KK de Silva
Marcus Dias Jayasinghe – Cricket Coach at St. Aloysius College, Galle in the mid 1950s, was a brother of the more famous Ceylon cricketer Douglas Dias Jayasinghe , the first Southerner to play for Ceylon, and later in the 1960s, Chairman of the of the Board of Selectors for Cricket, for many years. Both were old Mahindians and Douglas captained the cricket team at Mahinda and Marcus played under him. Both played for the Galle Cricket Club Team.
arcus Jayasinghe was a small made person. We had seen him bat for the Galle Team and a feature of his batting that is etched in my memory, as a school boy, is the ease with which he dealt with fast bowling. He was quite relaxed in his approach and merely stood still and deflected the ball to his right or left, scoring boundaries to frustrate the bowlers. His favorite stroke was the elegant leg glance, off his toes, which he seemed to execute without much effort. He rarely or never played a rash shot, concentrating on text book strokes, and this approach was no doubt the reason why he excelled as a coach.
It was in the mid 1950s that I got the opportunity to attend First Eleven Cricket practices, along with members of the Aloysian Team which later became known as the Invincibles of 1956, captained by Mohamed Anwer, who was my House Captain. Mr. Jayasinghe soon identified me as a medium pace bowler, and provided the necessary instructions and guidance. Unfortunately, at the end of the first month, I sustained an injury unrelated to cricket, and could no longer attend practices . Thus ended my cricketing career. I could have attended practices the following year, but realised that I was no match for the pace bowlers, Vernon Regis, Winnie Vedamuttu and Roy Vanderputt, who had already been trained by Mr. Jayasinghe and who were performing extremely well.
Some of the teams coached by Mr. Jayasinghe were the following:
1954 … “Cricket : Noel Edema captained the team & knocked up scores of 109 n.o. vs Matara Sports Club, 91 vs St Servatius & 50s vs St. John’s College & All Saints College; M. Anver also played attractive cricket with 106 n.o. vs All Saints College & 94 vs Mahinda College; Carlyle Rodrigo displayed sparkling batting form with useful scores while M. Chandrapala, Gerry Jayasuriya, P. Somapala & Darell Walles provided good support.”
1955 …. “Cricket: Carlyle Rodrigo captained the side & scored 101 n.o. vs St. Servatius College. Other players of note were Ivor Kelaart, Vernon Regis & Michael Roberts.”
1956 ….“Cricket : Games Master – Fr. Tim Gomez; Coach – M.D. Jayasinghe; historic year for the team captained by Anwar Jawadth; won all their matches & the whole team awarded colours; Carlyle Rodrigo & Vernon Regis headed the batting and bowling averages respectively; Vernon crashed through the Richmond College 2nd innings taking 6 for 17; Vernon selected to play for the Combined Schools team vs N.C.C.; Carlyle Rodrigo captained the Galle Combined Schools XI vs Karachi C.C. in which Vernon & Michael Roberts also played. Michael’s score of 35 not out was the highest for the school’s side. Other members of the winning team were L. Abeysundera, Oswin Silva, M. Dias, N. Peiris, D. Jayanetti, J.M.G. Vedamuttu, R. Vanderputt, S. Cassim, C. Auwardt, & J. R. de Silva.”
1957 …. “Cricket: Michael Roberts captained the team;centuries continued to flow during the season; vs St. Anthony’s College, Wattala, Michael Roberts scored 101 not out; vs. Richmond College, Vernon Regis * scored 112; vs St. Servatius College, Matara , hard hitting J. Vedamuttu produced some spectacular batting with his 97; other good batting came from Lakshman Abeysundera, Johnny de Silva, & Cedric Auwardt; vs Dharmasoka College, Vernon Regis distinguished himself with the ball taking a hat–trick (3 for 3 ).”
St. Aloysius Galle was better known for its Soccer Teams throughout but it became a force to be reckond with in cricket as well during the period when Mr. Jayasinghe coached the college teams.
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