Top awards for Malith

By Leslie Fernando

CRICKET: Ananda College skipper and allrounder Malith Gunatileka was picked for the top award in school cricket by the panel of umpires from the three associations - Association of Cricket Umpires Scorers, Sri Lanka, Central Province Cricket Umpires Association and Southern Province Cricket Umpires Association last Thursday July 5 at Galadari Meridien Hotel.

Gunatileka becomes the first schoolboy cricketer to win both the Observer-Bata Schoolboy Cricketer of the Year 2007 award and the Observer-Bata Most Popular Schoolboy Cricketer of the Year All-Island Contest 2007 which is being held for the 28th time by Observer and Bata.

The 20-year-old Malith, right-hand batsman had a good season, scoring 602 runs which included a century and four half centuries. His best innings was against Richmond where he got an unbeaten 100 and 50. His half centuries were against St. Joseph's 74, Mahinda 76 not out and Wesley 51.

Malith as a left arm 'leggie' captured 96 wickets with the best effort of 13 for 58 match haul against Royal. Due to Malith's great bowling effort Ananda beat Royal after 47 years. The other best performance came against St. Benedict's College (13 for 32). Malith had a match bag of 5 wickets on 13 occasions this season. He is also a smart fielder in any position. He is a fourth year coloursman and has completed 'A' Level examination. He has played cricket for 10 years in various age group teams. The Ananda allrounder has turned out for old Anandian SC in Division three Cricket tournament and also played in the under-20 Provincial Cricket Tournament with success. Malith is presently in the Sri Lanka Schools spin clinic managed by former Sri Lanka player Ruwan Kalpage. He has joined Bloomfield Cricket Club and will play in the under-23 Premier League tournament.

Besides his parents who gave him all the encouragement, he paid a tribute to the school authorities and teammates for their support. He is also grateful to coaches late P. W. Perera, P. Palitha, Anuruddha Polonovita, Vipula Sittamage and Udayananda Perera for their guidance.