Cricket, a flamboyant lifestyle, a murder trial, and legenday Sathasivam
Source:Manthrana
‘Tell her she is next on the list’ while on remand at the Welikada Prison Sathasivam told his friend Alfred Moragoda when Moragoda confessed that his wife believes that ‘Satha’ was guilty for the murder of Mrs Sathasivam. ‘Not Guilty’ Justice Noel Gratiaen announced the final verdict after Sathasivam spent 20 months in remand custody. The defense was headed by Dr Colvin R de Silva, well isn’t that a good enough reason to believe that ‘Satha’ was not guilty. Adding on, Sir Sydney Smith, a forensic scientist flew from Great Britain to assist the defense. Yes, the power of money and fame, one may say. Once again, the greatest batsman to play cricket for ‘Ceylon’, illustrious Mahadevan Sathasivam was free to assault the bowlers with his elegant stroke play during the day and party late into the night.
‘If I had to pick a world X1, the first name on the sheet is Sathasivam’ said Sir Frank Worrell, one of the greatest cricketers of West Indies after ‘Satha’ scored a breathtaking 96 against the touring Commonwealth team on a wet, green Colombo Oval track which is a bowler’s dream and a batsman’s nightmare. ‘Satha’ was 34 years young when he stood tall against an invincible bowling attack which consisted of the likes of Fredrick Freer, George Pope, and George Tribe. What’s more, this 96 came in a team total of 153. The willow of Satha contributed 96 while all 10 batters could only score 57 runs.
Who is Mahadevan Sathasivam
Born on 18th day of October, 1915 in the island nation, Ceylon, ‘Satha’ joined St. Joseph’s College for his initial education and of course the sport the boy fell in love with was the gentlemen’s game, Cricket. He then moved to Wesley College for his final years of schooling while his Cricketing career improved day by day. Satha was 26 when he tied the knot with the granddaughter of Sir Ponnambalan Ramanathan. After their marriage in 1941, the couple with their four daughters moved to No. 7, St. Alban’s Place in Bambalapitiya in 1949.
Satha, the Cricketer, Satha, the Merrymaker, and Satha the first attraction of any girl
No cricketer on the island could match the supremacy of Satha in the field. Well, a bit reluctant to run between the wickets and throw himself around while fielding, but on any given wicket, and on any given day at any given circumstance Satha would go on pleasing everyone’s eyes with his drives, cuts, and pulls. Equally, no Cricketer on the island had a festive lifestyle as him, and none had the attraction of ladies. Booze was his best friend, he would drink till dawn after a few hours of ballroom dancing. The Cricketer Satha was one of a kind. In his last season for Wesley College in 1936, he scored heaps and heaps of runs enabling him to start club Cricket with Tamil Union. Even though he had a brilliant last year playing for his school, Satha could not find a place in the Ceylon team. All Satha did was score runs from morning until evening and then party from night till dawn, wake up sober the next day and still go out to the middle and thrash the bowlers. He was the most consistent batter in the first two seasons at the daily news trophy but he still could not grab a place in the team.
Satha was the dream boy of many women. He was a household name and girls of all ages would rush to the grounds to catch the best seats in house to watch their lover boy whack the bowlers to all corners of the ground and then hope for an opportunity to spend a night partying, dancing and drinking with him.
First class debut and innings that made him the best in the world
Finally Satha made his first class debut playing for the Rest team in the Bombay Pentangular Tournament against the Mahomedans on the 18th of November 1944. Continuing his rich form, Satha on debut scored a magnificent 101. In 1945 playing for Ceylon against a visiting Indian team, the lanky guy saved Ceylon scoring a fighting 111 when the team was wobbling at 5 for 75. Satha was very stylish when he walked out to the middle to bat, his attire, a silk shirt, a cravat, a cap worn at a rakish angle, one would nowadays say in a swag way brought about elegance in the man just like the way he used to play his classical cricket strokes. He would walk to the ball to drive them through covers, his elegant late cuts, his whips to the square leg were just classy. No I have not seen him, but I have read and heard, and yes I pictured him in my head, and when I pictured Satha, the first player of our era that popped in my imagination was Dananajaya De Silva. Ok, maybe that was a bit dreamy.
Back to Satha, another brilliant knock by the great man was his 215, an inning which was filled with some overnight liquor. Satha was touring India with the Ceylon Cricket Association team to play with the South India X1 team at Chepauk, Madras with no bat in hand, but the AG Ram Singh’s Sports shop came to the rescue as Satha could get himself a bat autographed by Lindsay Hasset. Upon reading, I found that Satha on day one went on to score 134 runs, well maybe his motivation was the bottle of scotch that was offered to him by a fan if he was to score a century, Satha batted till evening with ease and emptied the bottle that was offered with equal mastery . When a drunk Satha came into his room early in the morning, his roommate Ben Navarathne took him for shower and made sure he was able to stand straight for breakfast, which was a few minutes prior to the start of play. Another offer came in from the same fan, a weeks’ trip to Bomby in exchange for a double Ton, and the rest was history. Satha made sure he grabbed the all expenses paid trip with both hands. The innings of 215 to date could easily be tagged as the best in a Chempuk pitch. Ceylon won this match by an inning and 114 runs. ‘I will never forget how he trashed me in Chennai, I have bowled to Bradman, Harvey, Hutton, Denis Compton, Keith Miller, The Terrible Ws — Weekes, Worrell and Walcott, and if you ask me who is the most difficult batsman that I have ever bowled to, I will mention a name that you may or may not know, the man from Ceylon, Mahadevan Sathasivam’, Gul Ahmed, former Indian Captain and spinner said sharing his experience.
