Revata. S. Silva, in his article titled "Twenty years after Arosa" that appeared in The Island of the 5th November gives excerpts of an interview Bandula Warnapura had with Palitha Perera regarding the rebel tour of apartheid South Africa in 1982.

To me, this article brings back rather unpleasant memories not only of the day on which the Board of Control for Cricket in Sri Lanka (B.C.C.S.L), presided over by its President Gamini Dissanayake, imposed a ban of 25 years on these rebel Cricketers, but also the trauma we had to undergo on hearing this devastating news. The atmosphere in the Board room of the B.C.C.S.L that day was that of a funeral house where a dear one had been murdered. There was deep sorrow on one hand and bitter anger at the other, seeking revenge on the perpetrators of this sordid act.

The original proposal was a life ban on these rebels, but this was watered down to a 25 year ban by the President of B.C.C.S.L. The resolution was passed unanimously by the Executive Committee with one hundred percent attendance.

Many of us including the late Nisal Senaratne, had struggled for many years to obtain Full Membership of the International Cricket Council without success and here we found a situation where within one year of achieving this elusive target, the clock was put back by at least 5 years. In fact the setback that Sri Lankan Cricket suffered was much more than that. Our application for Full Membership of the I.C.C had been turned down time and time again, mainly due to the action of England and Australia who repeatedly used their Veto powers to reject our application.

Even the drama created by that great benefactor of Sri Lanka Cricket, Oxford educated Abdul Hafeez Kardar, the President of the Pakistan Cricket Board,(P.C.B.) where at the I.C.C. meeting in 1974, he accused the I.C.C of racial discrimination previously, in not giving Full Membership to Sri Lanka, did not sway the Veto power holders in our favour.

An angry P.C.B. President then pioneered the formation of the Asian Cricket Council that same year and I was fortunate to attend that meeting held at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore. It was in this background that our charismatic President of the B.C.C.S.L with his eloquent presentation was able to convince the I.C.C. to accept our application for Full Membership. Eleven years later we took sweet revenge on our detractors over the years namely England and Australia, by successfully sponsoring a resolution at the I.C.C in 1992 to remove their Veto powers.

In fact our then President of the B.C.C.S.L., Tyronne Fernando drafted the resolution.

Coming back to the rebel tour, the manner in which rebels stealthily left the shore of Sri Lanka, with not a word to their employers, some of them halfway through a match shattered the entire cricket loving public of the country.

I had personally known almost all these cricketers, and the large majority of them were decent human beings. Many of them had toured India for six weeks under very difficult conditions in 1975 where their pocket money for the whole tour was Rs.50 with me as Manager with an allowance of Rs.1000 and Abu Fuard as Coach. Their conduct on this tour was exemplary. Personally, I have no animosity against these rebels who probably did what they did to better their future economically, but having being involved closely in our search for Full Membership of the I.C.C., I can never forgive them for the sordid manner in which they acted twenty seven years ago, thereby negating the victory we had won at the I.C.C. less than one year earlier, after a long struggle.

My only consolation is the belief that many of them did not realise the repercussions that their actions would have, on Sri Lanka cricket.