Arosa Sri Lanka, 1982/3
Sri Lanka was a fledgling Test nation in 1982, playing their inaugural match against England at Colombo in February of that year. Bandula Warnapura’s side were beaten by seven wickets against an experienced visiting team and would fail to win four further Tests as the year progressed.
Then in October it was announced that Warnapura was leading a 14-man rebel squad to South Africa. The team would be called Arosa Sri Lanka after the initials of their player manager Anthony Ralph Opatha and the host nation. The players were vehemently denounced across India, Pakistan and the Caribbean as well as in their homeland.
For the second successive tour, white South Africa was forced to put on a brave front in acclaiming sporting triumph where there was none. A full-strength Sri Lankan team was some way off international competitiveness so it was little surprise that a makeshift rebel outfit was utterly humiliated, failing to win a single tour match. Now captained by Peter Kirsten of Western Province, South Africa comfortably won all four ‘ODIs’ and both ‘Tests’. Lawrence Seeff, who replaced the injured Barry Richards, and Graeme Pollock made 188 and 197 respectively in the second ‘Test’ but protested that the matches could not be classed as international cricket. SACU, trying to protect the ‘unofficial international’ brand it had created, fined them for the admission.
Life became very difficult for the Sri Lankans who were ostracised at home for a decision many called treasonous. None played international cricket for the island again, although Aponso represented the Netherlands in the 1996 World Cup at the age of 43.
- Squad: Bandula Warnapura (captain), Flavian Aponso, Hemantha Devapriya, Lantra Fernando, Mahes Goonatilleke, Nirmal Hettiaratchi, Lalith Kaluperuma, Susantha Karunaratne, Bernard Perera, Anura Ranasinghe, Ajit de Silva, Bandula de Silva, Jeryl Woutersz, Tony Opatha (player/manager).
Read more about this topic: South African Rebel Tours