MAHADEVAN SATHASIVAM
He is the Srilankan Bradman
මහදේවන් සතාසිවම් පෘතුවිය මත මෙතෙක් බිහිවූ ශ්රේෂ්ඨතම පිතිකරු බව ශ්රීමත් ගාෆීල්ඩ් සෝබර්ස් පවසා ඇත. ශ්රීමත් ෆ්රෑන්ක් වොරල් පවසා ඇත්තේ ඔහු මෙතෙක් දුටු හොඳම පිතිකරු ලෙසයි. ශ්රී ලාංකික ක්රීඩා විචාරකයකු හා පුහුණුකරුවකු වන ප්රේමසර ඈපසිංහ පවසන්නේද මෙතෙක් ඔහු දුටු හොඳම පිතිකරු මහදේවන් සතාසිවම් බවයි.
මෙතෙක් ජාතික කණ්ඩායම් 3 ක නායකත්වය දරා ඇති ලොව එකම ක්රීඩකයාද මහදේවන් සතාසිවම් ය.
ඔහු 1948 ශ්රී ලංකා (Ceylon) ජාතික කණ්ඩායමේ නායකත්වය දැරූ අතර ඉන්පසු සිංගප්පුරු ජාතික කණ්ඩායමේද, පසුව මැලේසියානු ජාතික කණ්ඩායමේද නායකත්වය ඉසිලුහ.
He is the greatest batsman ever on earth - by Sir Garfield Sobers
Garfiield Sobers, the famous West Indian Cricketer and perhaps the best all rounder ever, said that he is the greatest batsman ever on earth.
Frank Worrel, the legendary West Indian called him the best batsman he had ever seen.
Gulah Ahmed, former Indian fast bowler confirmed that he is the most difficult batsman to bowl.
Any cricket lover will tell you that this great batsman is none other than Don Bradman.
Bambuva thamai!! The above accolades from cricket greats of the past were reserved for M. Sathasivam,
Ceylon`s (or
Sri Lanka`s) greatest ever batsman. The statements may surprise many but for his contemporaries it was not, they have been fortunate enough to witness the quick footed stylish batting of Sri Lanka`s batting maestro. Mahadevan Sathasivam (18 October 1915, Ceylon - 9 July 1977 in Colombo, Sri Lanka), or Satha as he was known, played cricket in the 1940s through the 1960s. Sathasivam was the first, and probably the only man to captain three national teams. That was because later in life he settled in Singapore where he captained its cricket team, and then later, after that island`s merger with its northern neighbour, Sathasivam led the Malaysian team as well. If anyone is interested in knowing Satha`s Alma Mate, that is Wesley College, which has produced many outstanding sportsmen to represent the country.
I take the liberty to produce a couple of articles on M. Sathasivam in comments column. If you know any interesting fact or information about this brilliant batsman please comment.
It was unfortunate that Ceylon was not playing test cricket when Satha held sway with the bat, had he played the cricket world would have witnessed glorious batting displays and records going stumbling down. Whenever an all time Test XI is mentioned Satha`s name surely would have been there.
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sathasivam