Sports
The Legend of Lucky Rogers
by Rex Clementine
Quietly, sit next to a coach giving a pep talk to Under-13 cricketers before a game and you will be left with anger and bewilderment as you eavesdrop. Coaches teach young kids some new tricks in the trade. ‘Appeal three times vociferously and there’s a good chance that you will get a decision in your favour that would have been otherwise given not out.’ That’s the current status of our school cricket. But then, there are also the rare coaches, the Lucky Rogers type. Here’s the Lucky Rogers story.
Ananda College had had a terrific season in 2009 having won 12 games. They were skippered by Dinesh Chandimal. The title was going to be decided in the crunch game between Ananda and Royal at Ananda Mawatha. Royal had KJP. Ananda were set to secure the title after being set a paltry target of 80. But cricket is a funny game. Ananda were shot out for 78. Ruchira Palliyaguru, currently an international umpire had given five leg before wicket decisions!
Well, the obvious choice is to nail the umpire. The term ‘umpire hora’ is common in our backyard. Five leg before wicket decisions in a crunch game! But Ananda boys played like gentlemen. Their coach Lucky Rogers had instilled in them that discipline and set the standards.
“To be honest, I expected a bit of bad blood. But to my surprise, every Ananda player walked up to me, shook hands and said ‘good game sir.’ Palliyaguru told The Island. ‘Then followed Ananda coach Mr. Lucky Rogers. He shook my hands and said thank you. That’s all. What a gentlemen.’
You don’t get many gents like Lucky Rogers. Ajantha Mendis played little cricket at school and his talent was spotted by Lucky Rogers at an academy. The rest they say is history as Mendis gave us some memorable moments running through India’s famed batting line up comprising Sehwag-Dravid-Sachin-Ganguly-Laxman.
The legend of Lucky Rogers is not associated with just coaching. He was a legend as a player too.
“I won the outstanding schoolboy cricketer of the year award (outstations) in the year 1988 and Lucky Rogers won it after me in 1989,” said Sanath Jayasuriya speaking to The Island. Well, that sums up the story.
Here’s bit of stats to drill Lucky Rogers greatness. He hails from Moratuwa. The famed cricket pillars of Moratuwa are St. Sebastian’s’ and Prince of Wales. But there’s a third force. Quite formidable one too; Moratu Vidyalaya. Lucky Rogers captained them at under-13, 15,17 and 19 levels. In his last year, he finished off with 1493 runs, in just ten games with an highest score of 264 not out. If you know bit of school cricket, those are stunning numbers. Not even matched by The Greatest; P.A. de Silva. Nobody else reached 1000 runs that season. Lucky did it in seven games. Mind blowing stuff.
Lucky Rogers was not just a stylish top order batsman. He was also a superb wicketkeeper. Highly rated by his contemporaries, hardly committing a blunder behind the stumps. When he opened batting, he was a class act, with an array of attractive strokes.
“I captained Sri Lanka Under-19 team to Bangladesh for the Asia Cup. We lost the finals to India captained by Sourav Ganguly. Lucky Rogers was a key figure in that side as we performed consistently well. When in the mood, Lucky could put best of bowling attacks to the sword,” recalled another Sri Lanka captain; Marvan Atapattu.
When Lucky Rogers got out of school, he was quite popular in the domestic circuit piling up runs for Moratuwa Sports Club. He made quite an impact as captain too as Moratuwa were promoted to Premier League from Sara Trophy. Lucky was jack of all trade; team’s leading batsman, wicketkeeper and skipper, who had the knack to make things happen, despite having limited bowling resources.
In 1990s, the wicket keeping gloves of the national cricket team exchanged hands between a few players; Gamini Wickramasinghe, Chamara Dunushinghe, Pubudu Dassanayake, Rumesh Kaluwitharana and Lanka de Silva. But Lucky Rogers never got a look in.
“Well, there were financial constraints facing my family and I decided to play league cricket in Australia so that I could earn a living by playing the sport and look after my family. I guess I missed out because of that,” Lucky Rogers told The Island.
