Whether it was Colombo, Kandy or Beruwela, I watched them discuss the merits of their team, during the recent Singer Cup tournament. On the day of the finals, the streets of Colombo were deserted, because almost everyone was at the Sinhalese Stadium, egging their team to a richly deserved victory.
The radio commentary was on in full blast, in our air-conditioned coach, and our learned guide, Fernando's expostulations about Colombo were interrupted, only when the Sinhalese commentator's decibel level reached breaking point, signifying that the host country was in thwacking command. Pointing to the kids playing an impromptu cricket-match near the famous Independence Day Park, he informed us that, apart from its beaches and monuments, Colombo also had five cricket stadiums which could be used for international matches.
That's impressive. So, it was understandable why many offices declared a holiday, on the day of the finals. As an India-born textile exporter, V. Kapoor, exclaimed - ''All we did was sit glued before the TV''. We saw them all, as we drove around the city, and everywhere we stopped, the opening line was the 'latest score'.
From lunch to dinner, and later, even at the Casino and discotheque, the 'score' was a good conversation-opener. The air was filled with a spirit of bonhomie and camaraderie, which one would never associate with a country supposedly being rent apart by ethnic violence.
Nothing could be further from the truth, as the cricketers themselves would testify. Alistair Campbell, the Captain of the Zimbabwe team, who recently played a Test series in Sri Lanka, described the country as one of the most beautiful he had visited. So beautiful that two of his players nearly got drowned, when they were 'exploring' the deep waters off a lush beach!
''The beaches are very tempting,'' he laughed. Yes, he was amazed by the passion for the game in the country. ''It's like in India'', he exclaimed, ''Colombo is almost as good as my favourite cricket city, Hyderabad''.
Among the Indians watching the cricket in Sri Lanka was Mumbai actor, Sunil Shetty, whose presence created a lot of excitement among the Indian movie-crazy youth of the island. His views on the game were even published in the local papers. I wondered whether he got this attention because of his film-fame or his cricket-craze.
It was fascinating to see little cricket-matches being played out in the streets of Colombo, the hill town of Kandy, the beaches and the monument sites. One of the first sights I encountered when I drew the curtains of my room at the Taj Samudra Hotel was that of at least six groups of youngsters batting and bowling to each others, on the Galle Face beachsands outside.
''Yes, it will be nice to produce a cricket team,'' smiled Nimalayan Karthikeyan, dynamic travel consultant and a die-hard cricket fan, whose family has been steadily increasing, to form one-third of a cricket team already. Nine-year-old Maya and eleven-year-old Tamara, our friend Drupadhi's daughters, screamed in delight, when they spied their cricket heroes at the lobby of our hotel. After that, mother, kids, friends, us, were queuing up for autographs.
''Yes, our winning the World Cup has certainly popularised the game in our country'', admitted Sri Lankan captain, Arjuna Ranatunga, as a bevy of fans, and his own child, clamoured for his attention. Dave Whatmore, the Australian coach of the team, stated with a smile, that he felt no division of loyalties when the cavalier cricketers of the island beat his fellow-countrymen, in the final. ''They deserved to win,'' he exclaimed.
On the evening of their victory, the Lanka Oberoi Hotel was a beehive of activity. Security was thick, and every car that passed through was checked with a metal detector. While the Australian team left the city in a hurry, the Sri Lankan team wandered about the hotel, much to the delight of the fans who had cleared various security hurdles, to get in.
We spotted the dynamic Aravinda de Silva near the discotheque of the hotel. Its door was locked, even as the music blared from inside. ''Probably too many people, and they can't take in any more'', he commented, with a shrug, unperturbed that he couldn't get inside. He was also unperturbed by his invincible 'Not Out' record in the Tournament. ''I was lucky'', he stated, with the modesty so characteristic of his entire team. Dashing batsman Roshan Mahanama, and star spin-bowler Muttiah Muralitharan signed autographs with warm smiles, naively asking if they'd got the spellings of their fans' names, right.
''They're some of the nicest people I've met'', exclaimed Malvinder Narang, the General Manager of the Taj Samudra Hotel, who was hosting the team, during the Test series. According to him, the Indian restaurant in his hotel, the 'Navaratna' was a favourite of theirs.
''We enjoyed India, when we were there during the World Cup'', stated Sanath Jayasuriya, probably the simplest cricketer in the team, but of course the most celebrated in the island, if not the world.
He sat in the lobby of the hotel, ebony skin, green striped shorts and T-shirt, warmly acknowledging the hand shakes of champion cricketers are, indeed, the cult heroes of their country today.
If the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam has damaged the reputation of the island, these sportsmen have more than a little redeemed it.
It was fascinating wandering among Christian churches, Tamilian temples, and Namazechoing mosques, and finding the cricket commentary pumming through them all. It is, indeed, the language of today, in the lovely Emerald Isle.