As 500mph waves rifled across the Indian Ocean to mercilessly approach the shores of south-east Asia on December 26, 2004, the young and old were not to know their lives would be irretrievably changed.
Seventeen years have passed since Sri Lanka was swept aside by a magnitude 9.1 tsunami so destructive, 270,000 people died across 13 countries — 38,000 of the casualties from the island — with a £10billion relief fund raised internationally.
Middlesex off-spinner and England hopeful Thilan Walallawita will have woken up this week with the ringing screams from villagers he heard when he was just six years old, running for their lives as the waves wiped away villages in mere seconds.
The Boxing Day tsunami of 2004 wrought devastation and took the lives of 38,000 Sri Lankans
Cricket legend Muttiah Muralitharan led efforts to rebuild the country with charity appeals
And Kim Peatfield will remember her five-year-old daughter Isabella — the first British child casualty of the tragedy — by embarking on a lengthy walk of Isabella’s favourite route in the Peak District and laying 17 roses at her grave; the 17 years of age she would have been on this Boxing Day.
Desperation heeds remedy and in Sri Lanka, it was their love of cricket that came to the fore with cricketing icon Muttiah ‘Murali’ Muralitharan fronting an international effort to get the island back on its feet.
The Mail was at the UK’s forefront, raising £15.92million in a Flood Aid tsunami appeal — a then world record for a newspaper appeal.
On the 17th anniversary of the tsunami, Sportsmail reveals how cricket helped unite a torn nation and the lasting effect on those involved.
The most Test wickets in history? 800, Murali. The most international wickets in history? 1,347, and him again.
He may be ranked by many as the greatest bowler of all time, but none of that really mattered when life and death came perilously close together on that morning in 2004.
At 8am, Murali had just got into a car with relatives on the way to manager Kushil Gunasakera’s Foundation of Goodness (FoG) charity function for children ahead of the school year.
The FoG was established along with Murali and Ashan Malalasekera in 1999 to provide free educational, sporting and vocational training across Sri Lanka. A huge $20m dollars has been raised over the two decades, and the Foundation has established itself as a leading charitable beacon.
School books, bags and shoes are central to each Boxing Day giveaway. Murali, though, was unusually running 30 minutes late due to a dinner the night before.
Muralitharan made a lucky escape and was warned to drive away from the coast back in 2004
The country has taken years to get back on its feet after the devastation caused
Thousands lost their homes and entire villages were completely destroyed by the tsunami
‘On the way, me and my family were going near Kalutara — a place you can see the water in the river which goes to a lagoon,’ he tells Sportsmail.
‘It was a brown colour on a full moon day. We thought we should go ahead before the high tide comes.
‘Halfway through the journey, there’s people shouting away. I went out the car and they said, “Sea water has come to the land, don’t go that side, the Galle area”.
‘We lucky turned back and raced back to Colombo. When we switched on the TV, you see the effect of what has happened. If I set off 20 minutes earlier, I would also have been caught in the waves.’
Hours of panic ensued with several bodies washed up on shores across the island. The survival of Kushil and children who attended the function were Murali’s main worry.
‘I was trying to call Kushil but I couldn’t because all the phones were disconnected,’ he says. ‘We knew that he was in trouble. He had saved the children and stayed in a temple thankfully, but saw people floating away from him.
‘I saw the World Health Organisation count saying 30,000 people dead but it looked like 100,000 people who would have died as some villages were wiped away. The pain is difficult to explain.’
Just hours later amid mangled debris and fallen homes, his and Kushil’s thoughts focused upon the recovery.
And it is where cricket helped the rescue mission. A sport cherished among millions of Sri Lankans united Murali’s acquaintances, new and old, to come together and help spearhead the recovery.
‘I created awareness because of being a cricketer,’ he explains. ‘I was ambassador for the World Food Programme. Through them I got food machines and gave them to places that were affected.
The waves battered the country and rebuilding took a long time, even with relief efforts
‘And then my good friend Dr David Young, a Melbourne orthopaedic surgeon who was the Sri Lanka cricket team doctor, brought over a team of surgeons from Australia.
‘They did free surgeries and worked for about two weeks after the tsunami and brought equipment. Me and David raised around $4-5m dollars for an accident ward at a Kalpitiya hospital, and a hospital in Batticaloa in the east. Still David and the orthopaedic surgeons contribute to the hospitals.’
It was just the beginning. Murali knew more could be done through using his reputation and cricketing friends.
He says: ‘I also want to mention Neil Fairbrother and Andrew Flintoff. I was playing with these boys for Lancashire, so they gave money to build houses as well.
‘So many people from the cricket fraternity who I played with came here. Shane Warne and Ian Botham came and brought awareness to the Foundation.
‘Surrey County Cricket Club made the Surrey Village Cricket Stadium in Maggona, and MCC gave the Foundation of Goodness a centre of excellence and built a cricket ground. So through cricket, we connected everything and made a huge impact in this area.’
