Veteran sports journalist and cricketer Elmo no more

Elmo Rodrigopulle

Former St. Benedict’s College and Saracens SC cricket captain and veteran sports journalist Elmo Rodrigopulle passed away at the General Hospital yesterday after a brief illness, a day after his 80th birthday on 19 July.

At the time of his death Elmo was Associate Editor (Sports) of the Sunday Observer and wrote a weekly column on sports. He was also sports editor of the now defunct Times of Ceylon and the Daily News for several years.

Being a cricketer himself – he played as a right-arm leg-spin and googly bowler and lower order bat – Elmo captained his alma mater in 1960 and later went onto play for Tamil Union as well as Saracens SC, whom he also captained in the ‘70s.

Former Sri Lanka wicket-keeper/batsman and a former captain of St. Benedict’s College Ranjith Fernando paying tribute to Elmo said: “He was my first captain at school and, if I remember right, he got a hat-trick against St. Thomas’ College. He also played for a Ceylon Board XI team captained by Michael Tissera against Hong Kong. That was his only international experience. He was a frail figure, but he could bat courageously and showed a lot of guts. He wrote until the end, he had a good memory despite his age, and he used to call me to recall past matches.” [ST]