Michael Roberts
A major error by a Sri Lankan lady re Tamil representatives in Ceylon/Sri Lankan cricket in the exchanges in LINKED IN drives me to compose an item in TPS on the Tamil cricketers who played cricket for the island at the highest level in the 20th and 21st centuries (this is in process and will take time).
The Janashakthi Book on cricket sponsored by the Schaffters, which places SS Perera’s wonderful archive of work on the bookshelves, is an example of Sinhala Tamil cooperation that places all manner of information on the island’s rich cricket history within our reach. While I will be scouring this work for data, I reach out here to aficionado seeking data (and photographs) displaying information on Tamils who represented Ceylon/Sri Lanka at the highest level in the years stretching from 1901 to 2024.
We are, of course, aware of the political factors that reduced this input from the 1970s onwards. That development only serves to underline the remarkable achievements and loyalty of two cricketing gentleman in recent decades: namely, Chandra Schaffter and Muttiah Muralitharan (both from the lineages associated with the plantations and marked as “Indian Tamils” in the census).
SHENLEY – APRIL 23: Portrait of Sri Lanka manager Chandra Schaffter during the Sri Lankan Cricket Team photoshoot held in Shenley, England on April 23, 2002. DIGITAL IMAGE. (Photo by John Gichigi/Getty Images)
Security personnel and spectators look on next to a giant cutout of Sri Lankan spin bowler Muttiah Muralitharan erected on a 17th century Dutch-built fortress during the third day of the first test cricket match between India and Sri Lanka in Galle, Sri Lanka, Tuesday, July 20, 2010. (AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena)
Murali needs no introduction to the new 21st century generations. Chandra Schaffter is still ‘batting’ at the age of 95 or so. After representing Ceylon in hockey and cricket in the 1950s, he went on to play a vital role as a Selector for the BCCSL in the 1960s; while also participating in the administration of the Tamil Union and its Oval cricket ground (a key venue). As vitally, he served as a Manager of the SL cricket team for quite a spell in the 1990s and 2000s. It is at this point in his service that I got to know him because of my work on the cricketique/website. [1]
His depth of commitment to both cricket and national reconciliation was displayed in 2002 when he committed a fund of money and effort towards a visit to Jaffna with a cluster of cricketers to play a match promoting political appeasement at the height of the Eelam conflict. [2]
Murali will be known to all. To his right are Prakash Schaffter, Cletus Perera (a Janashakthi emplyee) & Romesh Kaluwitharana To his left are Chandra Schaffter, Ruchira Perera & Tryphon Mirando.
Murali mobbed & kissed by young Tamil fans during the match
That this cricketing olive branch secured no success was/is no fault of the Schaffter enterprise. Even the tsunami could not undermine the resolve of the LTTE and its leader Velupillai Pirapaharan. THAT is another story.
That which I underline today ….. with a thump, thump, thump on my little desk …. is the remarkable patriotism and service displayed over the years by Chandra Schaffter …. a Thomian, a Ceylonese, a Sri Lankan.
END NOTES
1 = My recollections are telescoped in time, but I recall having long conversations with him while the SL team was in Taunton in Somerset (where I was holidaying with English friends) circa 2003 (?) and again at the Lighthouse Hotel off Galle at some point when the SL team had a fixture in Galle.
3 = SEE my book Tamil Person and State …2 vols
ALSO NOTE
