Year 1968 - University of Keleniya Sports Council and the Cricket Team's tour of Jaffna

 

Keleniya University Sports Council of 1968
Official Photograph (thank you Dissa)

A 1968 (45 years ago) official photograph of the Keleniya University Sports Council, with my friends BLH (Lavan) Perera, Shelton Gamage, Late M.M. Sathyawadi, Justice Dissanayake, Mendis, T.S.Silva, Siriwardena, Godawatte, Nayananjali Karunasekera, Vinitha Liyanage and others. Among our teachers are, Late Professor Karl Gunawardena (Vice Chancellor), Professor Sirimal Ranwella (Dean) and Director of Sports Pastor Peries.  I salute them and remember them with fond affection.

1968 දී (දැනට වසර 45තට පෙර) කැළණිය විශ්වවිද්‍යාලයේ ක්‍රීඩා සභාවට අයත් වූ අප මිතුරන් අතර ලවන් හේමසිරි පෙරේරා (BLH), ෂෙල්ටන් ගමගේ, අප අතරින් වියෝවූ එම්. එම්. සත්‍යවාදී සමග මා, දිසානායක, මෙන්ඩිස්, ටී.එස්. සිල්වා, සිරිවර්ධන, ගොඩවත්ත වැනියවුන් හා මිතුරියන් අතර නයනාංජලී කරැණාසේකර, විනීතා ලියනගේ වැනියවුන් සමගත් ගත් නිළ ජායාරෑපයකි මේ. අප ගුරැවරන් වූ නැසීගිය මහාචාර්ය කාර්ල් ගුණවර්ධන (උප කුලපති) සහ මහාචාර්ය සිරිමල් රන්වැල්ල (පීඨාධිපති) සමග ක්‍රීඩා උපදේශක පැස්ටර් පීරිස් මහතානන්ට මාගේ බැතිබරි උපහාරය හා සිහිගැන්වීම ...

I call upon our friends to help me remember the names of our other friends who appear in this pix, and beg the indulgence of those who I failed to name, for my failing memory of their names.

I also take this opportunity to pay our tribute to Late Gaminie Haththotuwegama (Hatha), who was the lecturer in charge of our cricket team, and shared his enthusiasm and prowess to inspire us and made us all work hard to become, a fairly good team at the time. Also added are close up pix of Shelton and I,  of our cricket tour of Jaffna where we played games at the Bicknell Grounds in Vadukkotte with the Jaffna College Undergraduate Department (two games), St Patricks College Grounds with the Arayale Sports Club and with the Sri Lanka Navy team at the Karainagar Camp. Our two weeks stay at the hostel of the JCUD, the warmth and the hospitality of both the boys and the girls (at the girls’ hostel who hosted us for dinner and an excellent cultural entertainment session) and the many sessions of evening Kallu (toddy) drinking, are still fresh in our minds after 45 years. The comradely and bondage we had with our friends from Jaffna at the time, often make us wonder how a mere decade and half later we entered that bleak era of our history.

With my friend Shelton Gamage  in Jaffna prior to an evening toddy (Kallu) session.

You know who, in Karainagar, Jaffna (A concrete cricket pitch with a coir matting laid to play on)

 

 

 

My class mate Police Officer Peter Goonatileka (extreme right), who was serving at the Jaffna Police Station at the time. From left are team mates Aberatne and Dissanayake. Photo was taken near the Jaffna Fort.