Reviving cricket activities at Bloomfield - primary object of new president

By Ranjan ANANDAPPA

CRICKET: The incumbent President of Bloomfield C&AC - Hirantha Perera is making a determined efford to revive the 117 year-old club which produced some top national and Test cricketers like the first Test captain Bandula Warnapura, Lalith Kaluperuma, Anura Ranasinghe, D.S.de Silva, Ajith de Silva, Sunil Jayasinghe, D.L.S de Silva,Roshan Mahanama, Pubudu Dasanayake, Ruwan Kalpage, Kumara Dharmasena to name a few players. The present players of the calibre of Sanath Jayasuriya, T.M. Dilshan, Chamara Silva, Prasanna Jayawardena, Chinthaka Jayasinghe and Tharanga Lakshitha are representing the club and they will be given a further 'push' so that the club will be able to come back into their former state.

The club maintained a rich cricketing heritage in its 117-year-old history. It was founded in 1893 in an era where there wern't many cricket playing clubs either in Ceylon or abroad.

Bloomfield was inaugurated in the racqet court in Pettah, presently Chalmers Granaries.

Thirty years later, the club was compelled to shift to a small location in Campbell Park in 1923 due to an urban expansion. The club's pavilion was a wooden hut on wheels.

The club has not been on its best days with the membership dwindling and Hirantha said he intends addressing this area to rebuild the membership.

In this respect, Hirantha the former Wattala Anthonian, has appealed to former members to the Reid Avenue Club with cricket background down the years, feeding the national main stream at all levels to get back into grooming talented young cricketers so that cricket will be enlivened at the club.

"The paying members have dropped drastically from about 500 to 50 in the recent past, and the club entrusted me to restore the situation. He said that as a division one cricketer he represented Bloomfield and now he decided to take up the challenge, with the idea of giving something in return to the club, so that the cricket can be revived and brought back to the former stage of having a bulk of players in the national team," said the newly elected President Hirantha Perera.

Hirantha Perera was the Chairman of Bloomfield Cricket Committee for the past five years, and a Vice-President for the last ten years. He also played for CCC and the Wattala Anthonians where he was a past student and a player and captained the Under 23 Bloomfield team.

He also served as a Ex-Co member of Sri Lanka Cricket from 1999.

At the Annual General Meeting held recently, the following office-bearers were elected by Bloomfield....

Patrons: Shelly Wickremasinghe, Upali Dharmadasa, Vice-Patrons: Bandula Warnapura, Thilak Hewakapuge, Danny Liyansuriya, Upali Premadasa, D.P. Wickremarachchi.

President: Hirantha Perera, Secretary: Rohan de Alwis, Treasurer: Nihal Marasinghe, Assistant Secretary: Yoosuf Khan, Asst. Treasurer: Prince Thomas, Vice Presidents: Jayantha Seneviratne, Lalith Kaluperuma, Rohan de Alwis, Nihal Marasinghe, W.D. Quintus, Bar Secretary: Rohith Nagarajah, Ground Secretary: Jayantha Seneviratne, Cricket Secretary: Sanoj Cyril, Club Captain: Ashroff Ghany, Social Secretary: Ranjith Fernando.

Committee: J. Galassage, Sarath Liyanage, Sumith Fonseka, Sarath Mandawela, Ravi Athulathmudali, Kithsiri Lankathileka, Ajith Dharmawardena, Christy Perera.