Michael Roberts presenting a Reflective MEMO from Chandra Schaffter in Sri Lanka. Chandra is aged circa 95 and still bowling cutters & swingers.
A: In mid-August this year my exchanges with Merril Gunaratne re his career induced me to send a note to Chandra Schaffter re the ways in which certain career choices and/or job postings had blighted the cricketing careers of many talented guys. Chandra has chosen to deepen the historical gaze and to pinpoint the fundamental ‘structural shortcomings’ of cricket in Ceylon/Sri Lanka in the period 1945-to-1996…. YES, 1996.
THIS is a must read. …. with highlighting emphasis in bold being my action.
Bradman & Sathasivam at the toss, Colombo Oval 1948 …. Ceylon team walks out to field
Coomara
Dear Michael
I am afraid you have got it all wrong. I will endeavour to set out my point of view – for your agreement or dissent.
1) In the 1960’s, and ‘70s, there was no cricket for Sri Lanka worth talking about. Sometimes we did not have foreign teams playing even one 3-day match in a year. The Gopalan Trophy was our only saviour but, somehow, we seemed to have neglected that as well.
2) The most important thing however is that there was absolutely no money in cricket, and that is a fact we had to face.
3) The clubs were poor, and down on their knees to keep their grounds going.
4) The Private sector did not encourage their senior staff to play cricket or any other game for that matter.
5) I can say that, as I had the same experience at Carson Cumberbatch. They were not interested in promoting any game because, by and large, they were non-national companies.
6) Also the game itself did not produce any real income.
7) The result was that it was better for the cricketers with some talent to join a mercantile firm and play the odd mercantile tournament to keep their presence known. Ceylon Tobacco and Maharajah’s were excellent examples of this for a period.
8) If you talk of Merril Guneratne and Kehelgamuwa, the point is that they had nothing to give them a push – they just went through the motions in their respective departments and played matches for organizations when they had to. The departments just kept them for their internal cricket and nothing more.
9) As I said earlier, as I said, there was nothing in Sri Lanka Cricket to give them any future.
Kehelgamuwa scarring the shit out …….
10) That only began after we won the World Cup in 1996. Not even when we got ICC full member status.
11) The money began to trickle in only then and even began to pour in. Now our cricketers are well off.
12) The other reason why some of these cricketers did not make the Sri Lanka grade is that Sri Lanka had no real matches to judge them by.
13) By the time they reached the height of their prowess there was no cricket to keep them going.
14) I played for Sri Lanka in ’54 against the MCC. I was selected to play the MCC in ’58. That was the match which was washed out. By then I was 28.
15) When the next tour came around, I think I must have been 30 or 32 and there would have been younger cricketers coming up.
16) The burden of work in a mercantile firm is such that it gives you very little time for practice. We would work till 5 or 5.30 p.m., then run to the nearest bus stand to catch the bus to Borella, and run to the Tamil Union to do some practice.
17) There was nothing called combined practices when there was an international match. That was unheard of.
I am afraid my thoughts are somewhat garbled, but I hope you will be able to make something out of them.
Yours sincerely
Chandra Schaffter
P.S. One question I did not answer – those who joined the Police played for the Police in the government services tournaments and probably the Robert Senanayake Trophy. There was nothing very much for them except to practice occasionally and for that they had to get leave.