Lucky represented North Cofield for seven seasons and won the Victorian Championships twice. He is hailed down under in cricket circles as much as here. Lucky credits the values he brought to the game thanks to the coaches he had; Mr. Bernard Perera, Mr. Chandana Mahesh and Mr. Manjula Peiris. It reiterates a very pertinent point, the need to have quality coaches at school level.
Lucky Rogers is an example that you don’t have to play for Sri Lanka to leave an indelible mark in the game. He championed the cause of not so fancy teams as a schoolboy and in domestic cricket and later on when he took to coaching he taught the players finer points of the game, but more importantly to play the game in the right spirit. Men like him are rare and need to be celebrated.
Why did David Miller refuse a single off the penultimate delivery with Delhi Capitals needing 2 off 2? It’ll be spoken of for a while, but not inside the Gujarat Titans change room. Because Prasidh Krishna bowled a nerveless slower bouncer off the final delivery that Miller missed, and Jos Buttler then nailed a direct hit with an underarm throw from behind the stumps to run out Kuldeep Yadav, clinching a dramatic first win for GT in IPL 2026.
Despite being adjudged run out on the field, Miller wasn’t in the mood to concede defeat, and reviewed the final ball for a possible wide. But when replays confirmed what he had perhaps known, he was crestfallen. Equally distraught in the dugout was K L Rahul, whose 52-ball 92 set the game up for DC but for one run.
It was GT’s first win of the tournament and the first loss for DC after starting the campaign with two wins in a row.
Thirty-six needed off 12. A bruised finger that didn’t make it easy for him to grip the bat had forced Miller to retire hurt with DC needing 81 off 42. But when Tristan Stubbs was run-out in the 17th over, Miller returned hoping to play second fiddle to Rahul. Instead, he was now expected to deliver a box-office hit with Rahul nicking behind off a full Mohammed Siraj delivery two balls later.
Miller nearly delivered what was expected, as he went 6, 4, 6 off Siraj, repeatedly peppering the short leg-side boundary. At the other end, Vipraj Nigam also ramped four off a short delivery to bring the equation down to a manageable 13 off the final over.
Prasidh was tasked to bowl the final over. His three overs prior to that had been walloped for 41; Rahul, his state mate, had climbed into him earlier in the night. But all that would’ve been forgiven if Prasidh delivered a gun final over. That GT could only have four fielders out due to a slow over rate added to his challenge. And he nearly succumbed.
Nigam made room and swung cleanly to hit the first ball to the long-off fence, but a rush of blood had him swipe the second delivery to Shubman Gill at mid-off. With DC now needing nine off four, Kuldeep gently deflected his first ball to deep third to leave the chase in Miller’s hands.
With the equation down to 8 off 3, Prasidh bowled a slot-ball that Miller walloped over long-off. But with two needed, Miller inexplicably refused a single to take it all upon himself to finish the deal. He couldn’t connect on the final ball, and Prasidh belted a roar. GT had pulled one from under DC’s rug in dramatic circumstances.
After scores of 1 and 0 in his first two games, Rahul announced himself with a 29-ball half-century that was as pleasing as they come for large parts. It was also one that didn’t have the baggage of him playing run-accumulator, like he has tended to in the past while opening the batting. This Rahul was fun, free and fearless and he helped DC overcome a few roadblocks along the way, like when they lost two wickets in two deliveries to Rashid Khan at the halfway mark.
Rahul was particularly menacing against the fast bowlers, and it began with a wristy flick that he sent way back over deep square off Kagiso Rabada. The early jitters out of the way – if he even had some inkling of them – he batted like a man possessed, fearlessly climbing into length balls from Prasidh over cover, and slapping disdainfully over point.
He is good, but where is the Rashid of old, they asked. Turns out he hadn’t gone anywhere. After he conceded just nine in his first two with DC rampant, he returned to dismiss Nitish Rana in his dramatic third over, the 10th of the innings. Having been given out lbw earlier, only for Rana to overturn the decision through DRS, he was out a few balls later when he miscued a googly to Sai Sudharsan at long-off. This was Rana’s third sub-20 score of the season.
