I bumped into him at Hilton the other day, he was here on a whistle stop visit to Sri Lanka to attend a wedding. During the first Sri Lankan Test team to tour overseas in 1983, Susil Fernando opened batting with Sidath Wettimuny in New Zealand. Those were the days when the Sri Lankan team got step motherly treatment and the Tests were few and far between, consequently Susil’s interest waned and he went to settle “down under”. He stated that they played for a pittance those days, prior to 1989 the division 1 players even had to pay their club fees, even during the tour of New Zealand Susil stressed the fact that they were paid only Rs. 400/- a day. In Susil’s days when he played Test matches in Colombo he had to take a “tuk-tuk” to the ground and the ride was bumpy to say the least, it was a far cry from the luxury buses with police escort.
Hathurusingha on a mo-bike
I can remember Chandika Hathurusingha going round the bend at the Kanatte roundabout on his motor bike with his kit slung on his back on his way to play England at the SSC in a Test match. I have also seen Dulip Liyanage getting off the 154 bus to attend a Test Match. I would not be surprised if our team will fly in a helicopter in the near future if they keep on underperforming.
Reverting back to Susil, he mentioned that in spite of the bare necessities, the passion took pride of place to represent the mother country. He also represented Sri Lanka in the 1983 World Cup which India won. The pressure to perform was not that great those days and nowadays performing under pressure plays a significant role as a result. Players in Susil’s era were more carefree.
Susil mentioned that on the New Zealand tour late Abu Fuard was the manager and that he was very strict. W.A.N. Silva was the coach. He also stressed the fact that there were no “hanky panky” after curfew hours and that all the players were safely tucked up in bed by 10 p.m.
Susil was born and bred in Moratuwa, where the likes of Lasantha Rodrigo, H.I. Fernando, Duleep Mendis, Romesh Kaluwitharana and a host of other well known cricketers emerged. apart from all the others swashbuckling batsmen, Susil was also somewhat different, he was a patient accumulator of runs, getting huge hundreds for Air Force in the Sara Trophy. Mendis played softball cricket with Susil as young brats with a host of cricket mad kids.
Carpenters-Cricketers-Calypso
Moratuwa is well known for its carpenters and baila - a local form of calypso where Trinidad is famous for, and the two schools St Sebastian’s and Prince of Wales has produced a host of famous cricketers. Susil is one of them. Kusal Mendis is another. At present and recent past the coastal belt south of Colombo like Kandana, Jaela and Negombo have given Sri Lanka good cricketers like Dilhara Fernando, Graeme Labrooy, Dhammika Prasad, Nuwan Pradeep etc. I presume that the common factor to these areas is the sea and their nutritious diet of fish.
Sir Richard Hadlee
Susil had faced Imran Khan, Kapil Dev and Sir Richard Hadlee all three were brilliant all rounders and Susil was fortunate enough to face all three of them. Imran Khan and Kapil Dev during the 1983 World Cup and Hadlee during that tour to New Zealand. According to Susil, Hadlee was the best out of the lot since he could swing and seam both ways at will at brisk pace. He also mentioned the fact that Kapil Dev had a beautiful late outswinger and that Imran Khan was the fastest of the lot with a dangerous inswinger.
Susil says that the wickets in New Zealand were seamers dreams and at Auckland he managed get 46 out of a total of 145 odd runs and to face Hadlee, Chatfield, Sneddon and Co was not easy and his patience and sound judgment of the ball outside his offstick paid dividends.
Susil was of the opinion that the late Gamini Dissanayake was the key factor for us to gain Test status and his decision making was unwavering and he was capable of brushing off big brothers looking over his shoulder. He also lamented the fact that we are losing Test matches at home which were never heard of those days and the passion to play for the country has deserted our national cricketers for some unknown reason.
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