Thursday 7th August, 2008 13 Cricket as prince of sports in Sri Lanka on the one hand and, on the by Michael Roberts other, the hostility to An editorially-modified Westernised life ways and the version of this article assumptions of superiority was published in associated with these expres- HIMAL circa 2007. sions, including English- speak itself. Among some Sinhalese this indigenist odernity took firm resistance was quite virulent root in Sri Lanka and one can speak of a cur- Munder the imperial rent of Sinhalese nationalism aegis of Britain. British rule from the 1860s onwards. involved a considerable trans- Thus, at the point of formation in the political independence in 1948 one economy of the island, a revo- found Ceylonese and lution in the communication Sinhalese nationalisms, as system, the administrative well as Tamil and Moor unification of the country (Muslim) communitarianism and the emergence of new jostling each other in compe- class forces of a capitalist tition and complex overlap. variety. English became the On the cricket field, however, administrative language and the elite ranks of all the eth- one saw the development of nic groups (with the partial an indigenous socio-political exception of the “Indian elite group, referred to locally Tamils”) were united in sup- as “middle class,” whose porting Ceylon against all mode of domination included comers. Colombo-bred Tamils a facility in English-speak of the middle class were and a particular life style. among the leading players In the process the ethnic and administrators. When diversity of the island was Ceylon played India or took compounded. Apart from the on the Madras Cricket Tamils, Sinhalese and Tamil- Association for the Gopalan speaking Moors of yesteryear, Trophy from 1953 onwards one witnessed the influx of Tamils were among the keen- those identified as Indian est of Sri Lanka’s fans3 – Tamils who worked on the unlike today when a signifi- plantations in the interior or cant proportion of the indige- as menials in the main urban nous Tamil peoples tend to be Ajantha Mendis, center, and teammates wait for 3rd umpire's decision on a leg before the wicket against India's captain Anil Kumble centres. The island’s location either ambivalent or support during fourth day of the second test cricket match between India and Sri Lanka in Galle (AP) also encouraged small bodies India or even “anyone but Sri of Malays (who has served in Lanka” on the principle of the Dutch and British regi- backing the enemy of one’s there was class divide insofar Beginning with the West apace, despite the context of (1 M. Roberts, Percy Colin- ments), Borahs, Sindhis, enemy. In a context where as the best Ceylonese soccer Indies in 1949, sides touring increasing conflict and a civil Thome and Ismeth Raheem, Parsees, Colombo Chetties to cricket has become Sri players were usually working India sometimes played a war in the south in the years People Inbetween: The join the mixed European Lanka’s premier sport and class urban, while the best series in Sri Lanka. The 1987-90. When Sri Lanka won Burghers and the Middle Class descendents described as one reaching across all class- rugger players were attention devoted to such the World Cup in one-day in the Transformations within “Burghers” in the polyglot es and embracing most urban/rural middle class matches in the prestigious cricket in 1996, a host of peo- Sri Lanka, 1790s-1980s, towns of the south wesreern regions, this qualification is from the best schools in English-media newspapers ple all over the country, and Colombo: Sarvodaya, 1989, pp. quarter of the island, notably of some import. But in order Colombo and Kandy. was high octane. among migrants abroad, was 56-69, 158-59, 169. in Colombo. to grasp the import of such While both rugger and In the meantime cricket glued to the TV sets. By the 1880s if not earlier developments we must retrace cricket were elitist in charac- was catching on in schools Consolidating the ‘ground- 2 Roberts, “Landmarks and Colombo was a primate city our footsteps to the early 19th ter till, say, the 1960s, there that had not featured promi- work’ provided by tennis ball Threads in the Cricketing and hegemonic centre, loom- century and the advent of was nevertheless an impor- nently in the past, notably in cricket, the prestige of school Universe of Sri Lanka,” Sport ing over the rest of the island those inventors of games, the tant difference between the the former Buddhist denomi- cricket, a long pedigree of in Society, January 2007, vol. in its political and economic British. two. Many more schools, national schools Ananda and good cricketers, television’s 10, p. 123. clout as well as its symbolic including the leading ones in Nalanda (both Colombo), glamourisation of the game, primacy. Such primacy in sta- Sport and Pastime in