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Tamils in Ceylon Cricket, 1901-2024

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Michael Roberts

DEAR FRIENDS, 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.

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 sources for 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 gentlemen 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).

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.**

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 playa match promoting political appeasement at the heigh of the Eelam conflict.

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.

THIS POST and a Circular that will follow is an open INVITATION to all and sundry to send me items  in Word File format displaying photogaphs and/or information on the Tamil cricketrrs in the years past who stepped out for Ceylon aka Lanka in the last 123/124 years.

It is a welcome sign to see a young Tamil cricketer from the Jaffna area now playing for one of the sides in the local short-form leagues. This, as far as I know, is after a hiatus in time [for reasons we know only too well].

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