Former Sri Lanka cricketer Tony Opatha, who played for the country in the 1970s mainly as an opening fast-bowler, died on Friday (11) aged 73. [caption id="attachment_97761" align="aligncenter" width="869"] Tony Opatha (standing fourth from left) with the Sri Lanka team, under Anura Tennekoon, for the 1975 World Cup in England[/caption] Yet, Anthony 'Tony' Ralph Marinon Opatha has always been in the anals of the island's cricket chiefly for masterminding the controversial 1982-83 Rebel Tour, where Sri Lanka toured to the apartheid South Africa under incumbent skipper Bandula Warnapura. He named the Sri Lanka team 'AROSA Sri Lanka' for that tour using part of his initials (Anthony Ralph Opatha South Africa - AROSA). Yet on record, Opatha has declared that he was not the main orchestrator of the Rebel Tour but only one of the main organisers of it. His remains lay at A.F. Raymonds, Borella on Saturday (12) and the funeral was to take place on Sunday (13) at 4 p.m. at the Borella Cemetery. [caption id="attachment_97777" align="aligncenter" width="876"] Sri Lanka squad for the 1979 World Cup in England under Anura Tennekoon. Opatha is seated second from right[/caption]   Career highlights [caption id="attachment_97778" align="aligncenter" width="716"] In 1975 India tour of Sri Lanka, Gundappa Viswanath is dropped by Ranjit Fernando off the bowling of Tony Opatha[/caption]  

• Opatha captained St. Peter’s College, Colombo in 1967. That year, he took seven wickets in their Big Match against St. Joseph’s College, Colombo guiding St. Peter's to victory.
• He first played his club cricket for Saracens SC. Later he played for CCC, SSC, and Sri Lanka Air Force. He also played club cricket, later in his career, in both Ireland and the Netherlands
• Opatha had played five ODIs and took five wickets (average of 36.00) while scoring only 29 runs. He played 39 first-class matches on record, taking 111 wickets (30.74) while scoring 790 runs at 17.17. His first-class career spanned from 1969 to 1983 while his ODI career spanned from 1975 to 1979
• Opatha took six for 91 in a drawn unofficial test against Pakistan in Lahore in 1974. It is recorded as his best first-class bowling figures per an innings
• His most talked-about performance came at the Colombo Oval against West Indies in 1975. There he took 4/35 --the wickets were those of Roy Fredericks, Alvin Kallicharran, Viv Richards, and skipper Clive Lloyd-- in a spell of 13 overs helping Sri Lanka bowl out the Caribbeans for a paltry 119 runs in the first innings
• Opatha's best innings with the bat came in the same year as he scored 61 runs, his highest score in the first-class career, against India in an unofficial test played at Hyderabad
• Opatha earned a rare distinction to be named as the best fast-bowler the Pakistan batting legend and International Cricket Council (ICC) Hall of Famer, Zaheer Abbas, had ever faced, as is mentioned in Abbas’ autobiography ‘Zed’

Rebel Tour 1982-83 Sri Lanka was involved in the 1982-83 Rebel Tour after the country played just four Tests, following hard-gained Test status. It was reported that each player who was involved in the Rebel Tour received an average payment of 25,000 pounds then (in rupees, starting from seven lakhs, thru one million, passing slightly above that, depending on the experience of the player). The amount was so high that time that those Sri Lankan cricketers, being mostly amateurs, had found difficult to refuse the offer. Sri Lanka Test team's regular players that time, Captain Bandula Warnapura, Anura Ranasinghe, Lalith Kaluperuma, Ajith de Silva, and Mahesh Gunathilaka were the leading players in that team. It had been reported that Duleep Mendis and Roy Dias too were initially prepared to go, but had  withdrawn later. Arjuna Ranatunga, Aravinda de SIlva, Sidath Wettimuni, Ranjan Madugalle et al had been reportedly either asked to stay away by the very organisers of the tour or they were ignored as they were too young then. Those who made the tour never played international cricket thereafter, for being handed a severe 25-year ban. Experts have considered the greatest loss for the country's cricket owing to the Rebel Tour was Anura Ranasinghe, who subsequently got into the habit of alcohol and died an untimely death in 1998, aged 42. During the Rebel Tour in South Africa, Opatha, answering a question from a journalist, said the following justifying his effort in organising the controversial tour: [caption id="attachment_97762" align="alignleft" width="330"] Opatha speaks to media during 1982-83 Rebel Tour to Apartheid South Africa[/caption] "You should come and see the way how people in Sri Lanka live. Then they (his distractors) will not speak. Then certainly, they will say they are trying to make a living. I have a family. I have to feed my family. I have to give my home, my family a nice living. I am not going to please the whole world. I am going to please myself first. Like you say always, charity begins at home. Charity doesn't begin right around the world. If you tell me a sportsman who's been with sports for fun, I will call him a liar because today the name of sport is money."     [caption id="attachment_97769" align="aligncenter" width="585"] The official cap of the AROSA SRI LANKA XI tour of South Africa 1982/83[/caption] Opatha notably coached the Netherlands' national cricket team for almost two decades. The AROSA tour too had been organised when he was working in the Netherlands. Cricket Netherlands had tweeted the following message of condolences on Saturday (12): [caption id="attachment_97773" align="aligncenter" width="468"] Opatha coached the Netherlands' national cricket team for almost two decades[/caption] "It is with great sadness that we received the news of Tony Opatha passing away at the age of 73. Tony was involved in Dutch cricket for close to two decades. He was most likely the longest serving overseas coach in the Netherlands and his memories will be cherished by many." Opatha returned to Sri Lanka permanently from Netherlands in 2003.   [caption id="attachment_97776" align="aligncenter" width="467"] Anthony 'Tony' Ralph Marino Opatha - Born 05-08-1947; Died 11-09-2020[/caption] In spite of all the controversies that hovered over his involvement of the Rebel Tour and resultant clashes with the establishments, Opatha was in 2018 recognised by Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC), among nearly 50 other stalwarts, for his services to the game of cricket in the country. Opatha leaves behind his wife and daughter, and three daughters from his previous marriage. Good bye Tony Opatha, one of the greatest servants of Sri Lanka's cricket mainly in her pre-Test era!