Ajith who gave a helping hand on the sly for the second Test New Zealand victory -- Story behind the screen

Ajith who gave a helping hand on the sly for the second Test New Zealand victory -- Story behind the screen

At the end of the fourth day of the five-day Test match between Sri Lanka and New Zealand played at Saravanamuttu grounds, both teams had not finished even the first innings. The fourth day night experienced heavy showers from 7 in the night till till dawn accompanied by lightning. By six in the morning what appeared beyond the covers laid over the ground was a lake filled with water. 

A miracle! Exactly at 10.15 in the morning, the match started without a drop of water on the ground
and New Zealand lost another wicket and the innings came to a close with results of the match being reported by 4.45 in the evening with the rest of the ten wickets of the Sri Lanka second innings crumbling down. 

With intermittent rains coming down 36.3 overs were sent down on the first day of the game. The second day witnessed 29.3 being bowled. It was sixty overs bowled on both days of the match. 48 overs were bowled on the fourth day. As such, it was something less than 114 overs that were bowled on all these three days. How was this game conducted bringing a result by going beyond the heavy showers that came down from first day till morning of the last day of the match?

The scene of a gang of young fellows struggling with the rain from the first day (21) till the end and thus protecting the pitch was indeed fantastic. No soon the rains came down, the young clan dart towards the pitch and lays the covers. As  soon as the rain ceases these young men get into swift action and remove the covers and hands over the ground once again. If something like this did not take place ... as it happened on a previous occasion the ground would be filled with water here and there, ultimately resulting in the match being postponed. This is still the present situation that prevails in other countries too. 

To cover the entire Saravanamuttu (Oval) playground from the pitch upto the boundary these youngsters require 24 covers hundred yards long and hundred wide. When the rains come down, what they initially do is take two covers on each side of the grounds and make a dart towards the ground and cover the pitch and surrounding area. Simultaneously on the other two sides another two covers are brought in and cover the direction from where bowlers operate. For this they expend a period of fifteen minutes. 

A staff of 120 are involved in in this combined effort. After the first four covers are laid, covers are brought from all sides by 25 young men running in and thus cover the ground completely. It takes them 15 - 20 minutes for this purpose. The leader behind this procedure is Ajith Priyantha. Everybody address him as Kumar. "I came to this playground to cut grass and to plant grass plants. At the time I came here, I was 17. Now my age is 35. At the time I came here the ground was being prepared by a Tamil female called Amarawathi. She has been serving here for quite a long time. Later I served in this playground under Saman Silva and after that, Jayaratna. Today I am the ground-master of the playground", Kumar said. 

"We have to remove the covers and attend to drying them only when those are completely soaked with water on top. It takes 40 - 45 minutes for that. The water so removed is sent down two gulleys through a drain system. Using two water-motors we divert this water with other water found flowing  in front across the Wanathamulla dirty water canal. If there is any water left anywhere in the grounds ... sponge is used and squeezed out after which saw dust is sprinkled on top of those places and then the playground is handed over to the custody of the umpires". Casually saying so, Kumar brought a smile on his face. He finally added, "However much it rains, we can protect the ground. 

If not for the duties of these young men, New Zealand achieving a win in the second Test would only be a dream. These youngsters attend to their duties with great effort. After their duties are over a person at a distance could observe how they sit on a side and watch the game with enthusiastically cheering the Sri Lankan players and applauding them by clapping. 

- Bandula Molligoda -