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| Test Cricket Tours - Sri Lanka to England 1984
| Tour of
England
1984 Captain: Duleep
Mendis | | | | | © Test Cricket Tours | | | Sri Lanka’s fourth Test tour (July -
September 1984) First
Test-playing tour of England
by Sri Lanka (no previous Test tour) | This was the third tour which
the Sri Lankans had made to England
in a five-year period (also 1979 and 1981), but it was the first to include a
Test match. The tour's sponsor was
Raja Mahendran; as Gamini Dissanayake’s number two in the Cricket Board in the
early eighties, he played a key role in footing the bill to take Sri Lanka
forward to Test status. Board President Dissanayake,
dismayed at Sri Lanka losing the Test series against New Zealand, got
national cricket coach Stanley Jayasinghe to coach the Sri Lankan pool of
leading cricketers though, due to bad weather, the pre-tour preparations amounted
to only five days of practice out of doors. Dissanayake also arranged for Ted
Dexter to be the team's consultant in England. The team included three
school students - Aravinda de Silva, Don Anurasiri and Marlon Von Hagt - who
had toured Australia with Sri Lanka's
under-19s in February. Tamil students running on to
the pitch on the first day of the Test match to demonstrate their separatist
claims were arrested and bound over to keep the peace for one year. Sidath Wettimuny was made a Wisden
Cricketer of the Year for his superb century in the Lord's Test match, in
which Sri Lanka
had the best of a drawn game. Amal Silva and Duleep Mendis also scored
centuries in the Test match, Mendis almost achieving the feat in both innings.
In the following 1984-85 season
Sri Lanka sent a team of 16
players to Australia
to take part in the Benson & Hedges World Series Cup and World
Championship of Cricket (one-day international tournaments) but the Sri
Lankans were not given Test match exposure. | Other
Sri Lankan Tours Previous
Test tour New Zealand 1982-83 Next Test
tour Pakistan 1985-86 Next England
tour 1988 | | | Members of the Test tour party (16
+ 1) Opening batsmen : Sidath Wettimuny,
Amal Silva, Marlon Vonhagt. Middle-order batsmen: Duleep Mendis, Aravinda de Silva, Roy Dias, Ranjan
Madugalle, Arjuna Ranatunga. Wicket-keeper: Guy De Alwis Spin bowlers: Don
Anurasiri, Somachandra de Silva, Mumtaz Yusuf. Fast bowlers:Ashantha de Mel, Vinodhan John, Ravi Ratnayeke, Anusha
Samaranayeke | S D Anurasiri | Pa | 18 | SLA | | | | | R G de Alwis | SSC | 25 | WK | | | | | A L F de Mel | SSC | 25 | RFM | | | | | D S de Silva | Mwa | 42 | LBG | | | | | P A de Silva | NCC | 18 | RHB | | | | | R L Dias | CCC | 31 | RHB vice-captain | | | | | V B J John | Bf'd | 24 | RFM | | | | | R S Madugalle | NCC | 25 | RHB | | | | | L R D Mendis | SSC | 31 | RHB captain | | | | | A Ranatunga | SSC | 20 | LHB | | | | | J Ravi Ratnayeke | NCC | 24 | LHB RFM | | | | | A D A Samaranayeke | NCC | 22 | RFM | | | | | S A R Silva | NCC | 23 | LHB second WK | | | | | D M Vonhagt | Ms | 19 | RHB opener | | | | | S Wettimuny | SSC | 28 | RHB opener | | | | | M Mumtaz Yusuf | SSC | 34 | OB | | | | |
| Average
age of team at time of first Test
match (23
August 1984) : 26
years 0 month Representation of clubs : B'fd: Bloomfield
(1) CCC: Colombo
(1) Ms: Moors
Sports Club (1) Mwa: Moratuwa
(1) NCC: Nondescripts (5) Pa: Panadura
(1) SSC: Sinhalese Sports Club (6) 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 | Madugalle 11, D S de Silva
11, S.Wettimuny 10, Mendis 9, Dias 8, Ranatunga 8, Ravi Ratnayeke 7, de Mel
6, de Alwis 5, John 5, Silva 1, P A de Silva 0, Anurasiri 0, Kuruppu 0,
Samaranayeke 0, Vonhagt 0, Yusuf 0. | | | | Tour Officials | N
Chanmugam | Manager | M Rajasingham | Assistant manager | G G A Saulez | Scorer | D V Smith | Coach |
Neilendran Chanmugam was
an off-spin bowler with Sinhalese Sports Club in the 1960s and 1970s who
later became the director of a TV company.
