Nearer home, there
is another great player retiring -
Kumar Sangakkara himself will prefer to retire as a match-winner, holding
the trophy aloft.The signs towards that are strong.
The P Sara Oval is a
result-oriented venue - only four of the 18 matches played have been drawn -
and Sri Lanka have won eight of them, including their last match here at the
ground when they bundled Pakistan out for 138 in the first innings. Not many
players enjoy as much of a surge as Sangakkara has had in the final few years
of his career.
In 2014, at the age of 36, he scored the most runs he has ever
made in a calendar year. In 2015, he scored his 11th double-century.
Away
from all the statistics and live happening – is a poignant tale portrayed in a
new book that tells the story of the 275 professional cricketers who were
killed in the First World War. What follows is extracted from MailOnline - The
appalling roll call of cricketers killed in the carnage of the First World War
has been laid bare in a new book which tells the stories of the brave
casualties.A total of 275 cricket players died during the four-year conflict,
swapping their whites for uniform and traveling to the Western Front in
defence of Britain.Among those who were killed in the war were the bowler who
inspired Wodehouse's Jeeves, and the batsman who as a schoolboy made the
highest score in the history of the game.
And while
the fierce Ashes rivalry between England and Australia was already in full
swing, during the war former enemies fought on the same side because the two
countries were both part of the British Empire.Details of the lives and deaths
of the cricketers are revealed in Final Wicket: Test and First-Class Cricketers
Killed in The Great War, by historian Nigel McCrery.
One of the
best-known was Percy Jeeves, a Warwickshire fast bowler who died aged 28 during
the Battle of the Somme in 1916.Comic author P.G. Wodehouse named his
best-loved character, Jeeves the hyper-intelligent valet, after the cricketer
because he had once seen him play.Another victim of the fighting was A.E.J.
Collins, who despite never playing first-class cricket has a permanent place in
the history books due to his feats as a schoolboy.Aged just 13, in 1899 he
scored 628 not out in a house match at Clifton College - the highest score by a
batsman ever recorded at any level of cricket.He followed up the record innings
by taking 11 wickets in the match which was spread over seven
afternoons.Collins was killed at Ypres in November 1914, just a few months
after the outbreak of the war, at the age of 29.
The stories
have come to light in Final Wicket, a new book by Nigel McCrery. Two of the cricketers were Ashes rivals -
Kenneth Lotherington Hutchings, a fine all-rounder who played for England and
Kent, and Albert 'Tibby' Cotter, an Australian fast bowler.In Hutchings' last
ever game for his country, he was out when his shot was caught by Cotter - the
only Australian international to die in the First World War.Ten other England
Test players, including William Booth, Leonard Moon and Colin Blythe, were
killed on the Western Front.Other notable cricketing casualties were William
O'Dell, who twice bowled out W.G. Grace as well as playing against Arthur Conan
Doyle. He won the Military Cross before he was killed at Passchendaele in
October 1917.His sergeant, Fred Greaves, was so incensed at seeing him killed
he single-handedly took out a German pillbox, an act which won him the Victora
Cross.
Mr McCrery's
book features a moving extract from a letter written by Second Lieutenant
Frederick Bertram Key, of the Royal Warwickshire Regiment, to his parents
before he died at the Somme.He wrote: 'If you receive this you will know that I
have unfortunately been bowled out middle peg, but you may be sure that I
batted well.'McCrery added : 'It is important to remember many of those who
served in the First World War were people who achieved so many things in their
lives despite them being cut short.
'After the
war started the MCC wanted cricket to carry on but it was suspended in 1914
when the likes of WG Grace said they shouldn't be playing when so many people
were dying.'
With regards – S.
Sampathkumar
20th Aug 2015.
