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| Monday, 21 February 2005 |
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Life and time in sports A. C. M. Lafir - Sri Lanka's stylish opener by Premasara Epasinghe Opening batsmen are explorers of cricket. Virtually everytime, they go out to bat, they are entering and unknown environment, unknown world and often an unfriendly territory. Therefore, opening positions are the most important positions in cricket. First and foremost, opener should know his strength and limitation and must have a clear view on how to play within both. Further opener require to understand the strengths and weaknesses of the opening bowlers.If you want to become a successful opener you must have a total commitment to your partner. Get to the bowlers end as much as possible Through experience as an opening batsman for more than two decades in school, university and club cricket, an important advise I can give to the budding openers is GET TO THE BOWLERS END. As much as possible. Why? If you are at the bowlers end, you cannot get out, except for an unfortunate run out. Rotate the strike. Then, the bowlers have a less chance of exerting pressure. You must not be afraid to fast bowlers. Have patience, determination, and concentrate. Do not throw you wicket. There were some outstanding openers in Sri Lanka in the past. Most of us have not seen M. K. Albert, who opened for All Ceylon in the 1930, against Australians, which included W. H. Ponsford, S. J. McCabe, D. G. Bradman, W. M. Woodful and V. Y. Richardson. From 1953 to 1970, A. C. M. Lafir, Ronald Ried, Makin Salih, were some of the outstanding Sri Lankan openers that I have seen and come to my mind of them, my cricketing idol was A. C. M. Lafir. I presume, he was the first Antonian to play for Sri Lanka. 26 First Class Centuries Lafir was a fine, technically sound opening batsman. Like Englishman Geoft Boycott. A. C. M. Lafir also grafts his runs. As an opener, he was a batting machine from 1953 to 1970. Abdul Lafir, represented Kandy United, Saracens, Colts, and Nomads in the Division One Circuit. He scored more than 26 centuries in first class cricket. He was born on 27th October 1935 at Katugastota. From his Childhood, he used to play Tennis Ball Cricket at the Rahula College grounds. His college opening partner Ronnie Stevens and middle order batsman Tom Deen also played along with him. It was late John Halangoda who spotted them. Lafir joined St. Anthony's College during Rev. Fr. D. A. Rossati OSB, an Italian Priest. Jack Anderson - AV 100.00 - Lafir AV. 106.00 in a school season Lafir played six years in the first XI. He captained college in the centenary year in 1954. He outshone his fellow Antonian famous Jack Anderson (1918) who scored 291 not out against S. Thomas' College Mount Lavinia. Anderson averaged 100 in 1918, scoring five centuries. Lafir's average was 106, scoring five centuries and amassing 1,000 runs in a season. St. Anthony's College. A great seat of learning in the hill Capital Lafir's appointment as the college captain proved a point. This great seat of learning St. Anthony's College, never believed in caste, creed, colour or religion. The merit, character, discipline, and performance was considered as the yardstick in selecting a captain. It was late Father Rossati - principal who nominated him. Record opening stand against Trinity Lafir, broke into the limelight as a schoolboy batting prodigy at the tender age of 18 years, when Ronald Stevens and he produced a sparkling record-breaking opening stand of 276 runs against their arch-rivals Trinity College. He scored 184 and his mate, Ronnie, a century. Galaxy of brilliant students During the centenary year 1954, not only in sports, but also academically St. Anthony's had a galaxy of brilliant students, who brought honour and glory to the college. Professor Dr. A. H. Sheriffdeen reputed and eminent surgeon who played for St. Anthonys - 1955-1957, Justice A. R. B. Amerasinghe, Thiagarajah - Chartered Accountant, Subramaniam - Engineer, late W. Premaratne and Anton Rambukpotha were some of them out of many stars. Lafir played against the visiting Englishmen in 1962. Sir Len Hutton two of the world great fast bowlers in that era Frank Tyson and Brian Statham played in the match and Lafir scored 27 runs. Going down memory lane, Lafir mentioned about his college champion outfit. Dream Team "I think the 1954 Antonian side that I captained was a dream team. It was a champion outfit. We had the best opening bowling combination Saliya Doranegama and Tom Deen. The best opening pair - Ronnie and Myself. Then there was late W. Premaratne (first Daily News schoolboy cricket 1956) N. G. Fernando. Brothers, late Ranjith Doranagama (younger brother of Saliya who captained St. Anthony's College in 1957). Our strategy was to see only five of us bat, pile a big score and declare. Nalanda-St. Anthony's First Encounter 1957 The 1954 Anthony's Dream Team was very much similar to Nalanda Team in 1957 when I represented. Nalanda-St. Anthony's first Inter-School cricket encounter was played in 1957. The champion Nalanda outfit was captained by that brilliant batsman Chandrasiri Weerasinghe. Sarath Silva and I opened the batting. Daya Illukkumbura, Mitra Siriwardene and Shirley Weerasinghe only batted, and Nalanda Team earned the title "Batting Machine" given by the late Christie Seneviratne "Wrong Un" of 'Daily News'. Nalanda too adopted the same tactics - Five of us to bat with a big score and declare early. Chandrasiri Weerasinghe scored 135 not out in 1957 against St. Anthony's. Some of the other teachers who helped Lafir during his school career were Father Rossati, Prefect of Games Brother Mackey, Masters in charge Robert Wright and Maurice Perera. Maurice Perera - A Great Teacher Through experience, I know, the success of a school cricket team mainly lies on the Master-in-Charge of cricket or Prefect of Games. Nalanda's cricket "Golden Era" dawned with T. Kandaswamy as the Master-in-charge from 1947-1957. Similarly, I presume, St. Anthony's "Golden Era" dawned with Maurice Perera, as Master-in-charge. Maurice represented St. Peter's College, and University of Ceylon and he captained the University and played with such eminent personalties like T. B. Werapitiya, S. J. Thambiya, Malcolm Wright, Rudra Rajasingham, Bradman and Ronnie Weerakoon etc. He was cricket commentator par excellence. "Maurice Perera was a brilliant and kind-hearted teacher. He was a great disciplinarian and a fine teacher. He guided our team to success. We are all indebted to him", stated Lafir. First centurion Lafir created history by notching the first century (110) against Tamil Nadu in Chennai at Chepank grounds, in the Gopalan Trophy encounter and followed it with a another hundred the following year in Colombo. He was later coached by the Great W. I. Learie Constantine. In 1957, he joined the Police Department and later served at Esso and Lever Brothers and worked in the Middle East for a couple of years. 84 against MCC One of his most memorable innings of Lafir was the 84 he scored against MCC lead by England skipper Ted Dexter. Unfortunately, after this innings, he never got an opportunity to represent his country again. He did some private cricket coaching and one of his product's was Asanka Gurusinha. |
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