He continued as manager of the side on the 1984-85 tri-series tour of Australia. Muthuweli Rajasingham was
team manager for Sri Lanka's
inaugural Test match against England
in 1981-82 and assistant manager on the under-23 side's tour of Pakistan
in 1984, and he became a leading
member of the Sri Lankan Board. Ranjith
Fernando was originally made the assistant manager following the withdrawal
of Anura Tennekeoon, before he then also withdrew from the tour. | | | | Selectors | Abu Fuard (chairman of selectors), Neil
Chanmugan, Ranjith Fernando, Ian Pieris. | | | | Selection | Unavailable: Rumesh J Ratnayeke
(shoulder injury - his place was taken by Samaranayeke). Tour Party Announced : 6 July 1984. Not selected : Roshan Mahanama, Sanath Kaluperuma, Sumithra Warnakulasuriya. | Time
between selection and departure from Sri Lanka 13 days (6
July to 19 July) | | | Travel Colombo Q London | Four of the team, (Wettimuny,
Madugalle, de Mel and Aravinda de Silva) flew to England some weeks before the
start of the tour to practice at the M.C.C. indoor school at Lord's. Funded by the Sri Lankan Cricket
Foundation, they left on 7 July. The main team flew from Katunayake International
Airport, Colombo,
at midnight on Thursday 19 July, arriving the following day at London Airport
where they were met by Arthur Pinto, the Board's representative in England.
Practice sessions were held at The Oval next day. | Time
spent in England 50 days (20
July - 8 September) | | | On-tour selection panel | | | | | Reinforcements (1) | D B Kuruppu | Bfd | 22 | LHB second WK |
Brendon Kuruppu was brought in when Guy de Alwis returned home early.
De Alwis was ruled out of the tour in the second game with two broken
fingers in his left hand and arrived home on 23 August. Six of the tour party
suffered from food poisoning after an evening meal in Cleethorpes. Ranjan Madugalle was given a
black eye by a drunk who attacked him in Canterbury. | | | | Fixtures/Results | a | Cleethorpes | Nottinghamshire | Drawn | b | The Oval | Surrey | Lost 159 r | c | Cheltenham | Gloucestershire | Drawn | d | Southampton | Hampshire | Drawn | e | Canterbury | Kent | Drawn | f | †Arundel | Duchess Norfolk's XI | Won 1 w | g | Hove | Sussex | Drawn | h | LORD'S | ENGLAND Test Match | DRAWN | i | Birmingham | Warwickshire | Drawn | j | Scarborough | D B Close's XI | Drawn | | | | |
| † not first-class § one-day international Time spent in England before First Test: 34 days (20 July - 23 August) | | | Test appearances on tour | 1 - de Mel, Aravinda de
Silva, DS de Silva, Dias, John, Madugalle, Mendis, Ranatunga, Ratnayeke,
Silva, Wettimuny 0 - Anurusiri, de Alwis, Kuruppu, Samaranayeke, Vonhagt, Yusuf. | | | | 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 | | a | b | c | d | e | f | g | h | i | j | S D Anurasiri | | | | x | | | x | | x | x | R G de Alwis | x | x | | | | | | | | | A
L F de Mel | x | x | | x | | x | x | T | | x | D S de Silva | x | x | x | | x | x | | T | | | P A de Silva | | | x | x | x | x | x | T | x | x | R L Dias | x | x | x | x | x | x | x | T | x | x | V B J John | x | x | x | | x | x | | T | | | D B Kuruppu | | | | | x | x | | | x | x | R S Madugalle
| | x | x | x | | x | x | T | x | x | L R D Mendis | x | x | x | x | x | x | x | T | | | A Ranatunga | | x | x | x | x | x | x | T | x | x | Ravi Ratnayeke | x | x | x | x | | x | x | T | x | x | A Samaranayeke | | | | x | x | | x | | x | x | S A R Silva | x | | x | x | | | x | T | x | x | D M Vonhagt | x | x | | x | x | | | | x | | S Wettimuny | x | x | x | | x | x | x | T | | x | M M Yusuf | x | | x | | x | | | | x | | R E S U L T S | D | L | D | D | D | W | D | D | D | D |
| | | | Highlights | • Sidath Wettimuny's 190 at Lord's,
batting 642 minutes, was the longest innings played in a Lord's Test match. • Sri Lanka,
put in to bat by England,
racked up 491 for 7 declared. | | | | Tour Summary | | F | W | L | D | Aban | Test Matches | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | - | Other first-class
matches | 8 | 0 | 1 | 7 | - | ϯ Minor matches | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | - | § One-day internationals | 0 | - | - | - | - | All Matches | 10 | 1 | 1 | 8 | - |
| F Fixtures W Won
L Lost
D Drawn T Tied Canc Cancelled
Aban abandoned | | | Return to Sri Lanka London Q Colombo | The team returned from England on
Saturday 8 September 1984. They were given a team reception at Sugathadasa
Stadium, Colombo,
on Monday 10 September. Three team members (Aravinda
de Silva, von Hagt and Amal Silva) stayed back in England
and did not return to Colombo
until 24 September. | Time
away from Sri Lanka 52
days (19
July - 9 September) | | | Postscript | | | | | Other
Test tours in 1984 | Australians to England 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 | |
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