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The Legend of Lucky Rogers

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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.



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Hasaranga returns to Test squad; set to miss part of IPL

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Hasaranga has returned to Test cricket (Cricbuzz)

Sri Lanka leg spinner Wanindu Hasaranga has come out of Test retirement and has been named in the 17-man squad for the two-match series in Bangladesh. Hasaranga had announced his Test retirement in August 2023 in a bid to prolong his white-ball career. Less than a year from the T20 World Cup, he was named the captain of the national side in the shortest format.

However, he has now been included in the Test series that will run from March 22 to April 3, and affect his participation in the Indian Premier League. Should the second Test go on for all five days, Sunrisers Hyderabad – who bagged him for his base price of INR 1.5 Crore – will be without his services for their first three games of the season – on March 23, 27 and 31. Their fourth game – and the last of the first phase of the season – will also be touch and go for the Sri Lankan as it is on April 5.

Hasaranga’s inclusion is one of the two changes that Sri Lanka have made to the squad that played Afghanistan in the one-off Test last month. While Hasaranga and off-spinner Nishan Peiris have been drafted in, there was no place for Asitha Fernando and Milan Priyanth Rathnayake.

The first Test of the series begins on March 22 in Sylhet while the second game will be played in Chattogram from March 30.

Sri Lanka Test squad: Dhananjaya De Silva, Kusal Mendis,Dimuth Karunaratne, Nishan Madushka, Angelo Mathews, Dinesh Chandimal, Sadeera Samarawickrama, Kamindu Mendis, Lahiru Udara, Wanindu Hasaranga, Prabath Jayasuriya, Ramesh Mendis, Nishan Peiris, Kasun Rajitha, Vishwa Fernando, Lahiru Kumara, Chamika Gunasekara

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Sri Lanka lose series after another batting flop

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Janith Liyanage’s maiden ODI hundred was in vain as Sri Lanka suffered a four wicket defeat in the third ODI and lost the series 2-1.

Sri Lanka’s batting lacked intent or purpose needed for a series decider as they crashed to a four-wicket loss with 58 ball to spare in the third ODI against Bangladesh in Chittagong yesterday. The series was levelled at 1-1 and with the final game being a day match and dew not affecting teams, the tourists had a fine opportunity but their batting was a huge letdown.

The in form Pathum Nissanka was given out leg before wicket in the second over but didn’t review the decision. Had he done so, the decision would have been overturned.

Avishka Fernando’s horror tour continued as he was dismissed for four. In six innings on this tour, he has crossed double figures only once.

Sadeera Samarawickrama had been dismissed for four single digit scores in his past four games and although he went on to make 14, the team needed much more from him.

Many had expected Kamindu Mendis to replace either Sadeera or Avishka but the selectors opted for the same batting unit.

Kusal Mendis, Charith Asalanka and Dunith Wellalage all threw away their wickets and at 154 for seven, Sri Lanka were staring down the barrel.

If not for Janith Liyanage’s maiden ODI hundred, Sri Lanka would have fared much worse. He shared a 60-run stand for the eighth wicket with Maheesh Theekshana, who was making a comeback to the team.

A total of 235 was way below expectations, especially in a series decider. Although Bangladesh chased it inside 41overs, the scoreboard pressure would have tested the hosts.

Bangladesh bowlers were on the money. Their quicks didn’t send down too many loose balls while the spinners toyed with the Sri Lankans’ patience and were richly rewarded.

Lahiru Kumara kept Sri Lanka interested with career best figures of four for 48 but there was not much support for him.

Maheesh Theekshana once again failed to pick up a wicket. This is the fourth game in a row he had gone without a wicket.

At one point Bangladesh needed 58 with four wickets in hand and Sri Lanka could have still made a game out of it. But Man of the Match Rishad Hossain turned the game on its head with some clean hits smashing 48 off 18 balls. He hit the first ball of his innings for six off Hasaranga and scored 16 runs off the over.

The Bangladeshi leg-spinner sealed the game in his side’s favour when Hasaranga came on to bowl the 40th over of the innings when he scored 24 runs in the first five balls as Sri Lanka suffered an embarrassing defeat.

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Centuries galore as the 119th Lovers Quarrel ends in draw

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dinura Kalupahana became the sixth batsman from Mahinda to score a century at the annual big Match

by Reemus Fernando

The Livers Quarrel Big Match has not witnessed many centuries. According to Big Match suvenier details, there had been only 16 centuries from both Richmond and Mahinda in its history of more than hundred years. This year when the arch rivals met in the 119th edition at the Galle International Stadium there were three centuries as the match ended in a draw.

In reply to Mahinda’s 169 runs, Richmond reached 270 for six wickets declared as open batsman Chehan Subasinghe and Malsha Tharupathi scored centuries. Subasinghe was trying to anchor the innings when three of their top order batsmen failed to reach double figures. Subasinghe put on a fifth wicket stand of 149 runs with skipper Tharupathi. Subasinghe’s knock (in 206 balls) included just five fours. Tharupathi’s knock was a complete contrast as he hammered nine fours and four sixes in his 111 runs. The Sri Lanka Under 19 player’s knock came in 74 balls.

Mahinda had a deficit of 101 runs when they commenced the second innings. Stage was ideally set for someone to produce a match saving innings. It came from none other than their skipper Dinura Kalupahana who was the top scorer for Sri Lanka Under 19s at the recently held ICC Youth World Cup. Kalupahana top scored with 124 runs inclusive of 16 fours. He used 145 balls. He was involved in a huge first wicket stand of 172 runs with Tharusha Dilshan who made 63.

Kalupahana’s 124 runs is the third highest individual score by a Mahinda batsman behind P.H.K.H Ranasinghe’s 162 (1972) and Sirisena Hettige’s 155 in 1939. According to Mahinda statistics Kalupahana is the sixth batsman from his school to score a century in the Big Match in the 119 year old history.

For Richmond it was the century number 12 and 13 as they ended more than six-year wait for a century.

Tharupathi won the Man of the Match award, While Subasinghe walked away with the Best Batsman award, off spinner Kaveesha Induwara was given away the Best Bowler award. Mahinda wicket keeper Hareen Achintha won the Best Fielder award.

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