Please call it the Dr. W. Dahanayake Stadium

It was in 1981 Sri Lanka was given “Test” status by the ICC. In fact, Ceylon, as it was known then known, should have been given the honour way back in mid-1940, When Sago Jayawickrama, M. Sathasivam, F.C. De Saram, Ben Navaratne and later Mahesh Rodrigo and C.I. Gunasekara, among others were cricketers of international standard. However discrimination kept us from Test Cricket arena. Bangladesh and Zimbabwe were given test status they were not anywhere near our standard of the past 50 years.

Admittedly Sri Lanka lacked venues outside Colombo to play international cricket; though Galle Esplanade staged several matches for the visiting foreign teams before, mid 1940 so a strong Indian cricket team captain by C.K Naidu play in Galle. I recall John Goddard’s West Indian play in Galle in 1949. I remember the burly West Indian fast bowler, John Trim, bowling and the bounce he got of the wicket was collected shoulder high by the wicketkeeper standing halfway between the stumps and the pavilion. Goddard’s at the end of the game commented that he wish to roll the wicket and take it with him. George Aiya the curator of the Galle wicket had neither qualification nor technical know-how; only experience was his asset. The main condition for Sri Lanka to get Test status was that the nation should have test playing venues outside Colombo. I like to recall sometime early 1982 the president of Sri Lanka, Honorable J.R. Jayawardene, Minister Gamini Dissanayake and some other ministers and parliamentarians of the south, along with the hierarchy of the Board of Control for Cricket in Sri Lanka gathered in the Galle kachcheri to decide on a cricket stadium in Galle. Also present was the mayor of Galle, Mr. Gunaratne. The proposal of the Galle Municipality was to construct the 36 million cricket stadium next to the Dadalla cemetery. In support of this, The Mayor Gunaratne while making a speech against making the Galle Esplanade a stadium, spoke at length about the ar- cheological value would be lost if the Galle Esplanade was made the stadium. President Jayawardena questioned him and said that we are here to decide about a cricket stadium and not discuss archeology. Mr. Gunaratne could not proceed with his speech and nervously sat down.

At the juncture Mr. Lionel Madugalle (Father of Ranjan), Director of sports at the time turned to me and requested that I make representation on behalf of Galle cricket. As I was the president of Galle district CA, I had to do this though unprepared. I presented our case in support of Galle Esplanade to be elevated to an international stadium. I said that the British the colonial power, used the ground through out 18th and the 19th century for their recreation; for horse racing, to play Golf, Cricket and Football. Gradually Esplanade became a venue for sports activities among Galle Schools. At the end of my speech Mr. Dahanayake who was the Minister in the president Jayawardene’s cabinet stood up and said that he agreed with Javadh of all what he said and added, “let us play our cricket at the Galle Esplanade and leave Dadalla for our last resting place”. President Jayawardena on returning to Colombo decided to support the project of the UNP mayor of Galle. Here too the politicians were indulging in their favourite past-time. I was very disappointed when I heard this. I rushed to Mr. Dahanayake and requested him to write a letter to the president to reconsider his decision. As there was no reply, I requested Mr. Dahanayake to write another letter strongly pressing the president to change his decision. A reply was finally received by Mr. Dahanayake asking him to do what he wanted. Thus Galle Esplanade was cleared to build a stadium to stage inter- national test matches. At this point I resigned and Mr. Dahanayake was made the president of Galle District CA. As we lacked funds, I requested Mr. Dahanayake to appeal to the government for a grant. Mr. Dahanayake retorted saying “don’t worry Javadh, leave the funding to me”. Mr. Dahanayake allocated rupees 4 million promised from his de-centralized budget and I requested the money to be routed through the Galle Municipality. The Galle MC was the owner of the grounds. Though there were major obstacles for our work along with Mr. Delpachithra of Galle CC who was the engineer, we manage to develop the grounds towards making it an international stadium. This was the 1st phase of the project.the Galle Stadium was named after Mr. W. Dahanayake and the building that contained this name was brought down as it was obstructing the view of the Galle ramparts. I urgently request the sports authority to restore the name “Dr. W. Dahanayake Stadium”.