How Lanka’s club of ‘gentlemen’ cricketers moulded a legend

COLOMBO: Tucked away in the cozy surroundings of the Cinnamon Gardens in the capital city, one can find the holy trinity of Sri Lankan cricket — three clubs by the names of CCC (Colombo Cricket Club), NCC (Nondescripts Cricket Club) and the SSC (Singhalese Cricket Club). These clubs form the pillars on which the foundation of Lankan cricket is set.
The NCC is one of the oldest of the trio, established way back in 1888. This is the breeding ground for a lot of top Lankan internationals, from former captains Michael Tissera, Aravinda de Silva, Ranjan Madugalle, Hashan Tillekaratne, Tillekaratne Dilshan to, of course, one of their finest, Kumar Sangakkara.
The word ‘Nondescripts’ seems an odd for a club, but has a history behind it. “Nondescripts was the only club open to anyone without racial bias of any kind. Although the major cricket club at time was the Europeans, Nondescripts had a lot of people playing from different backgrounds, be it executives, lawyers or judges,” Ranjit Fernando, a member of NCC for over 50 years now, told TOI on Tuesday.
The NCC, though, managed to land Sangakkara by chance. As the story goes, Sangakkara was heading towards the CCC because one of his school friends used to play there. Umpire Asoka de Silva saw him outside the NCC gate and recognized him immediately because he had umpired some of his school games. De Silva invited Sangakkara to have a look around the NCC and play there if he wanted.

“There was a lot of excitement when people found out that the Trinity College captain Sangakkara was going to be playing with the NCC, because some of the past Trinitians like Ravi Ratnayake had been outstanding gentlemen cricketers. He fit in brilliantly and I think played under Russell Arnold when he first got here,” former Lankan wicketkeeper Fernando said.
The NCC, in fact, prides itself in providing ‘gentlemen’ cricketers like Sangakkara. “The club those days had a lot of players in the national team, so it was not difficult to play for the first team. But after a few years I saw Kumar was getting frustrated because he was not getting the break to move up to the national team,” he said.
Sangakkara, who will make his final Test appearance at the P Sara Oval from Thursday, first came into the limelight when he was touring with the SL ‘A’ team to South Africa. His eloquence was what caught everyone’s eye. Soon after, when a strong Zimbabwe team came to tour Sri Lanka, the southpaw scored a brilliant 150-odd playing for the Board President’s XI, which was watched by then coach Dav Whatmore.
The man with over 27,000 international runs has always been an idol for youngsters. His pictures proudly adorn the walls of the NCC pavilion — the most prominent one being the list of Sri Lanka captains from the club. Sangakkara is one of the nine over the years.
Sanga’s obsession with perfection became a problem for the authorities sometimes. “There was a time when Sangakkara came to the nets and just batted on and on and on. He batted in one net for an hour, moved to another and another. The young kids started to do the same. I had to call him up and he said he doesn’t do that regularly but only when he feels that there is something wrong with his game,” Fernando, who represented NCC between 1961 to 1979, said.
“Other times he used to come to NCC cement nets and had people throw down balls to him. Other times, he would call his father down here from Kandy and seek his opinion.”
Sangakkara is one of the few cricketers who are a ‘one-club’ man. “His loyalty to one club has been an example for young players. When he was not picked, he used to come with his girlfriend Yehali, the wife now and spend time around here just playing billiards. There was a time when he wondered it was worth his while to continue playing cricket since he was enrolled in college at that time but it all worked out in the end,” Fernando recalls.
Asked to distinguish between the two prodigies from the club, Aravinda de Silva and Sangakkara, Fernando said, “He (Sangakkara) plays the same way for Lanka and NCC. He doesn’t lose the desire to score runs and doesn’t stop batting till he has got a double hundred. As opposed to someone like Aravinda, who might make a brilliant 70-80 and just throw it away. Kumar doesn’t play the bowler but the ball. He doesn’t ever get bored of batting and cricket doesn’t bore him.”
Cricket might never bore Sangakkara but cricket and NCC will miss him when he walks away into the sunset.
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