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!