It happened during the first Cricket World Cup competition in England in 1975.
Sri Lanka were (then) considered minnows in international cricket. The game was still being played in a gentlemanly spirit by amateurs who had nothing other than love for the game in their devoted hearts. Sri Lanka’s team for the World Cup competition comprised individuals who happened to be highly talented, technically flawless and orthodox cricketers in their own right. They duly obtained leave from the handful of mercantile establishments where they were employed. As organised by the then Board of Control for Cricket in Sri Lanka BCCSL (now Sri Lanka Cricket – SLC), they flew to England as a team with no pretentions whatsoever.
Sri Lanka’s squad for the first Cricket World Cup in 1975:
Anura Tennekoon (Captain)
Bandula Warnapura
Michael Tissera
Anura Ranasinghe
H. S. M. Pieris
Tony Opatha
Duleep Mendis
Lalith Kaluperuma
David Heyn
Ranjit Fernando (Wicketkeeper)
D. S. de Silva
Ajit de Silva
Sunil Wettimuny
The two groups in the 1975 World Cup:
In the fourth match of the tournament, Sri Lanka in their first ODI, faced the most fancied, balanced and individually experienced side, the West Indies led by Clive Lloyd. The legendary batsman Viv Richards and fiery pacer Andy Roberts made their ODI debut in the match. Batting first, Sri Lanka predictably finished with 86 runs, having faced the awesome firepower of their opponents’ pace attack. The West Indies rattled off the required runs in 20.4 overs, for the loss of only Roy Fredericks.
The Sri Lankans were making inroads into the Aussie total in no uncertain terms and Ian Chappell seemed to have had a sense of foreboding. Or maybe he was worried about a loss of face?
In the seventh match, Sri Lanka were pitted against a marauding Aussie outfit with unrelenting pace as its main weapon. What followed was a display of guts and grit from the plucky Sri Lankans.
Winning the toss, Australian captain Ian Chappell elected to bat first. In the allotted 60 overs the Aussies scored an imposing 328 for 5. The main contributors were Alan Turner 101, Rick McCosker 73, Greg Chappell 50 and Doug Walters 59.
Batting next, the Sri Lankans found themselves up against the fearsome pace duo of Dennis Lillee and Jeff Thomson. Come what may, they batted bravely and with conviction.
Ranjit Fernando exited, bowled Thomson 22; Bandula Warnapura was out, stumped Marsh bowled Mallet 31.
Duleep Mendis joined debutant opener Sunil Wettimuny, to whom it was a baptism of fire, although he batted with authority. Lillee, Mallet, Walker and Walters were played with ease. The Sri Lankans were making inroads into the Aussie total in no uncertain terms and Ian Chappell seemed to have had a sense of foreboding. Or maybe he was worried about a loss of face?
In his first spell, Thommo had already hit Wettimuny twice on the inner thigh. He followed up with a bruising blow to his hip bone and again to his ribcage. Unknown then was that, as a result, the batsman had endured a hairline fracture to his ribs.
Those were the days when batsmen did not have the luxury of facing up to such firepower protected like medieval knights from head to toe, as nowadays.
Having had a few words with Thommo, the Aussie skipper gave him his second spell.
Thommo went to work on Mendis with ruthless aggression. Mendis was hit by a nasty delivery that shot up unexpectedly and took him full on the forehead. Wettimuny, at the non-striker’s end, remembers it travelling almost thirty feet from there. Mendis fell, face down, poleaxed, rolled face up and writhed in agony. With sweat and tears streaming down his face, he was carried off the field on a stretcher to the hospital, accompanied by loud boos for Thommo from the crowd. In walked skipper Anura Tennekoon, taking his time to check on Mendis on the way.
Next, Thommo turned his guns on the other settled batsman, Wettimuny, who stood like the proverbial boy on the burning deck, unbowed. Now it was head to head. The third ball of his next over was a classic ‘toe-cruncher’. It played the part of the ‘wrecking ball’. It had Wettimuny hopping and writhing in agony, out of his crease. The ruthless Thommo had then picked up the ball, rattled the stumps and appealed. The absurdity was denied a positive response from the umpire. Not to be mentally softened by the damage his handiwork had inflicted on the hapless batsman, Thommo had walked up to him. He assailed him that, if he remained, the next ball would break his ‘instep’. True to his menacing word, he hurled the next delivery, a ball on fire, spot on to the promised target. It was too much to take, and the battered and bruised batsman followed his teammate to St Thomas’ Hospital in the vicinity.
Michael Tissera, who came in next, and Tennekoon decided that prudence was called for, in order to live to fight another day. That day dawned twenty-one years later for the next generation of Sri Lankans. Meanwhile, the duo took no chances and batted surely and steadily, scoring 52 and 48 respectively. Sri Lanka finished with 276 for 4 in their allotted 60 overs. They had won the hearts and minds of the spectators, although that provided little consolation.
A policeman in the vicinity, after listening to part of a radio report and assuming that two Sri Lankans had been assaulted by one Mr Jeff Thomson, visited them in hospital. He then enquired as to whether Mendis wished to proffer charges against this Mr Jeff Thomson.
Sri Lanka played Pakistan next. Batting first, Pakistan scored 330 for 6. Sri Lanka replied with a paltry 138 in 50.1 overs. Thus ended Sri Lanka’s first World Cup efforts, to mixed feelings back home.
The first ‘World Cup’ tournament had created quite a buzz among the cricket-loving fraternity in Sri Lanka. The silent question on everyone’s mind was ‘Where do we go from here?’ They also knew that part of the answer lay in Sri Lanka being awarded ‘Test’ status – but when? How? The assumed answers to these and many other cricketing questions became dreams and, in some cases, nightmares.
(An extract from ‘Winds Behind The Willows’.)
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