Day 13 - Saying Goodbye

A wonderful tour has come to an end. All blog entries have taken shape on an i-pad, so apologies for any auto-corrected spelling errors, and for the landscape photos which spill over the right-hand margin. Thanks for reading.

Last night, we had an end of tour prize-giving ceremony. It was a chance to say a warm thank you to Tikeri, Saman and Praem - our invaluable guide, assistant and driver - as well as handing out inflatable ducks to three who struggled with the bat at some point on tour... As a final treat, Russell Arnold addressed the group. The ex-Sri Lankan international and current Sky commentator was staying at our hotel, commuting to nearby Galle for the first test between Sri Lanka and South Africa. He encouraged the students to see cricket as a way of life, reminding them that "a good person makes a better cricketer; a good cricketer does not necessarily make a better person." The tour party concluded with a rousing rendition of the much-loved local classic "No Bananas Today", with support from the hotel band, culminating in a conga march around the pool area.

A few final facts and figures:

9 - highest number of wickets taken on tour: Harjeet Ahluwalia.

219 - most runs scored on tour: Zakhir Tunda (43.8 average).

3-22 - best bowling figures in a single innings: Hari Badale.

0 - number of hairs on his head: Angus Lintern.

162 - highest number of balls bowled on tour: Peter McClaughlan.

7,214 - cumulative number of minutes late from messrs Carson, Ginty and Pickering.

4 - Number of languages spoken by our legendary local guide Tikeri (including Swedish).

Most improved player: Shakeel Khurshid.

Best tourist: Hamish Watson.

Excellent captaincy (on and off the field): Hari Badale (Badale).

17 - toys thrown out of the pram by Savage.

2 - eruptions from Mount Tunda.

63 - nominations for Louis Pieris to wear the pink shirt.

Biggest war-wound - Kelvin "Killer" Brenner.

0 - number of bananas today.

It's been a pleasure; have a great summer all.

Day 12 - Final Games at the Foundation of Goodness

In absolutely blistering heat, Latymer played their final two tour games against the Foundation of Goodness team at the Seenigama Oval.

This was the final chance to represent Latymer for our departing upper sixth: Tom Lazarus, James Murdoch, Tom Savage, Cameron Sell and Zakhir Tunda. They gave their all on the hottest day of the tour thus far, and several of them played both games, testament to the commitment they have all shown to Latymer cricket over the last seven years.

           The boys in blue take to the field...

In our early morning fixture, Kelvin Brenner's 20, Tom Carson's 19, and Luke Ginty's positive, well-worked 37 saw us recover from 34-5 to post a defendable total of 127 from 20 overs. In the field, we kept fighting (with Angus Lintern's consistent energy being particularly commendable), but we ultimately could not contain the class of the opposition batsmen. It was a similar story in the second fixture after lunch: four players made double figures, but struggled to convert these into big scores, though Joe Gregory's quick-fire 22 gave us a respectable score. Our biggest bowling threat came from Tom Savage, who showed real class today and justifiably earned three wickets whilst wearing the Latymer blue for the final time.

Today's opponents play cricket 365 days a year; partly due to the climate, partly due to their absolute passion for the sport. Living in England, Latymer students can never hope to achieve the former, but if they take even just a slice of the Sri Lankan fanaticism for the sport home, then this tour can be considered a whole-hearted success.

In a change from an excess of cricket stats, and in lieu of yesterday's word-heavy blog entry due to issues uploading photos, a photo essay follows. It should help in illuminating the Foundation of Goodness' origins and vision; I hope their convincing execution of this vision is clear to see.

This all-too-long list of victims - all from the same small village of Seenigama - explains the catalyst behind the Foundation's operations.

Note the 9 sports in operation weekly, the 11 MCC scholarships per year, the 13 international sportsmen and women produced in recent years, the recent visit of Tesco Commercial Director Kevin Grace last week, and more.

Latymer students coaching three after-school sports sessions.

The vast range of the Foundation's operations ensures the entire community benefits - all free of cost.

Local students enjoy lunch-time on the beach, with fishing boats anchored nearby.

The Foundation's key areas of operation in Seenigama: the centre of excellence and the sports ground, both bristling with activity and smiles during our visits. (Nb, both posters recently designed by one of the Foundation's adult learners who a year ago had never touched a computer).

Day 11 - The Foundation of Goodness

Today we visited The Foundation of Goodness, which is surely one of the best community work projects in the world. Set up to support the village of Seenigaman in 1999, the organisation really took off after the 2004 tsunami's devastating impact on the local area and, indeed, much of Sri Lanka.

Principal support and fund-raising came from the cricketing community, with the M.C.C. offering generous contributions, and they continue to offer 11 combined cricketing and academic scholarships a year. The Foundation's actively involved trustees reads like a who's who of cricketing greats: Muralitharan, Sangakkara, Jayawardena, Vaas, and more.

