Cricket Witness No 5 - Whites on Green

123 and missed. There was a glimmer of hope for the Ceylonese as nineteen year-old Arjuna Ranatunga, with a build like a heavyweight boxer, threatened to mount a spirited riposte. He had been compared with Garry Sobers, and been coached by Sobers, and now – at the ground where the West Indian maestro had written his name in to the game’s record books – he batted like him, effortlessly driving Tahir Naqqash through extra cover before smashing another ball back so hard that umpire David Shepherd had to dive out of the way. His efforts had taken the score to 142 in the 34 th over, before two Sri Lankans were run out whilst Ranatunga was caught and bowled by Mudassar Nazar. Their lower order, led by Guy de Alwis, gleefully tried to make amends but the task of scoring at ten or eleven an over was well beyond them as Pakistan – at 8.15pm in the evening – completed a victory by 50 runs. No more international cricket has taken place at the ground since this contest, and with changes to the domestic calendar, fewer touring teams have been visiting Swansea either over the August Bank Holiday or at other times of the year. The changes to the programme began during the mid- 1960s, with 1964 being the final season when the Australians played a pair of Bank Holiday fixtures, appearing at the Arms Park over Whitsun and playing at Swansea in August. 1965 saw New Zealand visiting the Arms Park at Whitsun whilst the Springboks filled the August slot at St. Helen’s, but in 1966 there was just a solitary game against the West Indians at Swansea. There were two tours again in 1967 with Pakistan playing in Swansea whilst the Indians were involved in the inaugural fixture at the club’s new ground in Cardiff at Sophia Gardens. A view of St. Helen’s in 1985 with its extended pavilion and clubhouse. International cricket comes to Swansea