by Saduni Kulatunga
The pitch is the centerstage where men in white enliven the play called “cricket” with bat and ball. Like Shakespearean archaism,the language of cricket blasts with runs,wickets and tons ever since the advent of first-class cricket.A playgoer in first-class cricket who reached the pinnacle of success in the Post Satha-De Saram era,the gifted all-rounder is none other than Gamini Goonesena.
Gamini Goonesena was born on the 16th of February,1931.Having spent 9 years of his childhood in Kenya,Goonesena attended “Eton of Sri Lanka” for his education which paved the way for the startup of his prestigious cricket career.Colonel.F.C De Saram,the royalist coach was able to behold the potential in Goonesena and without a second thought he was placed among the stars of the college cricket team for the Royal-Thomian encounter in the weekend.So in 1947,this 16 year-old lad saw himself scorching the pitch of P Sara Oval and as the youngest in the team and to everybody’s surprise he took 4 Thomian wickets for 46,leading Royalists to take the trophy home.That was this leg spinner’s debut Big match which he conquered without any prior run up match experience before the encounter of 1948.
Gamini’s commitment to the game of cricket was surprisingly stunning.Giving an end to his royal schooling days.He represented Ceylon in a match against Pakistan in 1950 before leaving the country and matriculated at the Royal Air Force college,Cranwell to start off his career as a pilot.His first-class debut happened somewhere in between where he played for Tom Pearce’s XI in England against Essex in 1952 taking down 8 wickets.But he was destined to conquer the centerstage of cricket,in which he gave up on his flight career to play county cricket for Nottinghamshire.Therefore, in 1953 he initiated with 379 runs and 47 wickets for his first year at Notts.
1954 was a good year for Gamini .He attended University of Cambridge to acquire a degree in Law while having the privilege to play for the Glorious Cambridge team as well as Notts.At Cambridge,he beautifully conquered 52 matches.
He had a very intimate relationship with cricket ever since his schoolboy days.Just like his cricketing mentor FC De Saram he could acquire a Cambridge blue in 1954 in cricket for 664 runs and even coveted a double blue in spotlight with 134 magnificent wickets and 1380 runs in 1955.
In 1957,Goonesena became the very first Asian player to have captained the Cambridge Cricket team. As a skipper and a man who romanticized cricket recorded his top score of 211,in the university match at Lord’s.
Even though majority of his plays were based overseas, he never forgot to serve his motherland.In 1965,he was honored as Ceylon’s representative at the ICC Conference and he served as the president of Colts Cricket Club too.He took to commentary as a test match commentator for Sri Lankan Television and Radio and also joined BBC where he roared for Sri Lanka against England in 1984 and 1988 and finally retired in 2004.
His style was exceptional.As a right-handed batsman and a prowess who bowled leg breaks and googlies,he claims ownership to a prestigious first-class career for over 19 years,an ardent delegate of 14 teams with 5751 mind-blowing runs,bragging 3 centuries and 24 halves in 194 matches and having chased out 674 wickets,taking 108 catches,Goonesena enchanted home and overseas with his handsome charms.
On the 1st of August 2011,Gamini Goonesena bid his final farewell to the fields as well as to the whole world,leaving behind all his scintillating and unforgettable stories for generations to witness and memorize.
After his crcricketing carrier coming to an end for domastic scene he served role model for many young cricketers emerged in the country .Michal Tissera ,D.S de Silva and royalist Asitha Jayaweera could be examples .
Gamini was my late father’s ( 1927-2019 ) favourite player and being a ardent follower of the game he told us so many interesting stories about him.He lamented that board of control for cricket in srilanka had not been keen on obtaining his service when srilankan unofficial squad embarked on two world cup tours to England in 75 & 79 .According to my father Gamini Goonasena was the best person to be appointed as the tour manager .