| Tour of
India
1982-83 Captain: Bandula
Warnapura | |
| | | © Test Cricket Tours | |
| Sri Lanka’s second Test tour (September
1982) First
Test-playing tour of India
by Sri Lanka (no previous Test tour) | Sri Lanka had previously toured India as ‘Ceylon’ three times
(1932, 1941, 1964) and most recently in 1980-81 apart from many visits for
the annual Gopalan Trophy fixture against Madras (later Tamil Nadu). The Sri Lankans may have expected to do well in the one-day
international series but lost all three matches chiefly because their bowlers
were unable to combat the strokeplay of India's dashing batsmen like Kris
Srikkanth. In the Test match at Madras India ran up a massive first innings but the
tourists fought back determinedly, and in the end India had to call off its run
chase to win the match and settle for a draw. Asantha de Mel, with 5 for 68,
heroically thwarted India's
attempt to score 175 runs they needed to win the Test. Duleep Mendis was made an Indian Cricketer of the Year for
scoring centuries in each innings of the Test match but Roy Dias played the
innings of the tour, 97 in 108 balls in the second innings at Madras. These two were at the time being enticed to
lead the Arosa Sri Lankans in South Africa
but the award of captaincy and vice-captaincy on the next tour to New Zealand
helped ensure they would not be tempted to do so. | Other
Sri Lankan Tours Previous
tour To Pakistan
1981-82 Next
tour To New Zealand 1982-83 Next
tour of India 1986-87 | |
| Members of the Test tour party (14 + !) Opening batsmen: Sidath
Wettimuny, Bandula Warnapura Middle-order batsmen : Roy Dias, Duleep Mendis, Ranjith Madugalle,
Arjuna Ranatunga, Bernard Perera Wicket-keeper Mahes
Goonetilleke Spin bowlers : Ajit de Silva, Somachandra
de Silva Fast bowlers: Ashantha de Mel, Ravi Ratnayeke, Anura Ranasinghe,
Vinodhan John | A L F de Mel | SSC | 23 | RFM | | D S de Silva | Mwa | 40 | LBG | | G R A de Silva | Bf'd | 29 | SLA | | R L Dias | CCC | 29 | RHB | | H M Goonetillake | Knd | 30 | RHB opener WK | | V B J John | Bf'd | 22 | RFM | | R S
Madugalle | NCC | 23 | RHB | | L R D Mendis | SSC | 30 | RHB vice-captain | | J B N
Perera | Kdy | 26 | RHB | | A N
Ranasinghe | Bf'd | 25 | RHB LM | | A Ranatunga | SSC | 18 | LHB | | J Ravi
Ratnayeke | NCC | 22 | RFM | | B Warnapura | Bf'd | 29 | RHB opener captain | | S Wettimuny | SSC | 26 | RHB opener | |
| Club representation: B'fd: Bloomfield
(4), CCC: Colombo
(1) Kdy: Kandy
CC (2) Mwa: Moratuwa (1) NCC: Nondescripts (2) SSC: Sinhalese Sports Club (4) Average
age of team at time of first Test
match (17 September 1982) : 27
yrs 1 months. Key to type : LHB left-hand bat, LBG leg break and googly bowler, OB off break, SLA slow left-arm bowler, RFM right arm fast medium bowler | |
| Test Appearances made before the tour | de Mel 4, D S deSilva 4, Dias 4, Goonetillake 4, Madugalle 4, Mendis 4, Wettimuny 4, GRA deSilva 3, Ranatunga 3, Warnapura 3, Ravi Ratnayeke 2, Ranasinghe 1, John 0, Perera 0, Rumesh Ratnayeke 0. | | |
| Tour Officials | C T A Shaffter | Manager | A Polonowita | Assistant manager |
| | |
| Selectors | M
A H Fuard (chairman), L N G Rodrigo and W
A N Silva. Lasantha Rodrigo was a
batsman for Sinhalese Sports Club who represented Ceylon in the 1960s, as did Abu
Fuard who was later one of the country's best coaches. W A N (Wickrama Arachige Nandasena) Silva
of Panadura Sports Club, and then Bloomfield until 1972, became the Sri
Lankan Board's Director of Coaching (interview). | | |
| Selection | Unavailable: R S A Jayasekera (emigrated to Canada). Tour Party Announced : The Sports Minister
Vincent Perera approved the 14-man tour party on 19 August 1982. Vinodhan John was the only new player. D S de Silva was chosen but was asked to
clarify his availability concerning his injured arm. Stand-bys: Rochana S Jayawardene (Royal), Guy de Alwis
(SSC), Rumesh Ratnayeke (NCC) | Time between selection and departure from Sri Lanka 22 days (19 August to 10 September) | |
| Travel Colombo Q New Delhi | Before the tour practice
matches took place between Mahes Goonetilleke's XI and Bandula Warnapura's
XI. The team flew out of Colombo to New
Delhi on 10 September 1982. This date was postponed from 8 September
because the date of the ODI at Amritsar
had been shifted. | Time spent in India x days (10 September - depart Host) | |
| On-tour selection panel | Schaffter, Polonowita,
Warnapura, Mendis. | | |
| Reinforcements (1) | When Asantha De Mel was
suffering from stomach illness and exhaustion, manager
Schaffter requested a replacement player.