This brought the in-form Sameer Rizvi to the middle, and he lasted all of one delivery as Rashid snuck through his inside-edge with a ripping googly to briefly elicit jitters in the DC camp. This is when Miller entered, before briefly exiting with seven overs left. But in the same over, when Rashid had Axar Patel slice one to Glenn Phillips running back from cover, GT started to have an opening.
On any other night, Rashid’s spell would have cracked open the game. The fact that DC were still in it despite these wickets was down to Rahul. It needed the skilful Siraj to dismiss him with DC needing 45 off three overs. By then, the pressure was telling.
That GT were eventually able to get over the line was down to their run cushion, made possible thanks to half-centuries from Jos Buttler, Gill and Washington Sundar. Buttler looked unshackled, hitting four sixes off his first 15 deliveries en route a bruising half-century, while Gill played himself in and then allayed fears of neck spasms during his takedown of Kuldeep with the slog sweep. Then Washington, promoted to No. 4, struck his maiden IPL fifty to shore up the innings.
Even so, GT managed just 49 off the last five. On another day, this may have proved to be costly. It didn’t on Wednesday, and for that, they have Rashid to thank.
Brief scores:
Gujarat Titans 210 for 4 in 20 overs (Sai Sudarshan 12, Shubman Gill 70, Jos Buttler 52, Washington Sundar 55, Glenn Phillips 14*; Mukesh Kumar 2-55, Lungi Ngidi 1-24, Kuldeep Yadav 1-42 ) beat Delhi Capitals 209 for 8 in 20 overs (Pathum Nissanka 41, KL Rahul 92, David Miller 41*, Vipraj Nigam 12; Mohammed Siraj 1-42, Rashid Khan 3-17, Prasidh Krishna 2-52) by one run
[Cricinfo]
A stunning hundred by opening bat Lasith Croospulle helped Sri Lanka ‘A’ to post a commanding 368 for nine in their allotted 50 overs and then restrict New Zealand ‘A’ to 158 for three and a secure a 44 run win [DLS method] at Suriyawewa yesterday. The win helped Sri Lanka to take an unassailable 2-0 series lead.
The star for Sri Lanka ‘A’ was the former Maris Stella College, Negombo cricketer Lasith Croospulle as he smashed 103 off just 76 balls hitting 13 fours and six sixes as the hosts piled up the runs.
Croospulle has represented Sri Lanka in one T20I and performances such as these are sure to earn him a regular spot in the white ball sides.
The middle order then ensured that they didn’t spoil the good work of the top order with captain Sahan Arachchige and Sonal Dinusha posting half-centuries.
Arachchige smashed 76 in 68 balls with five fours and two sixes while young Sonal Dinusha put the bowling to the sword during the death overs. His 93 came off 77 deliveries with six fours and four sixes.
Dinusha, who has already made his Test debut and impressed many with his electric fielding could have gone on to post his hundred but sacrificed his wicket in a bid to score quick runs.
With the World Cup less than a year away and the selectors keeping a close eye on the second string, performances like these are sure to get their attention.
Rain reduced the game to 28 overs and New Zealand were given a revised target of 203 but they only managed 158 for three to hand Sri Lanka a comfortable win.
Sri Lanka ‘A’ had won the first game by 140 runs in Galle. Saturday’s third one-dayer will be a dead rubber.
The teams will stay back at Suriyawewa for two further weeks where the two match unofficial Test series will be played.
The composition for the four day games is set to change with Pasindu Sooriyabandara set to lead the side.
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Sun directly overhead Chilaw, Bingiriya, Halmillawewa, Panduwasnuwara, Gokarella, Kawudupelella, Koppaveli and Kirankulam about 12:12 noon. today (09)
Heat Index at Caution Level in the Western, Sabaragamuwa, Southern, Eastern, North-western, Northern and North-central provinces and in Monaragala district
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