COLOMBO, July 25: Dave Whatmore, Bruce Yardley and Alex Konturri are not the only Australians who have made an impact on Sri Lankan cricket. The name of James White may seem unfamiliar. But he is an Australian too, who has been coming here for the past decade, enchanted by his love for beaches and surfing.

White, 36, was swept of his feet by Sri Lanka's passion for cricket. He saw a huge potential in cashing in on the game's popularity and thus established The Cricket Cafe in August last year in Colombo's upmarket Queen's Road.

The cafe is not just a treasure house of cricket memorabilia but also a perfect ambience for soaking in the game's atmosphere. The whiff of cricket fills the nostrils even before one enters the cafe. A replica of Father Time, that one sees on the Lord's Cricket ground, can be seen atop an eye-catching milepost showing the directions of important Test grounds around the world: Melbourne Cricket Ground, Australia, 8341 kms; Premadasa Stadium, Sri Lanka 7 kms; Eden Gardens, India, 1,948 kms; Newlands Cricket Ground, South Africa 7,879 kms; Jinnah Stadium, Pakistan 2,303 kms; Harare Cricket Ground, Zimbabwe 6,027 kms; Lord's Cricket Ground, England 8,715 kms; Queen's Park Oval, Trinidad 15,289 kms; Basin Reserve, New Zealand 10,910 kms.

The cafe is not too large. Just three rooms; The main hall, the long room and the Bradman bar. Among the `exotic' cuisines are the `Tendulkar turkey' (on a bed of lettuce, tomato, mint, raita, tikka with fries) and `Border Burger'. Besides one can get a lavish assortment of fruit juices, ice-creams, cappucino, etc.

The surrounds inside has a colourful splash of cricket: huge posters and portraits with Test stats of players like Viv Richards, Sachin Tendulkar, Sir Richard Hadlee, Aravinda de Silva, Brian Lara, Javed Miandad, Imran Khan, Kapil Dev and the World Cup winning Lankan team.

There are huge national flags of Test playing countries pinned up on the walls, newspaper pages chronicling cricket's greatest moments and coloured clothings of various teams.

For those obsessive freaks besotted by the small screen, there are televisions kept at strategic places playing tapes of memorable matches of the past that is when there are no live telecasts.

The Australian couple have spent over $150,000 collecting the cricketing treasure from auctions and sellers. Among the prized collection is a jumper worn by the late Ray Lindwall in Tests.

``Lindwall was a friend of my husband's family and it was gifted to them,'' reveals James' wife, Gabrielle.

Among the other memorabilia that catches one's attention are: the official tracksuit top of Graham Gooch worn by him when he toured the West Indies as England captain and a glove autographed by him; Ian Botham's favourite bat broken during the 1989-90 Ashes Tour; a bat autographed by Allan Border with a message, ``To everyone at the Cricket Cafe. Best wishes''; a ball autographed by Border, Joel Garner, Kapil Dev, Bobby Simpson, Wes Hall, Sunil Gavaskar, Sir Richard Hadlee, Sir Gary Sobers and Mohammad Azharuddin; a commemorative coin minted in 1995-96 as a tribute to Sir Don Bradman; an autographed bat brought from the Bradman auction signed by the entire Australian team for the 1948 Headingley Test; a bat signed by the Australian Test captains from Bradman to Mark Taylor.

The Bradman bat has an innovative price list in the form of a score board. Spirits like the `Wrong 'un', `Lara Colado', `Caught and bowled' are categories under bowlers/wickets and their respective price tags under runs conceded.

For those who like to go down the memory lane into pristine past, there are newspapers encapulating historic moments like the controversies of the Bodyline Series and the front page of the January 1949 edition of The Argus whose headline of the lead story read, ``Sir Don Bradman, our first cricketing Knight.''

Of Sri Lankan interest is the front page of The Daily News of March 18, 1996 with the lead story headline: ``Lanka conquers cricket's Mt Everest'' accompanied by a picture of Arjuna Ranatunga receiving the symbol of world One-day cricket supremacy from Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.

Among the celebrity visitors to the cafe are Aravinda de Silva, Roshan Mahanama, Kumara Dharmasena, Chaminda Vaas, Muttiah Muralidharan and Bruce Yardley. But the personal favourite of Gabrielle and her husband is Sanath Jayasuriya.

Gabrielle says they chose Sri Lanka and not their own country for their venture because ``it would not have the same effect in Australia where there are plenty of bars. Moreover, the labour is cheap here and the country is fabulous.''

The Australians would love to establish a similar venture in India. In fact, they did explore the possibility in Chennai, but without luck.

Gabrielle says the cafe, which is open from 11 am to 11 pm, is packed when Sri Lanka play overseas and the action is brought home live on television. ``The atmosphere here is then mindblowing.''

That's the thunder from Down Under.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.