Four Decades On, Lord’s Heroics Still Vivid for Sri Lanka’s Wettimuny

AFP/APP

London: Sri Lanka may be struggling in the ongoing second Test against England at Lord’s, but things were very different when they made their debut at the ‘Home of Cricket’ in 1984. The tourists, still a fledgling Test nation, defied expectations to dominate a drawn one-off game, piling up 491-7 declared in their first innings, with Sidath Wettimuny making a superb 190.

It was a landmark moment for both the then 28-year-old opener and his country, as he recalled while returning to the scene of his triumph 40 years on. “England is the home of cricket,” Wettimuny told AFP in an interview at Lord’s. “We were very keen to show up and do something decent so that the world took notice of us.”

There was a seemingly unsettling incident when, even before a ball had been bowled, the Test was held up by Tamil protesters invading the playing area. Wettimuny, however, insisted: “That helped me tremendously. Not knowing what it was at first, I gradually moved towards the slip cordon because I was scared to be alone in the middle.

They (the demonstrators) were shouting, and the (England) players asked me what this was all about. In that two or three minutes of conversation with them, I think it was like the fizz in a soda bottle going out. I just forgot about cricket, forgot about batting, and I was relaxed for a few minutes, and then when I batted, I just felt nice and relaxed.”

Wettimuny repeatedly punished an England attack featuring Ian Botham with a series of textbook square-drives. Sri Lankan cricketers had long been schooled in traditional English methods, none more so than Wettimuny and his brothers. “I’ll tell you, my father has to be given all the credit,” said Wettimuny.

“He was a huge cricket enthusiast — in fact, he built the first indoor net in Sri Lanka. And he was a fan of CB Fry (the 19th/20th century England batsman). He made us read CB Fry’s ‘On the Art of Batting.’ My goodness, he used to grill us on that. And he wanted us to play correct cricket.”

‘Phenomenal Mendis’

Yet for all the current England team’s dynamic Bazball approach, the Sri Lanka side of 1984 had a truly aggressive batsman of their own in captain Duleep Mendis. Diminutive but powerful, Mendis several times hooked Botham bouncers for soaring sixes as he made 111, and the Sri Lanka skipper was within sight of another hundred in the second innings when he fell for 94.

“He was a phenomenal player when he got going,” said Wettimuny of Mendis. “The instruction I got from him at the start of play was, ‘You bat through, you just hold your end.’ It was very nice just to sit back and watch Duleep take the attack apart.”

Wettimuny obeyed his captain’s orders to such an extent that he batted for just short of 11 hours before, suffering from cramp, he was out 10 runs shy of a double century. “People say, weren’t you unhappy about what you didn’t get? I just say I was happy with what I got,” explained Wettimuny.

For many members of an England side ‘blackwashed’ 5-0 in a Test series by a West Indies team featuring fast bowlers such as Malcolm Marshall, Michael Holding, and Joel Garner earlier in the 1984 season, a one-off encounter against Sri Lanka was not something to relish.

But for England quick Jonathan Agnew, it was an opportunity. “I was very excited because it was just my second Test,” Agnew told AFP. “But I was aware my teammates were absolutely beaten up. They had had a very torrid time, there’d been a lot of injuries, nasty injuries, and they’d just been bombed, they were just out of it really.”

Agnew, now the BBC’s long-serving cricket correspondent, added: “Sidath played really, really well, and he’s become a good friend since. He batted immaculately, and Duleep Mendis murdered ‘Beefy’ (Botham).”

The match was also notable for Arjuna Ranatunga making an impressive 84 aged just 20. Ranatunga would go on to lead Sri Lanka to World Cup glory in 1996, having changed their approach to the game. “They’ve hardened up a lot,” said Agnew. “They played a bit like gentlemen then. When they first appeared, they sounded a bit old-fashioned and played a bit old-fashioned. But Ranatunga really sharpened them up and made them a fighting force.”