Some Outstanding SL Civil Service Personnel in the Recent Past

Gamini Seneviratne, in The  Island, 23 November 2025., with this  title “Footnotes to the Ceylon Civil Service”

MDD Pieris
Your Sunday edition has become habituated to publishing extracts from autobiographical accounts of their careers by public servants. We have had the fluently told tales of the late Bradman Weerakoon, undoubtedly the most accomplished and the modest of them, some snippets from Chandra Arulpragasam, whose working life was mostly spent at the FAO in Rome, Dharmasiri Pieris records of his career a good segment of which was as Secretary to Prime Minister Mrs. Bandaranaike, all based not on mere memory but, more meticulously, on his diaries. And, more recently, we see the occasionally factitious accounts of his experience as a politician by Sarath Amunugama. They were all members of the Ceylon Civil Service in its final years.

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Revolutionary Cricket? More Sri Lankan Commentary on the Perth Test Match

Responding to  Lorenz Pereira’s  Reflections, other Sri Lankan Aficianado have presented theri  Thoughts …. significant thoughts  because they are Not Dinky-die Aussies as such ...EDITOR, Thuppahi

PERTH, AUSTRALIA – NOVEMBER 22: Mitchell Starc of Australia celebrates with Travis Head after dismissing Zak Crawley of England during day two of the First 2025/26 Ashes Series Test Match between Australia and England at Perth Stadium on November 22, 2025 in Perth, Australia. (Photo by Gareth Copley/Getty Images)

SYDNEY  FERNANDO  in  Colombo, November  2025

I must first confess that by the time i started watching on the first day England had been bowled out for 172 and Australia were one down for 20 or less; then, in just about two hours they were 8 for 123.
What I saw was a team trying to play T20 style cricket on the first day of the test. Many dismissals were to rash strokes. Its as if they have limited overs to play with the undoubted influence of T20 and ODI cricket.

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Perceptive Readings of The Perth Test Match

EMAIL COMMENTS  From Lorenz Pereira of Royal College, now in Melbourne,  on the  Sunday after  the match

Dear Fitzy

What baffles me is how a so-called batting wicket resulted in 30 wickets falling in 5 sessions of a Test match.   You say the difference was Starck.  But 20 other wickets fell cheaply, all to the fast bowlers. Stokes got 5 of them and decimated the Aussies.   Lyon hardly bowled.  So the wicket must have helped the quickies.
Then a mystery.  How could such a tricky wicket suddenly become a batting paradise within a few hours? If the trend of the previous 5 sessions were to continue, Australia should have lost or most certainly struggled  What was the difference?

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A Resolute Sinhala Lady’s Pursuit of Justice

Ishanka Singha Arachchi, in Groundviews, 9 November  2025,  where  thr title runs thus:  A Southern Woman’s Endless Search for Justice …… with  highlighting emphasis added by The Editor, Thuppahi.

The story of the women of the South, who have been struggling for justice for their forcibly disappeared loved ones for 36 long years, remains one of the most tragic chapters in Sri Lanka’s history. Despite countless obstacles, shifting political tides and the indifference of successive governments, their fight for truth and accountability continues with unwavering determination.

These women, now frail with age, still carry photographs of their missing sons, husbands and brothers, walking from one government office to another, from one protest to the next, demanding answers that never come.

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Sri Lanka ‘zimbabwe-yed’ at Rawalpindi

ITEM in ESPNcricinfo

Zimbabwe 162 for 8 (Bennett 49, Raza 47, Hasaranga 3-32) beat Sri Lanka 95 (Shanaka 34, Evans 3-9, Ngarava 2-15) by 67 runs

Sri Lanka’s batting imploded in the face of a disciplined Zimbabwe attack, as they fell to a 67-run defeat in the second match of the men’s T20I tri-series in Rawalpindi. They were bowled out for 95, chasing a target of 163. For Zimbabwe, it was the perfect response to their opening game defeat to Pakistan.
The wickets were spread among each of the six bowlers used by Zimbabwe. Richard Ngarava was excellent picking up figures of 2 for 15, but he was outdone by the ever-reliable Brad Evans, who ended with match best figures of 3 for 9.

Brian Bennett in full flow
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Asalanka Deposed !!! …. Yorked Himself?

Item in TelecomAsiaNet, 19 November 2025, with this title “Captain brought down by a bouncer of his own making?”

