K. K. De Silva as compilar
Percy Abeysekera is unique. He has gained worldwide attention not for any prowess in cricket, but as a cheerleader for Sri Lanka & it was at St. Aloysius College, Galle, where he studied from 1947 to 1954 that he was initiated into this process.
A Test Match in progress at the Galle Esplanade with St. Mary’s Cathedral & St. Aloysius College in the background. Courtesy Revata S. Silva
Vinod Moonesinghe
A historical vignette: The Colombo Electric Lighting and Tramways Co Ltd was a British company represented in Ceylon by Boustead Brothers. The Tramways were ready for operations by 1899/1900. This company owned and operated the Pettah Power Station at Saunders Place which supplied the 110 volts DC power to propel the trams.
Filed under architects & architecture, British colonialism, cultural transmission, economic processes, governance, heritage, historical interpretation, island economy, landscape wondrous, modernity & modernization, politIcal discourse, sri lankan society, transport and communications, travelogue, world events & processes
Rex Clementine in The Island, 4 September 2022
When Sri Lanka under-19 landed in UK for a month long tour, they were the underdogs as the hosts had named quite a few players who had represented their counties in First Class cricket, one-day competition on the Hundred. Despite a strong opposition, the tourists won the Test series.
R Whitehead …. as rwhitehead61 … ……………….. https://wisdenblog.wordpress.com/2020/02/06/notes-from-a-small-island/ ………………….. with the title of this item and the underlining being impositions by the editor Thuppahi -who has also insertd the pistorial embellishments
Until 1982 Sri Lanka were stranded on the fringes of international cricket: a small island, marooned. Life on the outside wasn’t easy, but Sri Lanka still had something to make most of the cricketing world envious. You might call it a geographical blessing.
In the days before planes, the only way to get between England and Australia was by boat. It was an arduous journey that could take up to three months and required a stopover. With the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869, Ceylon (as it was called until 1972) emerged as the natural point of transit.
Don Bradman is met by SP Foenander on board ship in Colombo, early April 1930
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Martin Chandler:…. in CricketWeb, 14 August 2022, reviewing Nicholas Brookes: An Island’s Eleven: The Story of Sri Lankan Cricket, The History Press, 2022, 535 pp, Rating: 4.5 stars …. with highlighting emphasis imposed by The Editor, Thuppahi
In the final sentence of his preface Nicholas Brookes expresses the view; For as much as I’ve tried to ‘tell the story of Sri Lankan cricket’, this work is merely a starting point. This is, I presume, a reference to the paucity of existing literature on Sri Lankan cricket rather than an attempt to downplay his own contribution to that particularly genre. It is inevitably unfortunate and disappointing that, to date, none of Muttiah Muralitharan, Arjuna Ranatunga, Samantha Jayasuriya, Chaminda Vaas, Mahela Jayawardene, Kumar Sangakkara or Rangan Herath have been persuaded to write an autobiography, but the game in Sri Lanka does at least now have a comprehensive history, and one I hope might become the touchstone for similar histories of the game in Ireland, Zimbabwe and Bangladesh.
The full Sri Lankan training squad in Colombo with the bus taking them to Nuwara Eliya for acclimatization & training prior to the journey to England for the 1975 World Cup with Asst Manager Neil Perera standing on the left and Trainer Raja Wickremasinghe and Manager KMT Perera standing on the right
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David Penberthy in The Australian – “World recognition coming into view for the Flinders Ranges”
It is one of the most ancient and fossil-rich places on earth, its centrepiece the gigantic Wilpena Pound basin, its towering gums the inspiration for Australia’s greatest landscape painter Sir Hans Heysen.
Flinders Ranges tourism operator Kristian Coulthard with visitors to the “gateway of the Outback”. Picture: Tourism Australia
But beyond South Australia, little is known about the Flinders Ranges, which lie just four hours’ drive north of Adelaide at what’s known as the gateway to the Outback.
LK Hettiarachchi, A Vale in 2015
Dr. Lalantha Abaya Samarasinghe, M.D., of Saddle River, NJ passed away on Sunday, November 29, 2015 after a fierce struggle with a motor neurological disease. He is survived by his beloved wife, Rayani; his children Rushan, Dinuka, and Melanie; his children-in-law Tina Moyer, Sarah Samarasinghe, and Craig Balderston; and his grandchildren Sarah Moyer, Hailey Samarasinghe, Sawyer and Oliver Samarasinghe, and August and Gordon Balderston.
Michael Roberts
The recent TV broadcasts of the Commonwealth Games at Birmingham and the Athletics Championship at Eugene in Oregon stimulaed thoughts of the breakthrough for Ceylon aka Sri Lanka initiated by the Trinitian athlete Duncan White in 1948. In securing the second place in the exacting 400 metre hurdles in the London Olympics on 31st Ju;y 1948, Duncan White carved his name in silver in the annals of Sri Lankan sport.
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Benjamin Norton, in Multipolarista, 21 August 2022, where the headline reads thus “China forgives 23 loans for 17 African countries, expands ‘win-win’ trade and infrastructure projects”
The Chinese government has announced that it is forgiving 23 interest-free loans for 17 African nations, while pledging to deepen its collaboration with the continent.
This is in addition to China’s cancellation of more than $3.4 billion in debt and restructuring of around $15 billion of debt in Africa between 2000 and 2019.
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thuppahi