Though the seeds to this mindset had been sown way before 2004 at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Boxing Day 1995. The off-spinner was no-balled seven times in three overs by umpire Darrell Hair on believing that the then 23-year-old was bending his arm, and then straightening it in his bowling delivery.
Nationwide fury ensued and Murali was subjected to wide-ranging tests of his bowling action, which he passed in 1996. His countrymen united in support of their hero, despite a civil war between the Sinhalese — who made up 80 per cent of the population — and Tamils, Murali’s community.
Muralitharan was a key figure in securing funding from other counties during the crisis
‘The whole country backed me that I didn’t do anything wrong,’ he says. ‘They supported me as a cricketer despite not knowing me. When I needed help, everyone came together for me. So then I thought, “How could I help them?”
‘I’m a Tamil. Sri Lanka is 80 per cent Sinhalese. They didn’t think about race despite the ethnic war that was going on at the time. They stood by me without race, religion or anything, as a Sri Lankan.’
His gratefulness extends to the Mail’s Flood Aid appeal, which raised £15.92m thanks to its generous readers.
Millions was spent on rebuilding schools, homes and providing emergency help, with £270,000 alone spent on reconstructing the washed away three-storey CWW Kannangara School. One Indonesian fishing village was paid for entirely by the readers’ money.
‘It’s a huge amount, it’s nearly $25m dollars!’ adds Murali. ‘I appreciate it because they (readers) don’t think, “Oh, we weren’t part of it”. They feel for fellow human beings.
‘It was a great initiative, giving that amount of money despite the paper not sold in Sri Lanka.’
Kim takes a deep breath as her voice breaks. She is an affable and cheery personality, but this week in December does not get any easier to navigate — no matter how many years have passed since five-year-old daughter Isabella was swept from her grasp on a family holiday in Tangalle on the south coast.
‘Yes (it’s been) 17 years… it’s impossible to comprehend given that you are without your small child for that long,’ says Kim, now in her fifties, speaking from her home in Ashbourne, Derbyshire.
It has been 17 years now since the Boxing Day disaster that swept through Asia
‘Time heals in some respects but it’s at Christmas time when you can’t get away from it, you can’t escape it.
‘It’s dreadful just putting up the Christmas tree and seeing the presents underneath — you just remember. The fact it was still Christmas which means something for children, coming back from that holiday and Isabella’s presents were still under the Christmas tree waiting for her. I don’t think you’ll ever get over that.’
With husband Tristan, 56, she had taken Isabella on holiday with the funds from a redundancy package from her PR director role. That morning had started in an idyllic fashion, with clear blue skies, and Isabella using glue, glitter and petals from the garden to make cards which she would give to friends on their return home. Those plans were to turn south rather quickly.
‘I didn’t see the wave. All I saw was lots of water pouring into our bungalow, coming over a ridge near the beach,’ she begins.
‘It was only about a foot deep and our immediate thoughts were to get everything up off the floor because Isabella had been drawing these beautiful pictures.
‘And then a wall of water about 10 feet swept right into the room. My husband was swept out of the backdoor. The door slammed, and we were stuck in a room as the water kept rising.
‘I picked her (Isabella) up straight away. The water was coming into the room in at like 100-odd mph. I had her around me one minute and then the next minute, I was being swept into a lagoon.
‘I hit my head so there are moments I can’t remember, and letting her go is one I can’t remember. The trees in the lagoon were around 10ft high and I was swept right over them on top of the wave.
‘The next minute I was at the bottom of the lagoon with a tree pinned on top of me and drowning underwater. If I hadn’t pulled myself from underneath the tree, I wouldn’t be here today. I do remember water going into my lungs, thinking I’m not going to survive.
Kim Peatfield’s daughter Isabella (pictured) died in 2004 when the tsunami struck
‘I was covered with cuts, bruises and half my leg falling off like a shark had bitten into it. You could see my veins and blood vessels, it was that deep. How I didn’t sever a blood vessel or vein and bleed to death, I do not know. I wasn’t meant to go that day….’
Though upon reflecting on that fateful day, it is important to highlight the commendable charity work Kim and husband Tristan have done because of that day.
The pair created the Isabella Peatfield Memorial Fund (IPMF) just weeks after their daughter passed away.
She says: ‘Out of that devastation, I had to somehow carry on. I wanted to make sure Isabella hadn’t died in vain because I loved her so much.
‘I had to dig deep and I found I did have the resources within me to help others. Isabella had loved, loved the country so it made sense to help the children that she had played with.
‘It has certainly helped me. Even now people say to me, “Oh I just heard your story about Isabella”. So in a way I did help her live forever, her spirit still lives on.’
A children’s ward was built in Isabella’s name in a Tangalle hospital, while 16 playgrounds were gifted to disadvantaged schools and £250,000 was raised towards helping rebuild a school.
