It’s a morning appointment at the work place during mid-week and the expected greeting from the secretary outside an important looking cabin is ‘Sir, is a bit busy’. Since the ‘Sir’ happens to be the famous Sri Lankan opener Romesh Kaluwitharana, despite the corporate surroundings and men in formals walking around with coffee mugs in hand, the word ‘busy’ reminded one of a batsmen not quite used to wasting balls and that fascinating sight of a diminutive figure scampering between wickets with Sanath Jayasuriya.

It’s clear that those decade-old cricketing memories need an urgent update as Kaluwitharana in a starched white shirt and stripped tie extends his hand from behind his desk. While his old associate at 39 still gives nightmares of new ball bowlers, the 38-year-old co-founder of that no-holds barred radical opening tactic that took the world cricket by storm in the mid-90s and is still widely followed, has moved on in life after his early retirement. Besides being a business development manager of Sri Lanka Insurance he has a coaching assignment in Malaysia and also runs a holiday bungalow in the countryside.

He isn’t your 100 Test and 10,000 runs kind of a former great but someone who gave 100 reasons for several thousand fans across the world to make a beeline to the stadium when he walked out to bat with Jayasuriya. The buzz around the stand was hard to miss when Little Kalu— a nickname that Tony Greig extended to the opener during the frenzy of the 1996 World Cup — took guard. There have been several players in history who have scored more than his 1933 Test and about 4000 ODI runs but a few had a greater impact on the game as Kalu or have the popularity to be called the people’s player. “People don’t remember me for my centuries but the way I played my game,” he says.

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