Down memory lane: Those invincible 1990 Joes cricketers

Joes 90 outfit under Oril de Mel

By Shamseer Jaleel

Going down memory lane to 1990, 30 years back only a few speak about this outstanding Joes under-19 cricket outfit which was led by pocket rocket and small-made Oril de Mel. This team beat Royal College, Colombo, S. Thomas’ College, Mount Lavinia and Wesley College in their school fixtures after ending many years of drought. Further they beat their traditional rivals St. Peter’s in the limited over encounter with the Big Match ending in an exciting draw which could have gone either way.

This Joes outfit had some outstanding players such as Oril De Mel (Captain) Viran Perera, Krishan Tilekaratne, Dyan Morris, Angelo Ranasinghe, Nigel Isaacs, Viraj Malawana, Harsha de Silva, Chaminda Vaas, Roshan Manikkavasagar, Gihan Fernando, Shehan Daniels and Sudantha Fernando. The outfit was coached by Carlton Bernadus.

Viran went on to represent the national under-19 outfit under Marvan Attapattu where skipper Oril de Mel was a standby for the England tour. Oril, a superb all-rounder, went on to play club cricket for Colts CC before moving to Middle East as a professional Senior Bank Manager. 

Chaminda Vaas went on to play for the national outfit and became the highest wicket taker as a fast bowler, at present attached with Sri Lanka Cricket as a fast bowling Under-19 coach. He too played for Colts CC. 

Nigel Isaacs represented the Canadian national outfit. Harsha de Silva who is the present Women’s national head coach did a yeoman service for the Darley Road School when he was appointed as the head coach. He saw a few boys under his coaching becoming ‘Boys to Men’ and represented the national outfit. A few of them were Angelo Mathews, Dimuth Karunaratne, Thisara Perera and Roshen Silva. 

One of the top off-spinners of the 1990 outfit Viraj Malawana who is a Director at present in many leading institutions was judged as the best bowler. He was unplayable with his off-spinners. Viran Perera walked away with the Best Batsman’s award with the 1990 skipper Oril De Mel becoming the best All-rounder. 

All these awards were given to the three great cricketers at Joes during 1990. Krishan Tilakeratne, a fine top order bat, is the current CEO of Commercial Leasing and Director of Seylan Bank. Viran Perera was the former Vice President at MAST Holdings.

Joes ended the 27-year-old drought when they beat Mount Lavinia Thomians. Oril with the ball and Dyan with the bat did the talking at Mount Lavinia. Joes last beat the Thomians in 1963 under Brian Perumal. 

Joes beat Royal at Darley Road by 10 wickets with the game over 90 minutes before the scheduled time. Skipper Oril De Mel who went wicket less in the initial innings took the prize wicket of Nigel Fernando which made the initial breakthrough for the Darley Road School with a fine win. 

In fact Nigel Fernando, the key Royal player, came into this encounter scoring two centuries in the previous encounters against Joes. Viraj Malawana, the deadly off-spinner, took Nigel’s wicket in the first innings return with 2 for 44.

Vaas, Oril and Isaacs took two wickets each to bowl out the Reid Avenue School for 138 after they made 136 in their first innings. Joes first innings score of 271 for 4 saw Krishan Tilakaratne scoring a quick fire 132 well supported by Dyan Morris 80. 

In fact Joes beating the Thomians and Royalists in the same season was after 46 long years. Joes last won in 1944/45 under Malcom de Costa. This record is yet to be broken even after another 30 years to-date. Oril’s side beat Wesley by an innings and 23 runs as the boys were home for tea.

In the Big Match, St. Peter’s was led by Indunil Anthony. In this encounter the Bambalapitiya School was a chasing modest total of 87 runs in 18 overs. They were on their way for an easy win when five run-outs and a superb wicket for Viraj Malawana put the Peterites running for cover ending on 64 for 6 at stumps. A week later Joes went on to win the limited-over encounter at the P. Sara Stadium where skipper Oril de Mel was awarded Man of the Match for his fine all-round performances.

Some major highlights of the team being former national fast bowler Chaminda Vaas making his debut at under-19 level and playing a match saving innings in their Peterite Big Match. Their offie Viraj Malawana with his spin web taking 50 wickets while skipper Oril’s match bag of 10 against the Thomians helped them to win the game at Mount Lavinia.    

The 1990 season was so competitive where some top-class national players were produced. A few of them were Marvan Attapattu, Kumara Dharmasena, Muttiah Muralidaran, Ruwan Kalpage, Piyal Wijetunge, Dulip Samaraweera, Chaminda Vaas and Hemantha Wickremaratne were few of them.