Sri Lanka, March 6 -- A social event cannot fit in the sports page even though a sporting event can, and should. The Sri Lankan sporting event of the year is generally the Royal-Thomian cricket match, and that's not to be disparaging of any other sporting contest that doesn't have appended to it the social element that accompanies the Royal-Thomian.

This year the Royalists and Thomians outdid themselves by chartering a Sri Lankan Airlines flight from Melbourne for spectators descending in Colombo from as faraway as Alice Springs, we are told. The social media brouhaha is rather informative. Some seem to be envious, but yet, with grudging admiration.

The Royal-Thomian series probably started - in that vastly different era in the 19th cen...