Opposition Captain to the great Don Brandmon
The don, Sir Donald Gerorge Bradmon, the greatest ever batsman and his Australian X1 was in Ceylon and they decided to play a one `day encounter. Surprisingly the captaincy of the Ceylon team was handed over to Satha ahead of the obvious choice FC De Seram, this was because many did not like De seram and his attitude, many clubs decided to vote against him. Satha’s first class span was from 1944 /45 to 1949/50, representing all Ceylon in 11 First class matches he scored 753 runs with an average of 41.83 and his 18 innings consisted of three centuries and three fifties out of which one was a double ton. In club Cricket he was loyal to Tamil Union C & A eventhough De Seram would invite him to play for SSC over an evening drink. Satha in all his Cricket had 44 centuries with 4 double centuries.
A playboy lifestyle, a conservative family life, and death of his wife
Satha had one weakness, in fact two, drinking and women. When he married Paripoornam Anandam Rajendra, granddaughter of the great Sir Ramanathan, he had promised to give up on drinking, but this was never the case. It was also highlighted that he used to have a shot of whisky even during the water breaks of the matches and go back to the crease. That was Satha, giving up drinking was a mere impossibility. The Sathasivam couple had four kids and all of them were girls. Satha most often than not, failed to shower his wife with love and cater to her needs. He was busy with his lavish lifestyle and it was also stated that Satha had an affair with Yvonne Stevenson. Indeed it was difficult for a fun loving and social guy to become a family man.
On 6 September 1951, a divorce was filed by Mrs Sathasivam and on 10 October she was found strangled on the kitchen floor with a motor placed on her neck. They had a troubled family life and it was natural for the police to arrest Satha as the prime suspect. Apart from Satha the police also arrested the 18 year old servant, William. Willam went missing after the incident and was found 10 days later in Tangalle. When arrested Williams claimed that he committed the crime and sold her jewellery afterwards. Twist in the tale was when he went to IGP Aluvihare and pinned it on Satha, stating that he was forced by his master to assist him in killing the lady. With that Satha became the prime suspect and was remanded in custody. Adding more spice to the story, Williams was flustered and couldn’t stick to one answer when he took the stand, obviously when the best defence counsel of the country questions and cross questions you, a 19 year old boy would shiver and panic. The driver who came to pick up Satha in the morning of the incident testified that he saw Mrs Sathasivam standing in the doorway. This was a turning point as Satha never came back and his wife was left with the servant boy, so all fingers were pointed towards the boy, who was employed 10 days prior to the murder. Forensics also agreed that the timing of death was after Satha left home. This is the case in brief as there is much to pen down.
The final verdict
Satha was a decorated personality who associated great people all around the globe. It was stated that West Indies players and Australian wicket keeper Keith Miller visited Satha while he was in prison. Also stated was that Sir Frank Worrel had requested him to hire the best lawyers and the cost would be borne by him. This was the love he received. He spent 625 days in judicial custody, his trial before a special jury at the Assizes Court of the Western Province lasted 57 days and the jury, after 64 minutes, decided that Satha was not guilty.
Aftermath, captaining three national Cricket teams
Satha left Ceylon after he was released, played a bit of Cricket in England, used to come to the island occasionally and score a few centuries. In 1958, he migrated to Singapore to take up an insurance business, scoring heaps of runs in Singapore. He migrated with his new wife Yvonne and his four daughters, and added three more kids to his family. He was then transferred to Malaya (now Malaysia) and went on to captain both the teams. Making him the first and only to Captain three international teams. While Satha left, his defence consul Dr Colvin lost the Wellawatte – Galkissa seat in the 1952 General elections.
Why were people furious? Did they believe it was Satha who committed the murder and Colvin safeguarded a criminal? They assumed that Satha used his money, fame and what not to pin the murder on an innocent teenager. Many were jealous of Satha’s lavish lifestyle. Did Satha actually do it? Or was he innocent as proven? Satha had all the answers to these questions but carried them to his grave on 9 July 1977, at the age of 61 when he died of a heart attack in Colombo.
Law is blind and depends on facts and figures so to date this is still a murder mystery.
References
https://www.espncricinfo.com/story/a-sri-lankan-master-229508
https://www.pressreader.com/sri-lanka/sunday-times-sri-lanka/20200119/282295322156716
