Salubrious SSC curated by late Ranil Abeynaike
DURING MY VISIT TO SLC PRESIDENT’S OFFICE YESTERDAY MONDAY DECEMBER 2 HAVING A GREAT VIEW FROM HIS LOUNGE OF THE SSC GROUND CONSIDERED TO BE THE BEST TEST VENUE AND TURF WICKETS IN SRI LANKA … THIS HAD BEEN MENTIONED BY NONE OTHER THAN THE LEGENDARY PAKISTANI CAPTAIN IMRAN KHAN WHEN HE FIRST PLAYED THERE MANY YEARS …AT THAT TIME THE SSC CURATOR WAS LATE RANIL ABEYNAIKE GENTLEMAN CRICKETER & GREAT FRIEND / FORMER COLLEAGUE AT LEVER BROTHERS CEYLON LTD DURING EARLY 1970’S.
RANIL LATER WAS ALSO AN EDITORIAL CONTRIBUTOR FOR OFFICIAL PUBLICATIONS OF SLC, AN OPPORTUNITY GIVEN TO HIM BY ME WHEN I WAS SLC’S HEAD OF MARKETING 2006 – 2012.
FURTHERMORE, MYSELF AS THE PRESIDENT OF MORATUWA CRICKET COUNCIL WAS ABLE TO GET HIM APPOINTED AS THE CONSULTANT CURATOR OF THE DE SOYSA STADIUM MORATUWA DURING THE CONVERTION OF THE WICKETS FOM MATIN TO TURF UNDER RANIL’S SUPERVISION, HE ALSO TRAINED LATE MARIAN COORAY TO TAKE OVER DUTY AS THE FIRST CURATOR OF THE DE SOYSA STADIUM MORATUWA’S TURF WICKETS … BOTH RANIL AND MARIAN HAVE SADLY LEFT THIS WORLD, MAY THEIR SOULS RIP.
Venues, the first Pulse to the Generating Action
SSC 57TH WORLD TEST VENUE
FOOTNOTE BY EDITOR IN CHIEF
It is the cricket venues so aesthetic looking to the eye that gives cricket lovers that first adrenaline pumping mood that binds man to this great noble game that has descended down the ages of time to coloring the lives of players as well as fans and all and sundry to whom today lapping up the action has become a magnetising passion down the ages of time.
Indeed, the cricket grounds or on a more action generating pun – the playing fields have become by and large the fermenting tonic to the game of cricket when one enters the surrounding seatings of a venue in that familiar pre match lull before all the action in the field unfolds.
Of the hundred and twenty-three grounds thathave hosted men’s Test cricket since the first officially recognised Test match between Australia and England in Melbourne in March 1877, Sri Lanka’s Sinhalese Sports Club Grounds (SSC) has come to be listed as the 57th world test venue.
Nestling in the groovy Colombo 7 climes, the SSC as it has become to be popularly known has been interlinked with the country’s cricket as a binding component that has served in keeping the game alive as a much looked to venue.