The educational centre runs practical courses during the day for adult learners (we dropped in on a photoshop lesson of inducted on brand-new computers donated by Microsoft) as well as offering community medical services, all free of charge. Later in the day, the centre comes alive with local students who come for extra after-school lessons and activities. These are all staffed by members of the village (and an internationally diverse mix of volunteers), and the same model has now been replicated in over 50 different Sri Lankan villages, benefitting thousands in the process. Additionally, the Foundation functions as a thriving social enterprise, with spices grown on their land and clothes sewn in their factory all available on Tesco's shelves - a company who have sponsored the Foundation for some time, and whose C.E.O. flew out to witness the Foundation's success story first-hand just days ago.

Later in the afternoon, Latymer students ran the after-school activities for primary-aged students at the Foundation's sports ground (where we will be playing tomorrow). Splitting into three stations, Latymerians conducted a familiar kwik-cricket game, took others through their paces in football, and introduced the final group to the basic principles of rugby. The energy and enthusiasm from both the Latymer and F.O.G. students was palpable, with the session exceeding the planned 90 minutes, despite the searing heat. 

There were seven different sports groups training in the afternoon heat, including swimmers training in the 'Bryan Adams Swimming Pool' (donated by the Canadian Crooner himself). It was great to see the Foundation was so clearly at the heart of the village and the wider villages; all their buildings reference the post-tsunami 'Wave of Compassion' which has fuelled the Foundation's growth, but so much of the success lies with the dedication and kindness demonstrated by so many Sri Lankans involved with this wonderful project. To find out more, please visit: www.unconditionalcompassion.org

       

Day 10 - Victory in Kalatara

Day 9 saw a tour of Colombo, shopping, pool time, beach exploration and a visit to the memorabilia-packed cricket club cafe for dinner. In addition, many of the group gathered to groggily cheer on Argentina versus Germany into the early hours. Come the morning, we only had one thing on our minds: victory in our next match against Kalatara district.

        

We have been treated to a series of consistently impressive cricket grounds, and today was no exception. An hour or two south of Colombo, the Surrey Cricket Village is a charitable initiative established by Surrey County Cricket Club after the 2004 tsunami. The village boasts not only a laser-levelled cricket pitch, ringed with palms trees and reverberating with the sounds of exotic birdsong, but over 45 new-built homes and roads with names like 'Alec Stewart' and 'Graham Thorpe'.

Winning the toss, Latymer's openers Luke Ginty and Tom Carson descended from the raised pavilion, keen to establish a strong total. They certainly started in positive fashion, getting well towards 50 in six overs, though they both soon fell in quick succession. In strode Zakhir Tunda. Two matches away from the end of his Latymer career, and still seething from a cheap dismissal against St. Thomas', this was a man on a mission. After establishing a good partnership with Hari Badale, he took the game by the scruff of the neck and refused to relinquish his grip. Some explosive hitting quickly brought about his 50, whilst energetic running and a productive link-up with Cameron Sell kept the scoreboard ticking over. 60 runs came from the final four overs, and Zakhir's authoritative performance brought him 93 from 70 balls: the highest-scoring innings of the tour thus far.

     

Although pleased with our end total, we knew we would have to work hard to defend this score on a slow wicket. Peter McLaughlan and Hamish Watson both bowled tidy periods of spin to keep the over-rate pacy whilst limiting Kalatara's scoring opportunities. Captain Hari Badale rotated field positions and bowlers intelligently throughout, as well as stepping up himself with leading figures of 3 wickets for 22 runs. However, Kalatara refused to lie down, hitting some big boundaries and racing towards 150. Harjeet Ahluwalia, though, deserves special mention. His relentless energy and positivity in the field, coupled with an economy of just 2.83 from 6 overs, helped negate Kalatara's charge considerably. This was a team performance though - tight in the field throughout, with 7 different bowlers used, and Alex Pigott reliable as always behind the stumps - and a satisfying team victory, as Kalatara fell 24 runs short. We will enter our final games on Wednesday with confidence.

Day 8 - Thriller in Colombo

Hari Badale, First XI cricket captain, reports on a nail-bitingly close game of cricket which went down to the last ball:

"Underneath the raging heat of the Sri Lankan sun we arrived at the renowned St Thomas' School, Colombo to play our two t20s against whatever the school famous for their national cricket success and leading academics had to offer. After winning the toss (that's 3 out of 3 for me) we elected to bat, and with the air thick and heavy, Luke Ginty and Alex Pigott strode out to hopefully occupy the crease for twenty overs... It wasn't to be: Ginty fell early and although Pigott delivered a powerful start to the innings, regular wickets fell, stunting our scoring rate and building pressure. Kelvin 'Killer' Brenner's outrageous knock of 26 lifted the spirits, accompanied by a solid finish from the latter batsmen which took us up to 111-7 after the 20 overs. The sense of 'wow, we can actually win this' was ever present among the team, and as the rolling waves crashed against the the rocks adjacent to the pitch and the furious trains roared past, we marched out onto the field to begin the defence.