the Jaffna Peninsula, played Dharmaraja (Kandy) and and the fact that it is the one 3 As I am from an active tus display, as shall see, British Ceylon … and cricket. Moreover, some work- Mahinda (Galle). Neville game where Sri Lankans have cricketing background dating became central to the over- Beyond till Today ing class people in the main Jayaweera, the far-seeing held their own at the highest from the mid-1950s, this evalu- whelming hegemony secured The British rulers towns were drawn to the big head at Sri Lanka level of the international ation is based on intimate per- by cricket in comparison with indulged in recreational matches between rival Broadcasting Corporation, arena, that one moment on 17 sonal knowledge. For the back- other sports in the attach- activities with enthusiasm in schools, encouraged by the initiated Sinhala-cricket com- March 1996 at Lahore capped ground, also see S. S. Perera, ments of its peoples. the leisured circumstances of pastime of betting, the carni- mentaries for the annual big it all: cricket was, in effect, The Janashakthi Book of It was through Colombo rulership and its` luxury of val atmosphere of “big match- match between Ananda and crowned “The Prince of Sport Cricket, 1832-1996, Colombo: too that the intellectual cur- countless “native” servants. es” and specific loyalties built Nalanda in the late 1960s. It in Island Lanka.” Janashakthi Insurance, 1999.) rents known as “liberalism” The full panoply of British up over time. One must not involved the invention of a and “nationalism” entered games, both board games and forget that education was not whole new vocabulary. This the consciousness of some field games, including the expensive and that urban was a momentous step: it con- NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT BANK PLC elements of the population. A “manly pastime” of hunting, schools had many poor chil- tributed to the popularity of RESOLUTION ADOPTED BY THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS UNDER small coterie of young were pursued vigourously. dren whose parents were the game and deepened SECTION 4 OF THE RECOVERY OF LOANS BY BANKS (SPECIAL Burgher men educated in the Over time most of these pas- drawn into their areas of refined knowledge. PROVISIONS) ACT NO. 4 OF 1990 AS AMENDED English medium at the times (but not polo) were interest. Through the years the At a Meeting of the Board of Directors of the National Development Bank Colombo Academy were the taken up by the Ceylonese Cricket, moreover, was prestige associated with the PLC held on 19th June 2008 the following resolution was specially and unanimously adopted. “WHEREAS ATHULA BOPAGODA HETTIGE and forerunners of Ceylonese middle classes, while some not purely a leather ball and game had encouraged high VITHANA ACHCHILAGE ASHOKA HEMAMALI GUNASEKERA both of nationalism when they board games were dispersed white longs activity of an levels of development, espe- Allawwa (BORROWERS) have made default in the payment due on Bond launched the periodical across all strata. Indeed, it is expensive kind. It could be cially in the art of batting. No. 68 dated 14.12.2004 attested by (Ms.) Ruwani Rajapakse of Kurunegala Young Ceylon in 1850.1 This arguable that the most popu- played with all manner of Over time the lineages of Notary Public and Deed of Assignment No. 4708 dated 31.08.2006 attested current was sustained by the lar sport in Sri Lanka for over balls including the natural excellent cricketers in some by (Ms.) N. A. S. Illangakoon of Colombo Notary Public in favour of NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT BANK PLC formerly of NATIONAL emerging multi-ethnic, 150 years has been that kaduru ball and therefore elite schools, notably S. DEVELOPMENT BANK LIMITED (BANK) AND WHEREAS a sum of Four indigenous middle class in involving cards, while carrom attracted male youth from all Thomas’ College, crystallized Hundred and Twenty Two Thousand and Twenty Eight Rupees the course of the next 100 has also had a fair clientele. strata. Tennis ball cricket and enabled Ceylon (Sri (Rs.422,028.00) has become due and owing on the said Bond to the BANK years. The first momentous As with the British, the competitions have been held Lanka) to field teams that as at 31st May 2008. The Board of Directors of the BANK acting under the powers vested in them under the Recovery of Loans by Banks (Special challenge to White superiori- field games were institution- for decades in certain urban beat Pakistan and India on Provisions) Act No. 4 of 1990 (PRINCIPAL ACT) as amended by the ty occurred, prophetically, on alized through clubs. localities on fields or patches occasions in the 1960s; while Recovery of Loans by Banks (Special Provisions) (Amendment) Act No. 24 the cricket field when the best Inevitably, the colour bar of ground.