From the left are Liying (wife of Andy Curtis), Neera Sharma (from the ELTU), Rashmi (Neera's sister), me, Swapna (Pradip Nath's wife), Pradip, and Andy
Pradip, Andy, and I played for the Chinese University's cricket team back in the late 1990s. This photo was taken at the Mission Road cricket grounds in 1996.
Taken at Shek Kong RAF camp in 1996. Pradip, Andy, and I with two ELTU collegaues. Every fortnight or so, we played cricket at these grounds. The PLA took over the camp in 1997, and that was the end of cricket at these grounds.
I was recruited to the ELTU in 1995. I was interviewed for the job during the TESOL Convention held in March 1995 in San Diego, California, by three members of the ELTU staff: Lyle, Don Cruickshank, and Jeff Snyder, who are Americans. At the end of the formal interview, Don, a roly-poly Midwesterner, said "I have one more question." I asked him to go ahead and he asked me "Do you play cricket?" Astounded because the question came from an American, my only response was "Do you?" "Oh, no" replied Don, "But my colleague Pradip wanted me to ask you" (Pradip, knowing I was being interviewed for the job and that I was Sri Lankan, had persuaded Don to ask this question.) "Of course" I replied, "I am Sri Lankan, and we all play cricket".
Later, after joining the ELTU, I spread the myth that I was invited to sign the job contract only after I agreed to play for the Chinese University cricket team. Some people actually believed it!
With Lyle in Sai Kung recently. He teaches at UCLA and is in Hong Kong as a Fulbright Fellow.
Pradip retired a few years ago but spends a few months in Hong Kong every year. Andy, too, left Hong Kong and returned two years ago as the Director of the ELTU.
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