Sangakkara at Cricket: Pictorials

Michael Roberts

In moving from a pictorial depiction of the parental and local urban background where Kumar Sangakkara has been nurtured, to a photographic ‘sketch’ of his cricketing endeavours, it will be easy for readers to forget the dangerous Sri Lankan circumstances hanging over the cricketing scenario within Sri Lanka in the period when Kumar strode on to the field in Sri Lankan colours – from the mid-1990s. These were the sporadically continuous dangers hanging over the urban and rural byways around Colombo and Kandy as a result of the Eelam Wars and the capacity displayed by the Tamil Tigers in mounting suicide assassinations as well as massive blasts directed at high-profile urban targets.

Tiger Bombing of the Central Bank in the Fort, Colombo, 31 January 1996

The assassination of Neelan Tiruchelvam at Kynsey Terrace on the 29th July 1999 by a female Tiger suicide bomber was especially saddening for me because we had worked together on academic issues for years …. https://www.colombotelegraph.com/index.php/the-death-of-neelan-tiruchelvam-a-grave-loss-to-the-tamil-people/

THAT CONTEXT  must NOT be obliterated when we absorb the more pleasant pictorial illustrations assembled here. It was an apprehension-raising circumstance facing all residents, whether poor or rich, Tamil, Sinhala, Moor, Malay or Burgher, living or moving within these urban localities. Because I myself resided in Colombo  for spells on research work from time to time, I witnessed and experienced the inconveniences and occasional dangers attending ‘ordinary life’ in this situation. That is, one’s life circumstances were simply not ordinary and ‘everyday’.

That is why I have begun with stark pictorial reminders of these conditions before moving on to more amenable scenes from the cricket field and its immediate moments.

A scene when the Sangakkaras returned to Colombo after the final of the World Cup in 2011 — Pix courtesy of Hilal Suhail 

The LTTE had been vanquished by this stage and the cricketers had not faced any murderous threat in Mumbai during the World Cup finals (which they lost); but, two years previously, their coach and the wagon bearing cricket officials had been under serious threat from a Pakistani jihadist assault while nearing Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore on 3 March 2009. Thilan Samaraweera and Paranavithana were injured, umpire Ahsan Raza was seriously wounded and the van driver died. This was a moment as serious as astonishing. The Pakistani authorities and journalists have not exposed the elements behind the assault and seem to have drawn a veil over the event. We should forget not. Ahsan Raza has recovered and returned to umpiring. The photographs below join him in reminding the world of the trauma faced by our cricketers and the officials that day. Cricketing work is not confined to adventuresome fun and tension in the field when set in such circumstances.

03 Mar 2009, LAHORE, Pakistan — epa01653439 Bodies of the Pakistani policemen lie on the ground, after unknown gunmen attacked Sri Lankan cricket team, in Lahore Pakistan on 03 March 2009. Unidentified gunmen on 03 March attacked Sri Lanka’s cricket team when it was being escorted to a local stadium in Pakistan’s eastern city of Lahore, leaving six policemen and two civilians dead and four Sri Lankan players injured, media reports and officials said. EPA/STRINGER EDITORS NOTE GRAPHIC CONTENT — Image by © STRINGER/epa/Corbis

03 Mar 2009, LAHORE, Pakistan — epa01653777 Sri Lankan cricketers board a Pakistani Air Force helicopter, as they are air lifted from Gadaffi cricket stadium, after unknown gunmen attacked Sri Lankan cricket team, in Lahore Pakistan on 03 March 2009. Unidentified gunmen on 03 March attacked Sri Lanka’s cricket team when it was being escorted to a local stadium in Pakistan’s eastern city of Lahore, leaving six policemen and two civilians dead and four Sri Lankan players injured, media reports and officials said. EPA/RAHAT DAR — Image by © RAHAT DAR/epa/Corbis

Ajantha Mendia and Mahela Jayewardene walk through the  foyer at Katunayake airport after a special SALF plane brought the team back