St Sebastians back on the basketball track

In the bygone years it was the Colombo schools that dominated basketball in Sri Lanka.

- CAPT. ELMO JAYAWARDENA

Bens under Ram Sunderalingam, Peterites coached by Naufer Mahroof and the Josephians shaped by Mahadevan were the Trojans who won tournaments. Led by this trio and flanked by other basketball playing schools in the capital, the game had its foundation laid down in concrete - Colombo style.

Moratuwa and Batticaloa were the painful thorns amidst the Colombo teams when it came to championships. And Trinco was the dark horse, almost unbeatable in their heyday, playing under the wizard, late Father Eugene Herbert. This is what basketball was, beginning from the sixties.

Today the faded memories remain. On a lucky day one might meet Doc Thurai, as he was popularly known, walking his wards with the stethoscope round his neck. He was the best we saw in that era. If one visits Batticaloa there is a prominent statue outside the town. It is of a tall Jesuit Priest. Here, he cradles a Wilson basketball ready to take a 'time-out' and yell at the referee. That is Father Herbert, the man who filled the Eastern Province with stellar players who left their luminous mark in the basketball courts of Sri Lanka.