Line & Length
R Mohan
Spare a thought for the tsunami-hit
December 20, 2007
It's not often that cricket lends itself to sentiment. The aficionados of the game may have learned to live with an overkill of nostalgia but rarely do they get tearful save when a legend like Sir Donald Bradman passes away and the game seems to stand still while a Colossus is remembered.
This week, cricket will have dealt with an immense amount of humane thoughts before the Galle Test match began late on Tuesday. Just a little less than three years ago, on December 26, 2004 to be precise, the tsunami came in a tidal wave of destruction, affecting many Asian countries along the seafront, hitting the Coromandel coast badly and devastating a Test match ground at Galle in south western Sri Lanka.
The off spinner Muttiah Muralitharan was fortunate in that he was 20 minutes late in driving with his manager towards Seenigama on the coast where a charity event sponsored by him was to be held. Fortunately, the traffic coming back at them in panic was so frantic and signalling the tragedy so loudly, Murali decided to turn back to Colombo.
India's current Test captain Anil Kumble may not have come so close to what was a very tragic event for the whole of humanity. Fortunately for him, he left the luxury beach resort hotel outside Chennai on Christmas Day that year. Had he and his family stayed another night, they would have been among those who had to scramble for their lives as the Bay of Bengal spewed seawater on the coast.
Some young cricketers from the slums around the Marina Beach were not so fortunate. Many were carried away from Chennai's pride of a beach as they played their own games of cricket on the sands. The tsunami struck at 8-46 am, early enough to catch the morning walkers along the promenade, many of whom perished.
Again, fortunately, it was early in the day rather than late evening when there would have been at least 20 games of tennis ball cricket on the Marina sands involving hundreds of cricketers, not to speak of the beach patrons and vendors. It was a Sunday too, which meant the toll could have been huge had the manic waves come late evening.
Upul Tharanga will go down as the only Test cricketer to have lost his house to the advancing sea on that fateful day. He had to depend on material and monetary support to the tune of Sri Lankan Rs 50,000 from club mate Kumar Sangakkara to tide over family problems until he could get aid and find more funds to rebuild their family abode in Ambalangoda, near Galle. Kumar had also lent him a bat with which Tharanga scored a century soon after the tsunami had rendered his family homeless for quite a while.
"We are thinking the tsunami will come. Not today or tomorrow, but one day it will come," Tharanga was quoted as saying in a British newspaper. Those who have not been near enough to experience the horror of the tsunami will probably never know how haunting the fear can be when you live by the seaside. Such fatalism from someone as young as Tharanga is typical of those who live on the seaboard, so much has one event shaken their lives.
There is no record of any first class cricketer having been lost to the tsunami but Sri Lankan cricket did lose a very good friend in Jaliya Jayasuriya. He worked for years for the Singer company that used to sponsor all the international cricket in Sri Lanka and he was a dear friend of all those who played at that time. Jaliya used to love the sea.
He would invite me to the beaches of Batticaloa where a person can walk into calm water that is more than waist deep and cover a good kilometer or so off the shore without being in any danger. Driving along Lanka's western coast in a big car with his sons that fateful day, Jaliya was washed away. A measure of his popularity in the game was that more than 5,000 people were present at a memorial service.
The Galle cricket ground that was hit by the waves has recovered slowly from the catastrophe. That a Test is being played there even before the third anniversary of the tsunami that rolled off the Indonesian coast is a tribute to those in the game who believed it is possible to recreate the glory of an established Test venue. The match will be a moving tribute to the poor Asian souls and European holidaymakers who lost their lives to the terrible tsunami.
Republished with permission from The Asian Age
This week, cricket will have dealt with an immense amount of humane thoughts before the Galle Test match began late on Tuesday. Just a little less than three years ago, on December 26, 2004 to be precise, the tsunami came in a tidal wave of destruction, affecting many Asian countries along the seafront, hitting the Coromandel coast badly and devastating a Test match ground at Galle in south western Sri Lanka.
The off spinner Muttiah Muralitharan was fortunate in that he was 20 minutes late in driving with his manager towards Seenigama on the coast where a charity event sponsored by him was to be held. Fortunately, the traffic coming back at them in panic was so frantic and signalling the tragedy so loudly, Murali decided to turn back to Colombo.
India's current Test captain Anil Kumble may not have come so close to what was a very tragic event for the whole of humanity. Fortunately for him, he left the luxury beach resort hotel outside Chennai on Christmas Day that year. Had he and his family stayed another night, they would have been among those who had to scramble for their lives as the Bay of Bengal spewed seawater on the coast.
Some young cricketers from the slums around the Marina Beach were not so fortunate. Many were carried away from Chennai's pride of a beach as they played their own games of cricket on the sands. The tsunami struck at 8-46 am, early enough to catch the morning walkers along the promenade, many of whom perished.
Again, fortunately, it was early in the day rather than late evening when there would have been at least 20 games of tennis ball cricket on the Marina sands involving hundreds of cricketers, not to speak of the beach patrons and vendors. It was a Sunday too, which meant the toll could have been huge had the manic waves come late evening.
Upul Tharanga will go down as the only Test cricketer to have lost his house to the advancing sea on that fateful day. He had to depend on material and monetary support to the tune of Sri Lankan Rs 50,000 from club mate Kumar Sangakkara to tide over family problems until he could get aid and find more funds to rebuild their family abode in Ambalangoda, near Galle. Kumar had also lent him a bat with which Tharanga scored a century soon after the tsunami had rendered his family homeless for quite a while.
"We are thinking the tsunami will come. Not today or tomorrow, but one day it will come," Tharanga was quoted as saying in a British newspaper. Those who have not been near enough to experience the horror of the tsunami will probably never know how haunting the fear can be when you live by the seaside. Such fatalism from someone as young as Tharanga is typical of those who live on the seaboard, so much has one event shaken their lives.
There is no record of any first class cricketer having been lost to the tsunami but Sri Lankan cricket did lose a very good friend in Jaliya Jayasuriya. He worked for years for the Singer company that used to sponsor all the international cricket in Sri Lanka and he was a dear friend of all those who played at that time. Jaliya used to love the sea.
He would invite me to the beaches of Batticaloa where a person can walk into calm water that is more than waist deep and cover a good kilometer or so off the shore without being in any danger. Driving along Lanka's western coast in a big car with his sons that fateful day, Jaliya was washed away. A measure of his popularity in the game was that more than 5,000 people were present at a memorial service.
The Galle cricket ground that was hit by the waves has recovered slowly from the catastrophe. That a Test is being played there even before the third anniversary of the tsunami that rolled off the Indonesian coast is a tribute to those in the game who believed it is possible to recreate the glory of an established Test venue. The match will be a moving tribute to the poor Asian souls and European holidaymakers who lost their lives to the terrible tsunami.
Republished with permission from The Asian Age
