As cricket hits the dumps, village boys call the shots

How one man, unknown to many, plays no politics and is raising the lifestyles of countless numbers in sport and welfare

The champion Sri Sumangala Central, Hikkaduwa squad comprised Shanuka Denuwan, Chamantha Kavishan, Vinod Dhanushka, Kaveesha Sandaruwan (captain), Tharun Damsith, Lakith Neminda, Matheesha Sankalpa, Vihanga Nimsara, Senuka Kalhara, Pamod Himsara, Kaushalya Saranga, Sohan Isiwara, Jamith Madubhashana, Praveen Rodrigo

By Callistus Davy

Parents, teachers, masters and coaches rushed into a small hall that was arranged for a band of village cricketers to be felicitated after a promising show. 

Seated in the front row of seats was one of Sri Lanka’s finest cricketing gentlemen in Sidat Wettimuny along with former Sri Lanka Cricket secretary Kushil Gunasekera whose humanitarian Foundation of Goodness (FOG) organised the simple ceremony to honour the cricket team of Sri Sumangala College in Hikkaduwa that won a record 16 matches on the trot outright in the 2024 season.

Last week it was time for the budding cricketers of the school to go a step further like angry pups as they bagged the all-island inter school Second Tier limited overs championship in the very first season of a promotion.

It was a fitting tribute to Gunasekera whose FOG sponsors Sri Sumangala’s cricket team that on Wednesday hit the headlines once again when an obscure left arm spin bowler Sanjana Nethupul grabbed all ten wickets in the second innings against Henegama Central to join a select band of players. 

Nethupul was identified in the rustic environs of a village school in the Hambantota district that plays no cricket and brought under the care of Gunasekera’s cricket academy which is part of the FOG.

“If there can be more people like Kushil Gunasekera you can just image what we Sri Lankans cannot do.He made it all happen at a school that five years ago had no cricket for seniors”, said Sri Sumangala’s coach Lakmal Dissanayake.

Nobody could have been as elated as Gunasekera whose FOG has been working behind the scenes while raising the living standards of not just cricketers and their sidelined parents but providing entire villages with education, healthcare, employment, computer literacy, information technology and even marine diving and swimming lessons.

When a former Sri Lanka Cricket official once asked Gunasekera whether he would be interested in making a comeback into cricket administration, he shot back without batting an eyelid. “I prefer to stick to helping the rural poor”, Gunasekera replied.

Gunasekera and the cricketers of Sri Sumangala College are unlike any other and he has reached out to teenage hopefuls not only in the south of the country but also in the once war-ravaged Jaffna district who have made the grade with Sri Lanka’s junior teams.

To make all of it possible Gunasekera played and plays no politics with politicians. He has cultivated foreign entities associated with cricket, pop music stars and Olympians who are his patrons. The doors are open for him at the Maryleborne Cricket Club (MCCC) that is the custodian of the laws of cricket where he holds membership as well as hobnobs with the elite at Lord’s in England.

A year before Sri Sumangala made headlines, another school also in the Galle district, Devapathiraja College, won the top division all-island Under-17 limited overs championship by beating the fancied schools in the country and it was hard to figure out who was the happier of the two, the players or Gunasekera whose FOG is the godfather of Devapathiraja.

Unknown to many, seven girls from Devapathiraja which is known as a mixed school made it to the Sri Lanka women’s team. “We are a feeder to the nation”, Gunasekera told the Daily Mirror when asked if he saw himself as an unsung messiah.

Besides being able to earn the patronage of overseas cricket celebrities, Gunasekera has been able to invite youth teams from England, South Africa and Australia that make regular visits to Sri Lanka while at the same time is able to host some of the world’s most influential cricket benefactors from English counties. He built and maintains a ground which has turf pitches for Sri Sumangala and Devapathiraja cricketers to call their own, second only to a similar venue at Mahinda College and went further and deeper to construct a swimming pool with funds provided by Canadian singer, songwriter and record producer Bryan Adams who auctioned his guitar to raise money.

Teenage boys and girls from nearby villages and towns are also afforded the opportunity to use the swimming pool that bears the rock star’s name and five times US Olympic Gold medallist swimmer Missy Franklin has seen it with her own eyes.

For Gunasekera no ocean is too deep and no boundary is hard to cross. He is someone who has won the world and Sri Lankan boys and girls, who would have otherwise had no purpose in life, are winning because of Gunasekera.