Peatfield was determined to do good in the country her daughter had loved so much
The Fund is much reduced these days — owing to the emotional scars that still linger from that event — but the pair still support two orphanages, including the Home of Hope (HoH).
England’s leading cricket tour operator Howzat Travel do fundraising events when on tour, and in November 2018 were at the Kandy Test match between England and Sri Lanka. Through cricket, they raised money for HoH on behalf of the IPMF — which the Mail helped facilitate.
Kim and Tristan had brought cricket equipment over after seeing how the sport gripped the nation.
‘Out of any country in the world, everybody is amazingly cricket mad,’ says Kim. ‘All we had to do was bring over cricket bats and balls made in England and people were playing cricket in the hospital grounds, in desolate places that had been swept away.
‘It was very cathartic and everybody you speak to wants to talk about your cricket heroes. They really love cricket.
‘If you can come together and start feeling positive and have a positive spin on life through sport or through anything like that, it’s an amazing thing to do.’
Her charitable nature also allowed her to relate to cricketers such as Murali, who admirably pitched in to help those in need.
She says: ‘I think that’s the human spirit, that everybody can see how lucky they are when things like this happen. If somebody has the resources to help, people will. It’s searching inside yourself and thinking, “What can I do to help?”’
Every Boxing Day since 2004 brings about the same routine, and this year is no different for the couple and sons Oliie, 27, and Louis, 16.
Money was raised for the Home of Hope in Digana, near Kandy on the island nation
‘We live in the Peak District so we’re going to go for a long walk on a route that’s Isabella’s favourite walk near (the hill) Thorpe Cloud,’ she adds. ‘We usually set off some balloons or play some music at the top of the big hill.
‘Louis obviously never knew his sister but he feels likes he does because we’ve never let her spirit die.
‘When we come back we’ll have a toast to Isabella, I go to the church and we put some flowers on her grave. We usually put a rose on for every year, so this year will be 17 roses.’
Thilan is driving home to Hertfordshire. Pre-season training with Middlesex is just weeks away for the 23-year-old, and his future is bright.
Owing to England’s gaping hole in the spin department — the current Ashes tour down under highlighting an age-old issue on these shores — he has an eye on representing this country in the future.
But on the Saturday of the tragedy, just surviving was a blessing. Colombo-born Thilan is in the UK in person, but not always in mind because of what happened alongside father Ajith, 52, mother Roshani, 47, and sister Sonali, 26.
‘I was literally panicking, crying. We could hear screams from everywhere,’ he reflects. ‘It was literally around a 100 people running for their lives. You could see panic in their faces — it was really bad.
‘That’s the kind of day that will be stuck in my mind for the rest of my life to be honest. I would say 100 per cent the screams of others stay with you. To this day, I do have nightmares. It’s not all the time, but now and then.’
The preceding events were a far cry from death and destruction.
‘I’m Buddhist so as a whole family, we were on our way to a Buddhist temple around Galle,’ he says. ‘It was around 7-8am in the morning. On the way back home, we decided to stop at a cafe next to the coast just to have a break from driving.
Peatfield says she was fortunate to survive the disaster after being trapped under water
‘Ten minutes later, my dad went outside to check on the car. He looked towards the sea and described to us that the waves were going back and building up.
‘The next thing you know, he pretty much shouted for everyone to get up. We got outside, got into the car. There was a bridge that we needed to cross. As we were approaching the bridge, it literally got swept away by water so we couldn’t get past that.
‘There was a house next to it, so we parked our car in front of the house and just ran for our lives to get on to high ground. We got on to high ground and that was wave one done. There were three waves.
‘It was a good 10 minutes of running with my dad carrying me as I was six at the time. If it wasn’t for him, I wouldn’t be here to be honest. I could see the waves coming, it was that bad.’
The family survived but the island’s recovery began, spearheaded by its notable figures within cricket.
Thilan Walallawita was just six years old at the time of the tsunami but still remembers it vividly
‘People who played the game of cricket had a massive impact,’ he explains. ‘Sanath Jayasuriya, Aravinda de Silva, Murali — those are the kind of people who are able to do that kind of stuff and wanted to do it.
‘They opened up spaces for all the kids who couldn’t afford to play cricket — they somehow made it happen. There were so many cricket camps that have been opened up since the tsunami. I would say the tsunami did increase opportunities for kids to play cricket.’
Since 2000, Ajith came over to the UK most seasons as an overseas professional for Potters Bar Cricket Club before settling in this country in winter 2009.
Thilan and family joined him the following December, where Thilan also joined Potters Bar before graduating through Middlesex’s age groups, the second XI and then a first-class debut last July against Surrey.
The off-spinner now has lofty ambitions thanks to his father.
‘I’m still very thankful to my dad, he’s the main reason I’m here,’ he says. ‘He’s the main reason I am still alive if I’m being honest. Looking back at it, I’m very grateful that I’ve been given another chance at life.’
The future is bright for the Middlesex prospect, who England are keeping an eye on