In a quest of bringing our readers the stories of living legends, ThePapare.com managed to speak with former Sri Lanka cricket captain and Stalwart, Duleep Mendis to ask about his experience as an international cricketer.
ThePapare.com in an interview with the cricket legend got some insights to his experience as a captain, and his experience at the world cups which he was apart of.
Slow start to international cricket
“After starting my international career in 1974, I took over the captaincy of the Sri Lanka national team in 1983 after Anura Tennakoon had skippered the side for five years. I had a very young side to marshal with the majority of the side leaving to South Africa. This was due to the fact that the bulk of the players departed to take part in the domestic competition in South Africa in 19981/82”.
“We had a few tours coming in to the 1983 World cup and soon after the majority of the players went to South Africa the rest of us left to Zimbabwe, where we had a very good tour. It was a new team altogether, and it was a case of re-building and a lot of people knew about the preparation but the players were new and they didn’t have experience. And as fortune had its own way it was during the rebuilding phase that we stumbled upon the 1983 World cup. During that time period there was a lot of struggles for Sri Lankan cricket which was at that time coached by a West Indian great, Sir Garry Sobers”.
The West Indian Greats
“The era belonged to the West Indians who had a lot of intimidating players including the fearsome quartet together with Vivian Richards and Clive Lloyd who was the captain. During 1974 when the mighty West Indians came on a tour to Sri Lanka, I was fighting for a place in the World cup squad. And they had a one day game in Colombo which was also a qualifier to get in to the national team. And in that match I was able to score a half century which gave me the push to get in to the World cup squad. After that I met the West Indians again in Moratuwa at the Tyrone Fernando stadium where we went against the likes of Malcolm Marshal and Norbert Philips where I scored another big innings which cemented my place in the squad. Facing the fearsome quartet which included Andy Roberts, Malcom Marshal, Michael Holding and the ‘Big bird’ Joel Garner was always a daunting task. We faced them in 1975, and just before the world cup we met them in Australia which was one hell of a struggle”.
Clive wears a helmet to face Rumesh
“During the Benson & Hedges trophy in Australia in 1975 we were invited to play amongst the world leaders, Australia and the West Indies in which we managed to win one game against the Australian side at the Melbourne cricket grounds, but could not beat the powerful West Indian lineup. The first time the big figured Clive Lloyd wore a helmet to face a bowler was when Rumesh Rathnayake was in full swing. Rumesh who had express pace had hit three batsmen before that game which made Clive come out with a helmet to face his rapid deliveries”.
“The second world cup which I captained was in 1987 and was won by Alan Borders team. The Sri Lankan team had a lot of problems and the side never played together and it was all divided. There were a few changes to the side which played the 1983 World cup but there were so many problems amongst the team members and I knew even before the World cup that we were not going to do well because it was all individual games that we were playing and however much we tried we could not put the team together. The 87 World cup is one World cup I would like to forget”!
