Chandimal - seventh Anandian to win top award

by Leslie FERNANDO

CRICKET AWARDS: The captain Dinesh Chandimal of Ananda College and Imesh Udayanga of Dharmasoka College, Ambalangoda - two cricketers with great prospects for the future, were the proud winners of the main awards in the 31st Observer-Mobitel Schoolboy Cricketer of the year All-Island and Outstation Awards respectively at the awards. The ceremony was held on Tuesday night at the BMICH.

Dinesh Chandimal, the captain of Ananda College was the Schoolboy Cricketer of the Year All-Island and Imesh Udayanga was the winner of the Outstation Schoolboy Cricketer of the Year. Dinesh Chandimal becomes the seventh Anandian to win the coveted honour of Schoolboy Cricketer of the Year.

Arjuna Ranatunga the World Cup winning captain won it in 1980 and 1982, Sanjeewa Ranatunga in 1988, Marvan Atapattu 1990, in form Test batsman Thilan Samaraweera 1994 and 1995, Muthumudalige Pushpakumara 1999 Malith Gunathileke 2007.

Chandimal who has captained the Sri Lanka under-19 team and also showed his batting ability scoring a century against the New Zealanders last month for Sri Lanka Board President XI-the opening match for Kiwis.

Dinesh who will turn 20 next month, the wicketkeeper cum batsman came into cricket in a big way and has played cricket from the age of 11. He started playing cricket at Dharmasoka College, Ambalangoda. He captained Dharmasoka under-13 and he was selected the best wicketkeeper all island. He also went on to captain the under-16 team at Dharmasoka prior to coming over to Ananda in 2005. He was a key figure in the Southern Province schools cricket team in the inter-district tournaments. After coming over to Ananda, Chandimal’s cricketing career progressed at the highest level. He captained the under-17 team and proved his capabilities. He was appointed 1st XI captain in 2008-2009 and also was the vice captain of the Sri Lanka under-19 team.

He established a record against the Australian schoolboy team having 8 victims behind the stumps. In the year 2007, he scored 143 against the Indian Schools side and in the limited over matches against the English schoolboys, Dinesh struck a fine century 112 and a bright half century 65.

The year 2009 is a memorable one for Dinesh. He led Ananda to a record 12 wins but unfortunately lost to Royal. It’s a record for Ananda to win 12 games. The previous record of II wins was by St. Joseph’s College.

He was the highest scorer in the 2009 school cricket season and had a total of 1,580 runs with ten half centuries. A smart ‘keeper’ Dinesh, had 64 victims during the season.In the under-19 limited over cricket tournament, he established a another record, slamming 205 against Moratu Vidyalaya.

The previous highest score was by former Test cricketer Russel Arnold (St. Peter’s College) who scored 170. Incidentally, Dinesh Chandimal was the runner-up in the best fielders award in 2007 Observer-Schoolboy Cricketer of the Year and winner best fielder in the 2008 contest.

Dinesh has toured Malaysia with the under-15 team first trip in 2006, went to India for Triangular tournament (Sri Lanka, India, Bangladesh), in 2007 to Bangladesh for Test matches, 2008 and 2009 again to Malaysia and Bangladesh with the Schools Cricket Team.

Dinesh first got involved in club cricket, playing for Singha SC, Ambalangoda in 2006 and then played for Old Anandian SC.At present he plays for NCC and his ambition is to play for Sri Lanka in the near future. He is now employed at DIMO.