Rumesh J
Ratnayeke, aged 19, flew in to Madras on 16 September. | | |
| Fixtures/Results | a | § Amritsar | India (1st ODI) | Lost 78 r | b | † New Delhi | Delhi (50 overs) | Won 12 r | c | § New Delhi | India (2nd ODI) | Lost 6 w | d | MADRAS | INDIA Test Match | DRAWN | e | § Bangalore | India (3rd ODI) | Lost 6 w |
| † not first-class § one-day international Time spent in India before
First Test: 7 days (10 - 17 September) | |
| Test appearances on tour | 1 - de Mel, D.S.de Silva, Ajit de Silva, Dias, Goonetillake,
Madugalle, Mendis, Ranasinghe, Ranatunga, Ravi Ratnayeke, Warnapura. 0 - John, Perera, Rumesh J Ratnayeke, Wettimuny. | | |
| Match appearances T Test match o one-day international x other match ⊕ T/20 international - teams not announced W won L lost D drawn T tie N no result A abandoned u unknown result C cancelled On his second overseas Test tour Bernard Perera at last got on
the field in the match against Delhi | | a | b | c | d | e | A L F de Mel | o | x | o | T | o | D S de Silva | o | | | T | o | G R A de Silva | | x | o | T | | R L Dias | o | x | o | T | o | H M Goonetillake | o | x | o | T | o | V B J John | o | x | o | | o | R S Madugalle | o | x | o | T | o | L R D Mendis | o | | o | T | o | J B N Perera | | x | | | | A N Ranasinghe | o | | o | T | | A Ranatunga | | x | | T | | J Ravi
Ratnayeke | o | x | o | T | o | Rumesh Ratnayeke | | | | | o | B Warnapura | o | x | o | T | o | S Wettimuny | o | x | o | | o | R E S U L T S | L | W | L | D | L |
| | |
| Highlights | • Duleep
Mendis was the first Sri Lankan to score a century in each innings of a Test
match (both scores 105). • Asantha
de Mel, with 5 for 68, heroically thwarted India's attempt to score 175 runs
needed to win the Test. • When
dismissing Gavaskar, leg-spinner D S de Silva took his 200th wicket in
first-class cricket | | |
| Tour Summary | | F | W | L | D | Aban | Test Matches | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | - | Other first-class
matches | 0 | - | - | - | - | ϯ Minor matches | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | - | § One-day internationals | 3 | 0 | 3 | 0 | - | All Matches | 5 | 1 | 3 | 1 | - |
| F Fixtures W Won
L Lost
D Drawn T Tied Canc Cancelled
Aban abandoned | |
| Return to Sri Lanka x
Q Colombo | (Last match ends at Bangalore 26 September) . | Time away from Sri
Lanka
x days (10 September to | |
| Finances | The tour was guaranteed that Rs 3½ lakhs
would be paid for the five matches played. | | |
| Postscript | | | |
| Other
Test tours in 1982-83 | Australians to | © 2015 | |
| Acknowledgements
To
general reading of The Times newspaper
digital archive (Gale Group); Jamaica
Gleanor archive; National Library of
Australia Trove; Papers Past NZ. From
former British Newspaper Library, Colindale and online: The Age, Melbourne Argus, Bangladesh Daily
Star, Barbados Advocate, Canberra Times, Daily Telegraph, Dawn, Eastern Daily
Press, The Hindu, The Independent (Dhaka), Indian Express, The Island
(Lanka), Lahore Times, New Nation, New Zealand Auckland Herald, Sri Lanka
Daily News, Stabroek News, Straits Times, Sydney Morning Herald, The
Telegraph (Calcutta), Times of India , The Tribune Chandigarh, Trinidad
Guardian, The West Australian. cricketweb.net; ESPN cricinfo; cricket archive; www.cricketcountry;
www.coverpoint Magazines/periodicals
including Australian Cricket, B & H West Indies Annual, The Cricketer
International, Cricketer Quarterly, Indian Cricket, Indian Cricket Field
Annual, Playfair Cricket Monthly, Shell Cricket Almanack of New Zealand,
Wisden Cricket Monthly, Wisden Book of Test Cricket, Wisden’s Cricketers’
Almanack. Men In
White, A History of Australian Cricket (Harte), A History of Indian Cricket
(Bose), A History of West Indies Cricket
(Manley) Biography and tour books (own collection and at the M.C.C. Library
at Lord’s Ground) © ALL CONTENTS OF THE
TEST-CRICKET-TOURS.CO.UK WEBSITE ARE COPYRIGHT | |