Allanson Mervyn Henry Kelaart (7 May 1908 – 2 February 1968) was a Ceylonese

cricketer Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

who played

first-class cricket First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is one of three or more days' scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officiall ...

between 1932 and 1940. He scored Ceylon's first international

century A century is a period of 100 years. Centuries are numbered ordinally in English and many other languages. The word ''century'' comes from the Latin ''centum'', meaning ''one hundred''. ''Century'' is sometimes abbreviated as c. A centennial or ...

. Mervyn Kelaart was a left-handed batsman who was particularly proficient at cutting and leg-glancing, and a right-arm medium-pace bowler. At

St. Joseph's College, Colombo , motto_translation = In Knowledge and Virtue , location = T. B. Jayah Mawatha, Colombo 10 , country = Sri Lanka , coordinates = , caption = School Facade , pushpin_m ...

, he headed both the batting and bowling averages. On Ceylon's first tour, to India in 1932-33, batting at number three he scored a century in the first of the two matches against

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

, 101 out of Ceylon's total of 287. His brother Ed was Ceylon's

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

in the match. Mervyn also toured India in 1940-41. Kelaart married Neliya Foenander in Colombo in June 1933. They had two daughters and two sons. In 1957 they moved to England, and in 1964 they moved to Australia.

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* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Kelaart, Mervyn 1908 births 1968 deaths Sri Lankan cricketers All-Ceylon cricketers Alumni of Saint Joseph's College, Colombo Burgher Recreation Club cricketers Sri Lankan emigrants to Australia Cricketers from Colombo