Lasantha Rodrigo – Legendary Cricker of Prince of Wales, Moratuwa, SSC (Sinhalese Sports Club) & Sri Lanka
Lasantha Rodrigo born on 28 May, 1938 was the son of J B C Rodrigo and Beryl Rodrigo (nee De Mel). He can be described as the ‘famous son of a famous father’.
JBC represented Keeble College at Oxford University at cricket where Nawab of Pataudi (Snr.) was the captain of the team. Lasantha was a member of the Ceylon team when they toured India to play three unofficial test matches against the Indian team captained by Nawab of Pataudi (Jnr.).
JBC was the legendary Principal of Prince of Wales College (PoW) during its heyday as one of the six leading schools in Ceylon. Lasantha captained Prince of Wales College First XI cricket team for two years in 1957 and 1958 when it was a champion cricket team in the school circuit.
Lasantha had the distinction of playing for PoW at the young age of 15 scoring 94 runs at the Big Match versus St. Sebastian’s College, Moratuwa. He also scored a century in the Big Match in 1958.
He completed his school cricket career on a high note as the skipper of the Combined Colleges Team that played against the Gopalan Trophy Team from India.
Lasantha represented PoW in every sport except boxing and excelled as an all-round sportsman. He shone in Athletics, Football, Volleyball, Table Tennis and Tennis.
On leaving school he played for the Sinhalese Sports Club (SSC) under F C de Saram in 1960. In the SSC team Lasantha had another Rodrigo; Mahes. In 1962 Lasantha was appointed deputy skipper of the SSC Team under Channa (CH Jnr.) Gunasekera. Towards the latter part of the season, Channa had to quit due to injury and Lasantha was appointed skipper. His crowning moment at the SSC was when he led the team to Club Championship and carried the Sara Trophy.
At national level Lasantha served as deputy skipper for the Gopalan Trophy Team that played in South India.
He also played against a visiting Australian Team in a one day match and scored 44 runs, which was the highest individual score for Ceylon.
He recalls with pride how he had to face Wesley Hall as one down batsman, in a Daily Mirror XI that included six West Indian Test cricketers. Garfield Sobers, Conrad Hunte and Rohan Kanhai were among them.
Lasantha was a National Selector in 1981 and 1982 when Gamini Dissanayake was the President of the Sri Lanka Cricket Board and Duleep Mendis was Skipper of the Sri Lanka Cricket Team.
Lasantha attributes his success in cricket to the encouragement given by his father JBC, who took a keen interest in his development as a star batsman.
Lasantha was employed at Ceylon Cold Stores as an engineer for 32 years He is married to Sweenie Perera daughter of Hector Perera, a Veterinary Surgeon born in Panadura.
Lasantha and Sweenie have a daughter, Niluka and one son, Lakshan who is married to Shamila. They currently live in Dubai with their daughter Shemayah.
Source:-rodrigofamily
