Sri Lankan cricket star tells how mother trampled

Veteran Sri Lankan cricketer Sanath Jayasuriya has spoken about the trauma of being unable to find his family when his parents' home was struck by the tsunami while he toured New Zealand.

He said his mother, Breeda, 60, remained badly injured in Colombo Hospital, but her life was now out of danger.

Jayasuriya, who returned to his southern Sri Lanka home at the weekend after the team's tour to New Zealand was postponed, said his mother had been at the market and was caught in the massive tidal wave while the team was half a world away playing at Eden Park.

His father, brother and his brother's family managed to escape their Matara home near Galle, which was badly damaged. Matara, about 130km south of the capital Colombo, was one of the worst affected areas in the disaster.

Jayasuriya told the Herald a man risked his life to pluck his mother from the flooding after she was trampled and could not walk.

"My mother was at the Sunday market, doing market things, and she got caught by that first wave.

"There was not that much water and people started running and she had fallen. People walked on her, about 100-200 people walked on her, ran on her. And after that she couldn't even stand.

"And the second wave came and she was hit. She was going towards the river and she's being trying to escape and she was shouting, and nobody's coming because there's too much water.

"Fortunately, one of the guys recognised her as my mother and came to her and took her out."

Jayasiriya said after hearing that his mother had almost died he had wanted to come home and the delays had been very hard.

"I had a very painful time in New Zealand."

The team heard about the tsunami moments after leaving the Eden Park pitch after losing the first one-day international against New Zealand on Boxing Day.

Jayasuriya said he tried to telephone his wife, but could not get through. He found his father eventually at a friend's house.

The players did not realise the extent of the devastation until they travelled to their families' homes when they got back. "It was very touching and very sad."

He said it was very important for the cricketers to work now for the country.

The New Zealand tour was postponed only after several days, and after the players made it clear they wanted to go home. Team captain Marvan Atapattuu said words could not describe the devastation the players had seen since coming home.

"We are glad to be among the public where we are needed the most. As Sri Lankans we have to face up to it."

Atapattu said the players intended to work to rebuild homes for the families displaced by the tsunami which killed 30,000 Sri Lankans. The players might also try to take over the financial wellbeing of up to 20 families each. Details will be announced this week.

Sri Lankan cricket board vice-president Aravinda De Silva said Sri Lankans needed the team's presence at home to boost the country's moral.

He thanked New Zealand Cricket for agreeing to postpone the tour.

Mr Da Silva said it was not known if the devastated Galle cricket ground would be rebuilt. The board's priority at the moment was helping human beings.

 

The ground is ruined by the sea, littered in debris. It was here Sri Lanka's cricketers came on Sunday, a week after the killer waves.

Just across the road, in the wreckage of Galle's bus station, up to 2000 people died.

Many of the buses, dragged back towards the sea, ended up strewn across the stadium's flooded floor.

One had carried a team of England schoolboy players, who scrambled on to the top of the multi-storey pavilion to safety.

A few kilometres up the road from Galle, New Zealander Patrick Hounsell was watching the Eden Park one-dayer on television at the Hikkaduwa bar.

He survived the waves, as did his European wife Cushla, but the pair were separated. Rescuers took Cushla to a tea plantation, Patrick to Colombo. New Zealand consular staff in Colombo have yet to hear if they have found each other.

At the consular office, the attempt to track down missing New Zealanders goes on. Yesterday morning there was good news.

Staff had been told Kim McArthur was diving on the worst-hit eastern coast on Boxing Day, and were "very very worried" for her.

But Ms McArthur, a schoolteacher working in Sri Lanka, has contacted them.

Two others, Scott Gardiner and Bianca Wilks, phoned in yesterday to ask about the symptoms for cholera as they were helping in the messy clean-up of Hikkaduwa.

Seven New Zealanders are said to have boarded a Qantas evacuation flight at the weekend.