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Sunday, Dec 16, 2007
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A race against time at Galle Stadium

Paul Weaver

The third Sri Lanka-England Test will be played from Tuesday

Galle: In Sri Lanka survival means something more profound than getting through another doosra-laden over from Muttiah Muralitharan. Galle, where the England players arrived on Friday, is a three-hour drive down the psychotic coastal road from Colombo, past the somnolent village of Bentota and the surfers’ sea at Hikkaduwa.

With its natural harbour, magnificent 16th-century Dutch fort, colonial villas and breathtaking beaches, this is one of the most beautiful graveyards in the world. Three years ago, on Boxing Day, the great calamity of the tsunami struck Sri Lanka, most brutally on the south of the island, and Galle is still grieving for its dead.

The third Test will start here on Tuesday and the ground resembles some stricken ocean liner that has been raised from the depths. One of the most picturesque venues in the world game was not only a casualty but also a symbol of the disaster that killed a conservatively estimated 31,000 in Sri Lanka. Cars, vans and even a bus floated across the ground after the collision of waves in the Indian Ocean before the area became a centre for bewildered survivors.

A helipad was set up beside the ground and in the outfield the homeless huddled amid the flotsam and jetsam of the terrible flood.

Jayananda Warnaweera, 10 times a Sri Lanka Test cricketer, is the ground’s manager and it is hardly surprising that he looks older than his 47 years. With his battered cap and red, distant eyes, he looks and sounds like a salty sea captain relating a maritime disaster. On his lap, he cradles the picture of the floating bus, which became one of the iconic images of the tsunami.

“The government said we couldn’t build here, in case another tsunami came,” he said. “But we waited. It was always my dream to build another stadium here and now Test cricket is getting back its most beautiful ground.”

Warnaweera was not at the ground when the tsunami struck but Wilson Kulasuriya, the provincial executive of the Southern Province Cricket Association, was.

“It was a holiday. But I had work to do so I went to office,” he recalled. Harrow School under-15s were preparing to play a local side when the big wave struck and they had to run for their lives. Julian Ayer, a stepfather of one of the boys, was on his way to see him play when his bus was hit and he was drowned. His widow, Harriet Crawley, has donated £50,000 to Galle Cricket Club and the money has helped rebuild the indoor school. Today a number of players will attend post-tsunami functions. And in Hikkaduwa the Foundation of Goodness charity will oversee the opening of the MCC Centre of Excellence.

Brearley to attend

Mike Brearley, the MCC president, will be the chief guest. A special Twenty20 match will be played between MCC and Sri Lanka XI and there will be a three-day MCC Spirit of Cricket Challenge camp for local schoolchildren.

“I am very much looking forward to seeing these post-tsunami projects,” said Brearley. “After the one-off fundraising match in 2005 we can help rebuild an area that was greatly affected by the events of December, 2004. Our coaches might even unearth the next Murali or Malinga.”

Back in Galle, the International Stadium looks like one of those half-finished Spanish hotels that does not live up to the artist’s impression in the brochure.

It is little better than a bombsite and more rain on Friday further hampered a project that only got underway three months ago. There is a workforce of about 400 working 24 hours a day, seven days a week, though Warnaweera denied rumours that he had to bring in Chinese labourers to help out.

There are no buildings on the fort side of the ground. On the other side, strange gaps yawn like modern-day slip cordons. There is virtually no seating and temporary stands are being rushed in. Ticket prices have been halved, which suggests that the authorities do not expect the facilities to be up to St. John’s Wood standards.

The outfield is uneven. The covered pitch must be sweating. It was very bouncy, according to Warnaweera, when a practice match was played there 10 days ago. But before Steve Harmison and the boys get excited he added: “But it won’t be for the Test match!”

The ground will be all right on the morning, insists Warnaweera. And in a ramshackle way it probably will be. “I’m taking a day off after the match,” he says, hoping it will not be on Friday.

Wilson Kulasuriya will be there, too. And the billiards scoreboard that registered not the details of a ball game but the fact that a man was saved in the disaster of tsunami. © Guardian Newspapers Limited, 2007

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