Harjeet Ahulwalia's dangerous lines and Pete McClaughlan's deadly flight pushed the opposition immediately onto the back foot, and through clinical run-outs (including two direct hits from distance), we were dominating. But loose deliveries and small errors gave St Thomas' a sniff at victory, to which they pounced upon: needing 40 off 30 balls, smart batting and misfields proved too costly, along with confusion about how many was needed to win in the last over, (poor scoreboard management). Yet, we kept up by the pressure by consistently taking wickets (9 in total), including two in the last over from Louis Pieris, for whom the day was particularly special as his Uncle and other relatives had great cricketing success at St. Thomas in days gone by. The cruel sport took us to the last ball, which was an inside edge for four runs. Ultimately, as captain, I feel we played the better cricket and had it not been for tentative batting from a number of our key batsman, combined with small fielding blunders, the game would have been very different (in our favour if that wasn't clear). An enthralling game from which we learnt a lot, and are now hoping to bounce back from."

In the second Twenty20 match, Latymer posted an imposing 138-6. Tom Carson scored a useful 21, and James Murdoch cameoed with a useful 12 runs late in the innings, but it was Cameron Sell who was the backbone of this display, scoring a skilful 53 not-out from 44 deliveries. Despite this imposing total, Latymer's bowling was profligate, and our fielding dipped in the heat. We took six wickets, but St Thomas reached the target with just over two overs to spare.

     

      

     

Editor's note: day 7 was largely a day of travel. After a final morning dip in the river's roaring rapids, we left behind the rainforest and headed for the Galadari hotel in Colombo, where we are 50 yards from the Indian Ocean, and next door to Sri Lanka's impressive former Parliament building.

Day 6 - Welcome to the Jungle

Day 6 brought the tour party even closer to Sri Lanka's unique flora and fauna. Leaving behind Kandy, we had a quick visit to a glittering gem museum and work-shop before journeying to the Pinawala Elephant Orphanage. On the way there, our coach overtook a young man on the road, riding an elephant, whilst chatting away on his phone! Pinawala's 88 elephants make it the largest herd of captive elephants in the world. It was set up to rehabilitate the many elephants injured as a result of the Civil War (especially from land mines) and from the increasing conflict between farmers and wild elephants competing for land in a small country. We enjoyed watching bathing time and general play in the rain, as well as catching the end of feeding time and the marshalling of the entire herd through the main road of Pinawala itself. We were even able to get up close with a family of elephants by the river, scratching their leathery ears, marvelling at their sheer size, and watching out for their wandering, inquisitive trunks.

From Pinawala, windy roads took us deep into the Sri Lankan jungle and to a camp at Kithulgala. We camped by the river, in between the trees and amidst the cacophony of noise the natural world creates here. The late afternoon brought river-based frisbee; the more adventurous tackled the rapids. Fist-sized spiders, plenty of geckos and colourful birds were all in abundance. Unfortunately, a few leeches - the size of a freckle, though rapidly expanding to a few inches once they've sarted snacking - also made an appearance. They seemed to have a particular predilection for older flesh though, so only the staff were hit. Bizarrely, a form of karaoke was possible in the evening, and between them Latymer students covered, paid homage to, and butchered, a variety of classics. Alex Powell's hypnotic hip movements will linger long in the memories of those lucky enough to witness it.

Day 5 - South Africa vs. Sri Lanka

This is our final day in Kandy, a city whose charming inhabitants have welcomed us wherever we've gone. In the morning, we had an internal 6-a-side competition at the local University ground. Crowds soon gathered to cheer on Tom Savage's big hitting and local guide Tikeri's sharp bowling. Harjeet Ahulwalia and Peter McLaughlan's sides met in the final and, despite Mr Gill's best sledging, Alex Pigott smashed Mr Monk for six to win off the final ball. 

From there, we travelled to the Kandy stadium to watch a day-night one-day match between Sri Lanka and South Africa, the top-ranked cricket side in the world at the moment. The atmosphere was absolutely sensational throughout, whether high up in the grand stand, or in the all-day party happening on the grass banks either side of the wicket. 

Dilshan's quickfire 86 helped the hosts establish a solid total of 267. In response, Hashim Amla scored a glorious 101, but the ship was sinking all around him: South Africa slipped from 101-2 to 180 all out, much to the delight of the home crowd. All in all, a great game of cricket and a fantastic taste of a cricket-loving nation at its best.

        Mr. Foster being interviewed on South African television.