When Sri Lanka’s T20 skipper Charith Asalanka was quietly withdrawn from the tri-series in Pakistan, the early whispers blamed a bout of illness. But scratch beneath the surface and a different picture emerges — one where the captain’s defiance during the heated stand-off over continuing the Pakistan tour has come back to hit him like a nasty lifter on a cracked pitch.

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Present-Day Ramifications in the South Asian Political Scenario

Interesting food for thought on recent Gen Z colour revolutions in South Asia, from Sri Lanka to Bangladesh and Nepal.  The BBC loved them all and expected India to be next for a colour revolution which would sweep Modi and his government from power. But to the BBC’s great disappointment,  it didn’t happen.
There are some very complex and intriguing geopolitics taking place in South Asia. Unpacking these complexities is not easy and those attempting to do so without care are likely to make mistakes and form wrong conclusions. But this article makes a good start.

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Victor Melder receives a Well-Deserved Award

Michael Roberts

Victor  Melder was a Sri  Lankan railway officer who migrated to Australia way back in the third  quarter of the last century. But his  deep roots and affection  for his homeland inspired him to launch a paper journal entitled  Rhythm of the Wheels. I was among those who profited from this venture whenI  reached Australia in 1978;  while his stock of Sri Lankan material also assisted me during my occasional visits to Melbourne. The VICTOR MELDER LIBRARY will remain as a Memento marking Victor’s love affair with his homeland when this  good man departs to meet his maker.

It is just reward for such services that has seen VICTOR receive a Lankan Fest Luminary Award received on Sunday, November 16, 2025.

ALSO NOTE

https://www.vmsl-library.com/

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The Battle For An Archaic Fort in Jaffna in 1990 During the LTTE Insurgency

Gamini Goonetilleke, in JAFFNAMONITOR …. https://www.jaffnamonitor.com/inside-the-siege-a-sinhala-doctors-account-of-jaffna-fort-1990/

The first mortar shell screamed just after dawn on 10 June 1990.

It tore through the coral-stone ramparts of Jaffna Fort, the blast rattling every window in the city. Inside the pentagonal walls, 130 men—soldiers of the Sinha Regiment and young police recruits—looked at one another and knew: this was no skirmish. This was a siege.

For 107 days, the old Portuguese-Dutch-British fortress became the eye of a storm that swallowed the peninsula. Outside, LTTE snipers hid in the Public Library, mortars thundered from behind the Post Office, and a home-built monster called the Pasilan 2000 prowled the streets. Inside, the defenders rationed rice, drank brackish well water, and buried their dead between crumbling colonial walls.

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The Abeyesundere’s of Galle: Their History

Item in THE ISLAND, November 2025

A book covering the entrepreneurial ability and other matters pertaining to the well-known Abeyesundere family from Galle, Sri Lanka, authored by scientist of repute Dr. Nirmala M. Pieris, will be launched on November 14 at 6 pm at the auditorium of the Sri Lanka Foundation Institute, Colombo 7.

The book traces the 220-year history of the Abeyesundere family of Galle and centres on Pemyano William Abeyesundere, a respected ship chandler, landowner, and philanthropist. It weaves together archival research, family records and oral histories to present a detailed account of heritage and community, the publisher says in a brief write-up.

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A NOTE From Michael Roberts, November 2025

The Abeyesundere  family household in the  mid-twentieth  cenuty was in Kaluwella, the suburb where  St. Aloysius ] College served all and sundry.  Sushila and  Lakshman Abeyesundere both  attended  St. Aloysius and Lakshman played for the  cricket team when I was also in the team. He was  one of our  more fallible fielders, but pulled off two brilliant catches at cover  when we had only three fielders in the off for one of our  left-arm bowlers (Nizam? Vanderputt?) in the course of a strategic bowling programme called “leg-theory!” … a policy which won us that match as far as I can  recall.

Leg-Theory!! Therein lies a MAJOR STORY….. that went into the history of  Aloysian cricket as a team known as “The Invincibles” guided by Marcus  Jayasinghe  and led by Anwer Jawath. lakshman  is  seated on  the Csrl extreme left next  a  bloke named roberts, while anver is seated at centre enxt to our  revered Marcus coach, while Vernon  Regis and Carlyle Rodrigo are seated to his right.

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