Former All Ceylon cricketer C.T.A Schaffter, delivering the inaugural Bandula Warnapura Memorial Lecture, said the country’s cricketing firmament will need to overcome interference from politicians, if it is to witness a vibrant and professional set up.

He said such a professional administration would sustain the country’s production line of players who are able to face challenges both on and off the field, but regretted that a framework of that scale was not in existence in Sri Lanka.

“Unfortunately today, there are problems within every sphere of cricket,” the 94-year-old legendary ex-All Ceylon fast bowler said in his keynote address at the Nalanda College Auditorium last morning (6).

“As cricket is popular, people always see something insidious taking place and there are so many people who want to get to the top rung. And in their attempt to get there, they do something which is ‘not cricket’, and unless the administration is built up and the politicians stop interference, I feel things may not change. There are so many people who want to have a finger in the pie and that is the curse of cricket in Sri Lanka.”

The former Sri Lanka manager singled out the country’s first-ever Test skipper, the late Bandula Warnapura as a cricketer who had impressed him most for his character and integrity, over his exploits in the sport.

He recalled how the former illustrious old boy of Nalanda, who had been representing Bloomfield, had fought hard to select a player for the lone remaining place in the national team from rival club SSC, by the name of Arjuna Ranatunga, over one of his teammates the late Anura Ranasinghe.

Schaffter, a double international, remembered that though he had championed the cause of Ranasinghe, as the then team manager, Warnapura had stood hard on behalf of the country’s 1996 World Cup-winning captain.

The former Thomian pace bowler said that ultimately an injury sustained by another regular player had eventually opened the door for Ranasinghe, to also be selected to the national team.

He also described the ban imposed on the late Warnapura and his then-cricketing colleagues for undertaking a rebel tour of South Africa, who were then ostracised over its apartheid policies by the rest of the cricketing world, as sad and unfortunate.

The ex-cricketer who also excelled in hockey, added that Warnapura, who passed away in 2021 aged 68, had always maintained that the then-Board of Control for Cricket in Sri Lanka (BCCSL) had never advised them to refrain from touring the Republic.

He remarked that ultimately the former opener had taken the BCCSL for an inquiry where he too had given evidence, after which Warnapura and Co. had been exonerated of their involvement in the rebel tour.

Schaffter mentioned that the tumultuous incident in the local cricketing firmament had sadly forever stained the cricketing image of those who undertook the controversial tour over four decades ago.    

Schaffter, who is widely recognised as the father of Sri Lanka’s insurance sector, advised Nalandians to strike a balance in both studies and sports without neglecting one over the other.

The President of the Old Nalandians Sports Club (ONSC) Dinuk Chandrarathna made the welcome address.

He emphasised that his association will look to model the Bandula Warnapura Memorial Lecture on the lines of the Cowdrey Lecture which is an annual event organised by the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) at Lord’s.