegal delivery.

“That was in 1968”, he reminisces and ‘I remember taking guard, looking around the field and bent down to take strike. Hey presto, before I could bring my bat down, I heard the ball striking timber. I could not believe it, because he had done me in with an illegal delivery”.

“I will not forget that. I was later told that he was a policeman”. I chipped into say that he was a Senior Police Officer - a Sub Inspector. Tell that guy I would like to meet him when I come to Sri Lanka in March next year and Elmo you arrange that meeting for me”, he requested. “Most certainly”, I said thinking that Geoff can shake off his worst nightmare!

Lively and bubbly

Boycott is still quite a lively and bubbly character doing commentary for BBC Test Match Special along with Chris Martin Jenkins, Jonathon Agnew, Phil Tufnell and our own Roshan Abeysinghe. Abeysinghe was awarded the Test Match Special tie by Jonathon Agnew. He becomes the first Sri Lankan to be thus honoured.

Boycott when he opened batting for England with John Edrich was a stubborn batsman and not easy to dislodge. He was very correct, always showing the full face of the bat and to breach his defence which was water tight and bowl him out was an achievement.

He scored heavily for England and is best remembered for having scored a double century and being dropped for the next Test. That was because it was made so very pedestrian, consuming so many hours and it was disgusting to watch.

Eye catching venues

The Swalec Stadium in Cardiff and the Rose Bowl, in Southampton where Sri Lanka played the First and Second Test matches against England are eye catching and picturesque.

Swalec which belongs to Glamorgan Cricket Association conducted their second Test, the first being against Australia in an Ashes match last year where the last pair of James Anderson and Monty Panesar saved England from certain defeat. The Rose Bowl is the property of Hampshire Cricket Association.

While both venues were dressed appropriately for the occasion, the unpredictable weather made a mess of all things. However, Sri Lanka did well to stave off defeat at the Rose Bowl thanks to a courageous and gutty century from Kumar Sangakkara.

Chief Executive

The Chief Executive and the Chairman of Hampshire County Cricket Club is Rod Bransgrove. It was in March 1997 with the assistance of a Sport England grant that Hampshire began work on the move from Northlands Road, their quaint, but out-moded home since 1885, to what was billed as an ‘iconic’ new abode on the site of a derelict farm.

As the new millennium arrived the project was still largely the stuff of the drawing boards. Funding had dried up and Sir Michael Hopkins’ grand design for a home fit for international cricket looked a world away.

Enter Bransgrove, can-do-mentality with a capital ‘C’. A keen cricketer and a Surrey trialist in his teens - ‘I sulked for ages when I didn’t get in-admirer in his youth of the al-conquering era of Ken Barrington, Peter May, John Edrich, Brian Statham et al - “I missed the Bedsers - Alec and Eric- and I just missed Jim Laker”, says Bransgrove who celebrated his 60th birthday last September - at the Rose Bowl.

Recollection

Bransgrove reveals in his recollection of Andrew Flintoff’s one-day hundred against Sri Lanka in 2004.

The Rose Bowl has long term plans to make a residential entertainment centre’, crowned with a 175-bed room, four-star hotel affording a bird’s eye view of the square on the ground’s north side, which will also contain a world-class media centre to house 120 journalists and 75 hospitality boxes.

Concerts, conferences, wedding banquets, extending the adjacent nine-hole golf course and Bransgrove’s dream is to conduct an Ashes Test against Australia, the ultimate challenge. And covering the Final Sri Lanka-England Test match at the Rose Bowl with my roommate Mangala Dharmaprema we were of the opinion that the Rose Bowl lacks nothing that the other Test venues have and should be granted an Ashes Test.

During the lunch break I took a walk round the Rose Bowl. As usual the beer guzzling Brit cricket fans with their mugs full were enjoying themselves and there were the barbecues with rain being the only spoiler.

The Rose Bowl has been built on land like a bowl and that is why it is called bowl. The outer is well manicured with the hills and the valleys in the distance. The outer perimeter looks like a Rose and that is the name Rose Bowl came into being.

Inspiration

Incidentally, Dharmaprema is the Sport Editor of the Lakbima Newspaper and was the Sunday Observer Outstation Schoolboy Cricketer of the Year and Best Batsman in the 1975/76 contests. He speaks highly of these Sunday Observer Schoolboy Cricket Contests and says that it inspires young cricketers in their future.

The head groundsman at Hampshire is Nigel Gray and is now in his 21st year of county service having more or less ‘fallen into it’. His talents in providing noted league cricket strips brought him to Hampshire in 1989 and has been with them since. On the preparation of pitches he says; “I want a good pitch which lasts the course, to see some good cricket, with England winning. You want it to start well, maybe nip around a bit on the first day for the seamers, then you need two good days of batting to set the game up, then a bit of wear and tear on the pitch”.

Having been at the scene of action I can vouch for the fact that the wicket was a good one and lasted the full duration of play.

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