Test cricket's slowest double-centurion

I don’t remember any of Brendon Kuruppu’s shots. However, as a kid, I scored lots of runs playing as Kuruppu in hard-fought games in the backyard, on the terrace and sometimes even in the living room. My brother and I often played as international teams, 11 Gaaji was the name of the game, and Kuruppu was lucky for me when I played as Sri Lanka. Kuruppu was also one of the first Sri Lankan names I learnt from the grainy Doordarshan footage. I loved the way the name rolled of my tongue, I thought it was funny. And so I was thrilled when I learnt that he was the manager of the Sri Lankan team.

Kuruppu still looks the same from when I remember him – lean and sporting a thick moustache. He was an aggressive opening batsman who made a name for himself as one of the pioneers of hitting the new ball over the inner circle. “I was one of the first batsmen to go over the top,” Kuruppu said. “Kris Srikkanth was almost parallel, or just after me, in India. I thought it would be easier to score runs that way. I was not doing that in school and club cricket but later on I felt this would be a better way." He recalls one of his aggressive moments. "It was the World Cup game against Pakistan in 1983. I hit Mudassar Nazar over long-on, a long way out of the ground on to the road."

However, it was not a rapid innings but the slowest double hundred in the history of the game that we ended up talking about. Kuruppu, the dashing wicket-keeper batsman, crawled through 777 minutes and faced 548 balls against New Zealand in Colombo to become the first Sri Lankan to score a double-century. He was only the third batsman after Tip Foster and Lawrence Rowe to hit a double-century on his debut.

Kuruppu made his Test debut after four years of one-day cricket. "I had to prove that I was not only an attacking player but could also defend." Poor New Zealand had to pay the price. There was another reason as well. "One of the high-ranking board officials told me after my selection, 'You were picked not because you are good, but because the other keepers aren’t scoring runs'. Kuruppu had hit three consecutive hundreds in provincial games just before selection. "If that is not good, then I don't know what is good. Anyway I had to prove myself."

For a man under pressure, he slept well before the game. Next morning, on a pitch with even bounce, he dug in against the likes of Richard Hadlee and Ewen Chatfield. "Hadlee used to run through our line-up,” he said. “Apart from Roy Dias and Ranjan Madugalle, not many had faced him comfortably."

Kuruppu eased along slowly and, egged on by team-mates like Asanka Gurusinha during the breaks, he kept batting. He went past 100, 150 and only when he reached 189 did he feel nervous for the first time. "191 was the highest score by a Sri Lankan – Sidath Wettimuny against England at Lord's – and we were nine wickets down."

Kosala Kuruppuarachchi, who had not scored a single run in his only Test, walked out to the middle. "Hang in there. Let me get these three runs," Kuruppu told him. "Don't worry,” Kuruppuarachchi replied. “I will stay till you get the double hundred." The thought of 200 had not yet entered Kuruppu's mind.

"It was amazing. Hadlee and Chatfield kept hitting him [Kuruppuarachchi] on the body but he never gave up. I still remember those last 13 runs. I was really tense." Kuruppuarachchi didn't score a run during his 35-minute stay, and that was his last Test, but it must have been the best duck he had ever made.

Finally, after four years, Kuruppu had proved to the board official and to the rest of the world that he was a Test player. "I was in the field for all five days and there was not a single bye. I showed that there was nothing for anyone to point a finger at me."

However, he couldn't really cherish the moment. On the evening of the final day of the Test, a bomb exploded in the central bus stand of Colombo. The second Test was in doubt. New Zealand were not willing to travel to Kandy. "The board even videotaped the whole road journey from Colombo to Kandy to show that it was safe but the New Zealand players were shell-shocked by the incident and cancelled the tour."

Sri Lanka got to play only four Tests in the next four years and Kuruppu decided to retire in 1991 due to lack of cricket and selection problems. Ironically, Sri Lanka played 12 Tests in 1992. "That was indeed very frustrating. Anyway that's done and gone."

Couple of years after that special double-century, Kuruppu ran into Hadlee and Chatfield. "Have you ever got out after that?" they asked. Kuruppu laughed then and laughs now. "The New Zealand players remembered me as the guy who they couldn't get out for two and half days."