Former cricketer T.B. Talwattte was an iconic sportsman, and widely regarded as one of the top class batsmen during his days for his unparalleled batting. He was one of the finest cricketers to come out of Dharmaraja College, He passed away in the year 2017 at the age of 94.
At the time of his death he was the oldest captain of his school. One of the finest cricketers produced by Kandy, he played for the school senior team from 1941 to 43 and led the side in the last year. In the year 1941 he scored his first century, he got 100 against Jinaraja College, Gampola. Then in the 1943 ‘Big Match’ against Kingswood College too he scored a century, he was going to be the first centurion of the big match, but was deprived of this honour as he was injured by the Kingswood College pace bowler, M. T. Jaimon who bowled a bouncer and it struck the batsman and T.B. Talwatte had to leave the field temporarily during which time P.L. Arthur “Kopi” Alwis completed his century and became the first centurion. Later T.B. Talwatte too completed his century.
In this match Kingswoodian . M. T. Jaimon took 5 wickets for 90 runs, but T.B. Talwatte led the Rajans to win the match by an innings and 152 runs.. Some of the other Rajans who played in this winning team were J. C. Kariyawasam, W. Gangoda, P. L.Arthur“Kopi”Alwis, S.G. Munasinghe, Chandra Mettananda, M. R. Gunawardena , Raja Mettananda to name a few. During that period they beat Trinity College, Kandy for the first time in 1942.
His son Priyantha Talwatte also led Dharmaraja College in 1985 and missed a century by just four runs in the big match against Kingswood College. If he had scored the century it would have gone to history as thefather-son centurions in a big match.
T.B. Talwatte served in the Police force for a long spell and retired as a Senior Superintendent of Police in the 1970’s. During his Police days he played cricket for Police team and also for the Government services side. Later he gave big support for cricket in Kandy, and also to his school. Cricket is a batsman’s game.
Some batsmen excel with their classic batting and score runs. Some make runs with patience and grit. Some destroy bowling attacks with an onslaught. At the end of the match, what counts is how many runs were scored, no matter how they come. Players can win matches with their batting. They also can save matches. These are the best match-winners/saviours with the bat in cricket history, one was T.B. Talwatte.
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