Rex
Clementine reporting from Hobart (SNNI)
Cricket Australia
hosted a dinner on Wednesday to mark 25 years of Test cricket
between Sri Lanka and Australia here in Hobart Tasmania
on Wednesday. The dinner that involved the two teams, the
officials of Cricket Australia, Tasmania Cricket Association,
media and corporate sponsors of CA was held at Wrest Point
Casino in Hobart.
Paul Lennon, the Prime Minister of Tasmania too was present
at the function. Well known Sri Lankan personalities here
in Australia like Dr.Quintus de Zylva and David Cruse too
were invited.
The function started off with a trailer of Test Match history
between the two countries. There were visuals of Rumesh
Ratnayake’s six wicket haul in the 1989 series here
in Hobart and Aravinda de Silva’s audacious stroke
play in Brisbane in the same series and visuals of Sanath
Jayasuriya’s swashbuckling hundred in Adelaide in
1995.
It was Sri Lanka who played the inaugural Test Match at
the Bellerive Oval, Hobart and there was a detailed description
of the venue comparing it 18 years ago and now. The venue
that mostly had grass banks in 1989 is surrounded by massive
stands and the media center is as good as the ones in Sydney
or the MCG.
Ricky Ponting, who hails from Tasmania was called upon to
the stage alongside his Sri Lankan counterpart Mahela Jayawardene
and was asked about the first Test staged in his island.
"I was 15 years old then and like many Tasmanians was
excited about having a first hand experience of a Test Match.
That was a game where the pendulum swung both ways in dramatic
fashion and in the end Mark Taylor, Steve Waugh and Dean
Jones got hundreds and won the game," Ponting said.
Sri Lanka’s captain was asked about the start of his
career in 1997 and Jayawardene impressed the audience with
his humour. "When I came to bat India had fielded for
700 odd runs. I was only supposed to bat after Aravinda
and Arjuna, but they used me as a night watchman and it
was great fun and I got 60 odd," he said. "We
ended up with a World Record of 952 runs and by the way
we weren’t playing Bangladesh," he said in lighter
vein.
Ponting made his Test debut against Sri Lanka in 1995 and
he was told that a lot of people doubted the leg before
decision he got from umpire Peter Parker four runs short
of a hundred. "Whatever the other people think I don’t
that was out. Michael Clarke a few days back told me after
seeing the videotape you were out mate. I would take that
because he’s a pretty good judge." Ponting said.
After that, Tasmanian David Boon and Sri Lanka’s fast
bowling coach Champaka Ramanayake were called upon to the
stage to talk about the inaugural Test Match here in Hobart
and they came up with plenty of nostalgic memories.
"I have had my battles with the Sri Lankans over the
years. I have had a few verbals with their former captain
Arjuna Ranatunga, who was one of the toughest players I
have come across. There were a few nasty things said on
the field which would be very embarrassing for me to recall
at this function, but off the field we got on quite well,"
Boon said.
"The ground was so different those days. There weren’t
that many stands. There was lot of seam movement. Rumesh
Ratnayake was dropped for the first Test and when he got
an opportunity here in Hobart, he got six wickets and I
remember he came to the dressing room and cried. It was
a very moving moment. He was my new ball partner and we
all tried to console him," Ramanayake said.
"Rumesh was an emotional guy. I remember him hitting
John Wright in one match in New Zealand. Rumseh couldn’t
take up hurting an opposition batsman and he came to the
dressing room and started crying, but John Wright was batting
in the middle," he added.
Ramanayake described the Bellerive Oval as the most beautiful
ground he has played in
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