Sports
Cricket Guru celebrates golden jubilee of religious life
by Rex Clementine
De La Salle Brothers of Sri Lanka this week celebrated the golden jubilee of one of the celebrated members of their congregation – Rev. Br. Nimal Gurusinghe (FSC). It’s not just the Brothers who were celebrating the momentous occasion of their colleague but even his students from across the island came together to celebrate the moment and say thank you for the services he had rendered all these years.
Br. Gurusinghe’s sporting talents were spotted first when he successfully guided the fortunes of St. Benedict’s hockey and cricket teams in one of his first assignments at Kotahena. He is a qualified hockey umpire.
However, it was at St. Sebastian’s College, Moratuwa that he made a major impact as the Master-in-Charge and coach of the cricket team. Under his watchful eyes, St. Sebastian’s went onto become the national champions and the championship winning team had familiar names such as Rumesh Kaluwitharana and Sajeeva de Silva. Both cricketers went onto represent the national cricket team and Little Kalu of course went onto become a cricketing legend.
It is normal for religious brothers or fathers to be MICs of schools’ sports teams, but what is not common is to be the coach and that too to go onto become a championship winning coach. Like American Jesuit Rev. Fr. Eugune Hebert at St. Michael’s, Batticaloa, who won many basketball championships, Br. Gurusinghe had an impact in cricket.
Br. Gurusinghe’s knowledge about the game of cricket is vast indeed. A qualified coach from Board of Control for Cricket in Sri Lanka, he knew what was required to bring the best out of champion sportsmen.
After guiding the Sebs to the championship, Br. Gurusinghe had to go to Rome to pursue some religious work and on his return he spotted that Little Kalu had abandoned wicketkeeping duties and had turned into a fast bowler.
Br. Gurusinghe knew the Kaluwitharana family well. They were just next door to the school. He knew that the chances of Little Kalu growing up into a strongly built man were less and hence his chances of becoming a successful fast bowler were next to nothing. So, he called up Little Kalu and insisted that he should go back to keeping wickets. The rest as they say is history. If not for the timely intervention of Br. Gurusinghe’s, the nation would have lost one of the best wicketkeepers that we have seen in our history.
Such a pity that at present St. Sebastian’s College, Moratuwa has got out of the hands of De La Salle Brothers. The Colombo Archdiocese seems to be in no mood to give it back any time sooner.
Br. Gurusinghe also had stints at De Mazenod College, Kandana and returned for another spell at his alma mater St. Benedict’s College.
Currently, he resides at Mutwal, the headquarters of De La Salle Brothers in Sri Lanka.
During his retirement, Br. Gurusinghe has used his time to write extensively on cricket. His expertise on the technical aspect of the game that appears in both daily and Sunday newspapers are eagerly read by readers from all walks of life.
We wish Br. Gurusinghe good health and long life.
Ad Multos Annos!
The final week of the year is like a Roman feast for the Test cricket fan, and Boxing Day this year promises mouth-watering contests in Melbourne and Centurion but look this way too, will you? Bulawayo is set to host Zimbabwe’s first Boxing Day Test 8n 28 years too, and with unpredictable Afghanistan on the other side, a real tussle is expected between the two teams, who despite their recent underwhelming performances, would feel like they’re favourites. After all, the last time either side won a Test was against each other.
But that was way back 8n 2021. Since then, they have not found a way to win. And one look at the Zimbabwe and Afghanistan squads for this two-Test series suggests that they’re both looking to change that by taking a different direction for 2025 and beyond. A splattering of Test debutants are expected – theoretically, there could be as many 15 debuts across the two XIs – and this series could very well be the one that births a new generation.
Under 19 Cricket
by Reemus Fernando
Mahinda College, Galle took firm control of their two-day Under 19 Division I Tier ‘B’ cricket encounter as they reached 213 for nine wickets at stumps after restricting Moratu Vidyalaya to 96 runs at Galle on Wednesday.
After Arosha Udayanga grabbed five wickets to trouble the visitors, the home team topped 200 runs thanks to a century by open batsman Dulsith Darshana and a half century by Senuka Dangamuwa.
While Darshana scored 13 fours and a six in his 106 which came in 143 balls, Dangamuwa hammered nine fours and a six in his 50 which came in 51 balls.
Mahinda are in search of their first outright victory in the tournament proper after having earned first innings points in two out of the three matches in their group.
Moratu Vidyalaya too have completed three matches and have scored first innings points on one occasion.
Scores
Moratu Vidyalaya
96 all out in 45.2 overs (Sanjana Senavirathna 31, Shehara Fernando 20; Arosha Udayanga 5/35)
Mahinda
213 for 9 in 52 overs (Dulsith Darshana 106, Senuka Dangamuwa 50; Isuru Nidharshana 2/64, Nishitha Fernando 5/45)
by Reemus Fernando
Sri Lanka Athletics has suspended track and field official S. W. Nimalsiri for four years after a three member committee appointed by the sports governing body found him guilty of manhandling leading athletic official G.L.S. Perera within the Sri Lanka Athletics premises in Torrington.
“The executive committee of Sri Lanka Athletics decided to hand Nimalsiri a four year suspension after the three member committee concluded that he was guilty of manhandling the respected official,” Saman Kumara Gunawardhana, the secretary of Sri Lanka Athletics told The Island.
At the time of the suspension Nimalairi was a committee member of Sri Lanka Athletics and is the president of the Ace Athletics Club and secretary of the Colombo District Athletics Association.
The three member committee that inquired the incident involving Nimalairi and Perera was headed by retired district court judge Upali Samaraweera. Others in the committee were former director of sports Padma Siriwardana and disciplinary committee chairman of Sri Lanka Athletics Chandana Ekanayake.
Nimalsiri has also been suspended from officiating in track and field competitions.
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