It was on a Sunday morning that I and two colleagues of mine stepped into the SSC ground to watch the proceedings and we were thrilled to witness the carnival atmosphere which prevailed there.
Carlton’s youngsters were playing in the middle of the famous SSC turf which indeed was a rare privilege to them. They were watched by keen parents dotted around the pavilion; I was informed that on the 12th of May the final will be played, there will be a full house. He was kind enough for me to do some promotion work about my fourth cricket book “Reminiscing Cricket with Tilak,” I must also thank Sampath and Ramani who accompanied me for their assistance.
Carlton did not want to “blow his own trumpet” instead he let his deputy and a keen parent handle that task. As a matter of fact I conversed with many proud parents but unfortunately due to space restrictions I had to confine myself only to two of them.
However, Carlton stated that the SSC Cricket Committee headed by Samantha Dodanwela and the members Mahinda Halangoda and Michael de Zoysa another stalwart of the club gave Carlton all the support to ensure that the juniors are well looked after. Further, he said that the Executive Committee of SSC headed by Tommy Ellawela was an inspiration and gave the Academy its fullest support and the ExCo backed them to the hilt in all initiatives with the clear intentions to provide facilities towards the youngsters.
This is what they said:
D.D.P. Alwis - The deputy to Carlton, he played first eleven cricket for Dharmaraja from 1964 to 1968 and also managed to have yours truly bowled with his googly at Police Park Kandy. Alwis has been in this academy long before Carlton took up the reins.
According to Alwis, this academy was started in 2006 with only 30 odd students and then it was run by the late Ranil Abeynaike who represented Sri Lanka as a left-arm leg-spinner. The academy has around 300 students, and they have teams in the following categories - under 10, 12.13, 15 and over 15.
Alwis is fit as a fiddle, and noted that Kusal Mendis, Sadeera Samarawickrama, Jehan Daniel were a few famous names that went through there coaching.
Chinthaka de Silva - He was another keen spectator I happened to interview, he has played for D.S Senanayake alongside Aravinda de Silva and Hashan Tillakaratne. He was proud that his son could play at SSC which was almost a hallowed ground to them in their days. He also stressed the fact that in this academy boys had the advantage of direct connection to the Sinhalese Sports Club team provided they had the talent.
I was mildly surprised by the atmosphere created by the mustard keen parents. Carlton, as usual, was conducting the proceedings with great care.
S.Tilak de Silva
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