Festival of Cricket UK hosted by Merchant Taylors’ School London – By Dr. Gnana Sankaralingam – President FOC 2013
Merchant Taylors’ school, one of the leading boys’ schools in England, was established in central London in 1561 and moved to the present location in the moor park region in 1933. It stands on 285 acres of land with 10 cricket pitches. It had the honour of staging the silver jubilee event of Festival of Cricket of Srilankan old boys’ associations in UK. One may ask the link between it and Srilanka, and the answer lies on one person; Major H.L. Reed, who was a student in Merchant Taylors’ school and principal of Royal College Colombo, who moulded his foster school along the lines of his Alma Mater. Quite fittingly, that picturesque venue was chosen to host the silver jubilee event of this prestigious Srilankan event, under the leadership of an old boy of Royal College.
This venue was secured for festival of cricket by the president at that time, assisted by the vice president. At the initial negotiations, the hosts agreed to provide all the requirements asked for, to stage the event. Figure of £7000 quoted by the school as charges to host it was not contested, and a further meeting was arranged to finalise the deal. It was decided that while accepting the offer, to request for a hall in the school to have hospitality suite and discuss about sale of liquor at the event. At the meeting, they offered the school hall which opens into the ground for hospitality suite as part of the deal, which helped to save £3000 for putting up hospitality marquee and asked us to operate the liquor stall and keep the profit, which licence we sold to a liquor dealer for £4000. Thus money paid to the school was offset by these two measures, getting the venue virtually free, which gives a lesson in negotiating skills to arrive at a win-win situation.
