I am a regular reader of Pemasara Epasinghe’s articles in the column Going Down Memory Lane. In his article, To Sir with Love which appeared last Friday, 23rd October, whilst paying glorious tribute to Mr. T. Candaswamy, mentor, Prefect-of-Games and Master-in-Charge of Cricket at Nalanda College in the 50s, he had also mentioned Sarath Silva, the brilliant left handed batsman. This reference took me down memory lane, when Sarath Silva was a member of the Colombo Combined Schools Cricket XI that toured Jaffna, in 1959. In the match against the Jaffna Combined Schools Cricket XI played at St. John’s College grounds, he opened batting for Colombo Schools. I vividly remember the very first ball of the match which he flicked with his wrists, high in the air towards fine leg and I got underneath, intending to take the catch, but to my utter dismay, the ball sailed high over my head and over the boundary line for a magnificent six. This encounter, which involved the cream of school cricketers like Sarath Silva, Lionel Fernando, Mohanlal Fernando, Y. Amaradasa, the Josephian spin twins, Raja de Silva and Priya Perera to name a few from Colombo Schools and Paramalingam, Shanmugarajah, Paramsothy, Sivasubramaniam, Seevaratnam Sivanathan and others from Jaffna Schools ended in a draw. The return fixture was played at St. Peter’s College grounds in Bambalapitiya and was a one day affair. Colombo Schools XI was led by Lorenz Pereira and there were other stalwarts like L. R. Gunatilleke, Anton Perera, Lareef ldroos, Lionel Fernando, Y. Amaradasa to name a few, while Karuniyarajan, Paramalingam, Sivaratnam, Somanader, Shanmungarajah and Paramasothy were some who made up the Jaffna Schools XI. The match ended in a first innings win for the Jaffna Schools XI. This earned them a three week South Indian cricket tour sponsored by the Northern Province Cricket Association and the Jaffna public.

When I spoke to Mr. Epasinghe about Sarath Silva’s feat, he told me that he used to open batting with Sarath for Nalanda and on an earlier occasion, when Sarath took first strike against Zahira College, he dispatched the very first ball over the ropes. Coming back to Mr. Epasinghe’s article, Nalanda stalwarts Stanley Jayasinghe, Gamini Jayawickrema Perera, Chandrasiri Weerasinghe and Pemasara himself are of the opinion that the Nalanda Cricket Pavilion, which Mr. Candaswamy strove hard to build with the help of past principals D. C. Lawris and M. J. De S. Jayaratne and leading businessman Jason Fernando, should be named ‘Candaswamy Pavilion’ for his services to Nalanda. This is a laudable suggestion which could cement everlasting friendship among all Sri Lankans. It is also hoped that cricket encounters that existed a few decades back between Colombo schools like Nalanda, Ananda, Royal and S. Thomas’ and Jaffna schools, St. John’s, Central and St. Patrick’s will be revived. Sports in general and cricket in particular are great levellers to build amity, understanding and everlasting friendship to build a united Sri Lanka, with no barriers.