Guy de Alwis - Sri Lanka - Batsman

A terrific wicketkeeper who was extremely agile and sharp behind the stumps, Guy de Alwis represented Sri Lanka for a brief period in the 1980s. He was the classical gloveman but wasn't good enough with the bat in hand. Although that era saw teams preferring keepers for their primary skills, de Alwis still wasn't a permanent name on the team sheet. The presence of another keeper Amal Silva who was superior with the bat always kept de Alwis on his toes. It perhaps explains why he had a brief career, especially in Tests. It was an injury that kept him out initially and then his competitor's batting skills ironically kept him out, with the team preferring to use the extra balance that Silva provided. In the ODI format, de Alwis surprisingly had decent returns with the blade - his no-holds-barred approach down the order worked in sync with the format. De Alwis married Rasanjali, a Test cricket herself, thereby joining the elite club of three married couples to have played the longest version of the game.

Guy de Alwis was an old-fashioned wicket-keeper batsman, given that his best skill was behind the stumps and was barely reliable with the bat in Tests. He could throw his bat around though, but wasn’t the type of batsman you could depend on. This inability with the bat did push him backwards in the wicket-keepers race but the sheer quality of his glovework meant that he did get his chances, even if they didn’t come frequently. Guy played just the 11 Tests, often losing out on the wicket-keeper duel
with Amal Silva due to the latter’s superior skills with the bat. Guy’s ability to tonk the ball gave him a comparatively longer stay in ODI cricket where he also stroked two half-centuries. The need of the format meant that he could play with freedom and perhaps that helped him contribute more than he did in Tests. Having said that, Guy’s glovework is what defined him.

Written by Hariprasad Sadanandan