Thursday Jun 11, 2026
Thursday Jun 11, 2026
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Shabbir Asgerally
Former Bloomfield captain and stalwart of the club Shabbir Asgerally passed away yesterday and his funeral took place at the Kuppiyawatta Muslim Burial grounds on the same day. He was in his late seventies.
Bespectacled Asgerally who hails from the Bohra Muslim community was an aggressive right-handed opening batsman and wicket-keeper who cut his teeth in cricket at St Peter’s College, Bambalapitiya where he played the annual Big Match against St Joseph’s College in 1966 under the captaincy of Darrel Wimalaratne and in 1967 under Tony Opatha when the Peterites were awarded the match.
Asgerally’s contemporaries in the team were Stephen de Niese with whom he opened the batting, Ronnie Guneratne, the Paternott brothers Rodney and Hamish, Denham Juriansz and Dayan Madawala to name a few.
Asgerally had a brief stint with Moors SC (who later made him a Life Member) before joining Bloomfield where he spent the rest of his cricketing career leading them to win the Division I inter-club Lakspray Trophy in 1983. He was a prolific scorer for Bloomfield opening the batting with Bandula Warnapura, Sri Lanka first Test captain and Sunil Jayasinghe another wicket-keeper batsman who went onto play for the country. Asgerally was picked to play for Sri Lanka Board President’s XI against visiting teams on several occasions – the nearest he came to gaining a Sri Lankan cap.
Jayantha Seneviratne, a contemporary of Asgerally at Bloomfield said, “He was a very good team player, very honest and down to earth character and a strict disciplinarian. He also helped the less affluent cricketers at Bloomfield.”
Former Peterite captain Bernard Wijetunge described Asgerally as ‘very pious and a thorough gent’.
Asgerally had extensive experience in Sri Lankan cricket administration serving as a national cricket selector under the chairmanship of Ashantha de Mel in 2004 and Aravinda de Silva in 2010. – [ST]
