The former Pakistani opener Ramiz Raja says, he has a love affair with Sri Lanka. It has a great place in my heart”. His initial tour as an Under-19 player was to this country. His first century (122) in international cricket was at the Sara Stadium in 1986.
The link to Sri Lanka goes back to the early 1940s. His paternal grand-father, a Captain in the British Army, had served in Galle and Colombo and made the prophetic remark that “Galle was a great place for an international stadium.” The Pater Familias of the Raja clan had occupied the Galle Face Hotel while serving in the British Army.
Enjoy Rameez as a commentator and did enjoy him as a batter but we hardly got to see much of him. One thing that comes across very clearly from Rameez is his absolute respect for Imran Khan and rightly so – what an awesome cricketer and man Imran Khan is.
Hope SLC picked up that Pakistan changed the first class structure from club based to province based. We don’t have to invent the wheel, its already done, just need to be smart enough to read the writing on the wall, which in SLC’s case unfortunately is a challenge.