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| Sunday, 19 December 2004 |
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Lahiru - 2nd Peterite to win popular award by Leslie Fernando St. Peter's College allrounder Lahiru Peiris and Kasun Bodhisha, the captain of St. Servatius College, Matara received their awards Observer-Bata Most Popular Schoolboy Cricketers of the Year 2004 at a simple ceremony held at Regency Room Taj Samudra Hotel on Wednesday evening. Lahiru won the All-Island Contest while Kasun won the Outstation Contest. Dinesh de Silva of D. S. Senanayake College and Kosala Kulasekera of Vidyaratha College, Kandy were runners-up in the All-Island and Outstation contests. Lahiru is the second Peterite to win the Most Popular Schoolboy Cricketer award, the first being the 1990 Peterite skipper Indunil Anthony. Lahiru started playing cricket in 1999 and has captained the under-13 and under-15 teams. He toured Chennai and Bangalore in India with the under-13 division one champion team in 2000. Lahiru has played in several All-Island inter district tournaments conducted by the BCCSL and has performed well with both bat and ball. In 2002, Lahiru played against Mareton and Southwest District under-16 team of Queensland, Australia at the CCC grounds and top scored with a well compiled 91. The Peterite coloursman Lahiru is in the National under-19 cricket squad who are preparing to tour New Zealand next year. He also toured with the national under-15 team to U.A.E> for the under-15 Asia Cup 2002. He has been a member of the Peterite 1st XI team for three years in-a-row 2002-2004. He scored 560 runs and captued 13 wickets this season, the highest being against Prince of Wales College unbeaten 50. Lahiru played in the 'Big Match' and 50-over encounter against Joes and did well. Played in the Elephant Lemonade tourney and hit a fine 70 against Lumbini MV. Lahiru is a righthand batsman and offspin bowler. He went on a scholarship to Australia in 2003 arranged by the Sri Lanka Cricket Foundation of Victoria. He played for Carey Baptist Grammer School in Kew and did exceptionally well and was awarded the batting trophy. Whilst in Melbourne, Lahiru also played for the Old Peterite cricket team that won the one-day six-a-side competition conducted at the Barry Simon Reserve at Endeavour Hills on Australia Day 2003. Dr. Quintus de Zylva, the President of the Sri Lanka Cricket Foundation of Victoria was a source of great assistance to Lahiru when he was in Melbourne. Winston Foenander, the President of Old Peterite Sports Club of Melbourne provided the air ticket to Lahiru. Lahiru 'A' Level (1st year commerce) is ever grateful to his parents, brother, sisters, Rev. Fr. Felician Perera, Rector St. Peter's College, Rev. Fr. Ranjith Perera, Sports Co-ordinator, L. H. Sunil, his first coach, Roger Wijesuriya present coach and Vasantha Hapuarachchi, Master in Charge, who have all helped him to make rapid progress in cricket. Considering Lahiru's fine performances in cricket he has all the opportunities to caption the Peterite team and play for two more seasons. Kasun - another star from St. Servatius St. Servatius College, Matara allrounder and skipper Kasun Bodhisha has played cricket for college since 12 years and had the rare distinction of captaining the side from under-13 to under-19. He has played for 1st XI for 4 successive years. Kasun who captained the 1st XI this season performed well, scoring over 700 runs getting a century (131) in the 'Big Match' against St. Thomas' College Matara. He also took 3 for 19 in the match. After the exploids of Sanath Jayasuriya, Kasun seems to have kept the college flag flying for the school at cricket. A left-arm spinner he captured 43 wickets this season best being 6 for 33 against Debarawewa College. He had a 'match haul' of 10 for 51 in this game. In the Limited over match against St. Thomas' College, Kasun was named 'Man of the Match'. Kasun was also the Matara District captain in the under-15 and under-19 tournaments and he played for Matara Sports Club and right now plays for Galle CC in the under-23 tournament. He has done well for Galle CC, scoring 342 runs in 5 games and also captured 17 wickets. He is in Premier cricket squad in the Southern Province coached by Jayananda Warnaweera. He is thankful to the College Principal Daya Vidanapathirana, coach Imal Liyanage and master-in-charge Ananda Wickremasinghe for giving him all the assistence in his cricket career. He has the support of his father P. Ranjith, mother Daya Ranawaka and brother Pasan. Kasun who has finished the 'A' Level Examination (Commerce) said that he is expecting employment in an establishment where he can continue to play cricket. |
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