Sangakkara delivery at Knox Tavern was awe inspiring
Kumar Sangakkara has quickly emerged as one of the most eloquent and prolific speakers of the modern era and his recent delivery at the Knox Tavern in Melbourne underscored what an impact he has had since that fantastic delivery at the Colin Cowdrey event at Lords in England which shot him to international acclaim.
Over 200 Sangakkara fans packed the Knox Tavern to capacity as Sangakkara , together with his best mate and Skipper Mahela Jayawardena spoke from the heart about the tremendous work that has been in progress in the Tsunami devastated areas and now the re-building of shattered homes and lives of the people of the north and east of Sri Lanka recovering from three decades of war.
The event was hosted by Knox Tavern owners David and Cathy Cruse with the help of the Sri Lanka –Australia Cricket Foundation headed by Dr, Quintus De Zilwa.
The Sri Lankans who rode high in the tri-nations series here in Australia commanded the respect of thousands of fans in the host nation apart from the expatriates despite facing elimination after a shock loss to India in their last match.
Among the distinguished guests at the lavish dinner event were Chairman of Cricket Australia Wally Edwards, Victorian Cricket CEO Tony Dodemaide and several other top officials of Australian cricket.
Some of Australia’s top Australian Football League players notably Hawthorn’s Brad Sewell were among those who showed up to listen to one of the best speakers of world sport.
Both Sangakkara and Jayawar- dena together with Foundation of Goodness leader Kushil Gunasekera, and former team mates Muttiah Muralitharan and Chaminda Vaas have banded together to provide shelter and relief to the thousands of people left homeless after the war mainly in the Jaffna and Batticaloa areas and their efforts have seen them leave no stone unturned to win the hearts of donors here in Australia and all over the world to meet their challenges.
Sangakkara said that Cricket which is embraced by the entire Sri Lanka population, has definitely been the binding factor that held societies together. He said that there was a new hope and vibrancy in the Foundation of Goodness objectives which is accelerating the relief work. But looking around at the large gathering he said, “All of you here today play an important part in making those objectives a reality”.
The function raised several thousand Australian dollars from auctions of memorabilia and at the end of his speech he left to a thundering ovation.
One of Melbourne’s top vocalists, Sri Lanka born Thilani Senn, provided a fantastic musical performance before the speeches got underway entertaining the crowd during dinner.