Joy as cricket hero meets AB idols

DEAN KOZANIC/The Press

SPORTING STORIES: Former Sri Lankan seamer Rumesh Ratnayake, left, shares a joke with Crusaders coach Todd Blackadder, centre, and training squad lock Joe Wheeler.

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The highlight of former Sri Lankan fast bowler Rumesh Ratnayake's playing career was probably the six for 66 he took in a test against Australia in Hobart in 1989.

But, as a life-long rugby fan, that experience was almost eclipsed by what happened at Rugby Park yesterday.

A coaching development officer with the Asian Cricket Council, the 46-year-old Ratnayake is in Christchurch as part of the support staff of the Hong Kong team competing in the under-19 World Cup. That took a back seat yesterday when he was able to fulfil one of his great ambitions and meet an All Black.

It turned out to be a few, with Daniel Carter, Wyatt Crockett, Leon MacDonald and Todd Blackadder among those from the Crusaders camp who happily chatted away to Ratnayake about his other great sporting passion.

"The All Black team has always been my dream team and I've been and watched two test matches. In 2003 I went specially to Brisbane to watch the World Cup match against Tonga and I was in Hong Kong when they played Australia the year before last," Ratnayake said.

"In my work, Nepal, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Bhutan, Maldives, Bahrain and UAE are my countries [of responsibility]. But when I am in those countries, or wherever I go, I don't miss an All Blacks match or any New Zealand Super 14 game. I follow the whole Super 14 as much as I can."

Richie McCaw was not on deck at Rugby Park yesterday but Carter was and Ratnayake insisted the pair are as popular in Sri Lanka as they are here.

"Our wish, just as much as yours, is a World Cup win after '87. Our prayers are there for that," he said.

"I'm not disappointed with the [All Blacks] coaches as much as you guys are and I'm a great follower of the coaching structures not just here, but those of Australia and South Africa as well.

"It gives me a lead in my own work and while I don't know [Graham] Henry and I don't know Smithy [Wayne Smith] and I don't know [Steve] Hansen, their workmanship has helped me a lot. I've heard a lot about [Robbie] Deans as well and I follow him too, but it's a wait and see game on him for me.

"I like the way they [the All Blacks coaches] work together and say and do things. And how modest they are when they win and how humble they are when they lose and say that the other team has done better. It's amazing and I've learnt so much."

Like many of his former team-mates, Ratnayake played sevens rugby at school and it was that background which helped him to another of his playing highlights. Most folk recall the 1991 test match between New Zealand and Sri Lanka at the Basin Reserve for the 467-run partnership between Andrew Jones and Martin Crowe, and the latter's subsequent dismissal for 299, but not Ratnayake.

"Play was rained off for a time and that particular rainy day we had a touch rugby session, and that was the only time Sri Lanka has beaten New Zealand in rugby. They scored nine and we scored 10 or it was nine tries to eight or something, but we won."

Ratnayake made his test debut here at Lancaster Park in 1983, snaring the wickets of John Wright and Lance Cairns, and said New Zealand cricket held a special place in his heart.

"Richard Hadlee was so helpful in my growth. I learnt so much from him and he taught me angles I never thought of at the time.

"The Crowe brothers [Jeff and Martin], John Wright, Bruce Edgar, Lance Cairns, all of them. Playing hard on the field is fantastic but how you are off the field is important too, and if you ask any Sri Lankan guy, without a shadow of doubt, they will say the New Zealand team is the best off the field."

- © Fairfax NZ News