Trinity's feat of 10 outright wins, a record for school cricket

by S.M. Jiffrey ABDEEN - Kandy Sports Corr.

SCHOOL CRICKET: We have come to an end of another inter school cricket season in the hill capital during which several good performances were witnessed.

Trinity College was the pride of Kandy when they, not only scored a record ten outright wins during the season, but also remained unbeaten despite the wet weather conditions experienced during the season in which cricket could not be played for over a month.

Trinity College led by 'cricket lion' Akila Jayasundera and coached by Sampath Perera carried almost everything before them. By the end of the third term they had totted up seven outright victories. They had played seven and won all of them outright. They added another three in the first term despite the inclement weather and they could not play some of the matches.

Trinity College rounded off an excellent cricket season by winning the Schools Twenty-20 cricket tournament. Earlier they finished runner-up in the schools limited over tournament. They also won the limited over clash with St.Anthony's College.

St.Anthony's College, though winning five matches and losing one, could take pride in the individual performances of their skipper Hiran Wickremasekera and off-spinner Arvinda Premaratne. Hiran Wickremasekera perhaps became the first schoolboy to score a thousand runs in a season for three successive years. He achieved this feat in 2009, 2010 and 2011. This is a feat which eluded many top cricketers during their school days.

Hiran Wickremasekera's performance is all the more creditable as the Antonians were plagued by wet weather conditions and they could not play three of their traditional matches against Royal College, Ananda College and Dharmaraja College. Their Off-spinner Arvinda Premaratne took 104 wickets during the season and was the only bowler from the hill capital to achieve this feat this season.

Dharmaraja College broke a thirty-year-old hoodoo by defeating

Kingswood College in their 105th Battle of the Maroons played at the newly constructed Pallekelle International Stadium which was also the venue for matches at the 2011 World Cup. The Rajans were led by Hemal Munaweera.

But the Kingswoodians turned the table on their formidable opponents when they beat them in the limited over clash for the Winstoon Hool-emotional trophy.

St. Sylvester's College could have won their big match against Vidyartha College had they been only a little more positive in their play on the second day. But they made amends by winning the limited over clash for the M.B.W. Mediwake trophy. Vidyartha College did not impress much during the season winning against Sri Devananda and Taxila from Horana though much was expected from this team.

The Big Match between Sri Sumangala College and Sri Rahula College was not played this year too. The last time this match played was in 2009 and had to be brought to a premature end on the advice of the law enforcing authorities following incidents.

Madina Central College won their big match against Azar Central College for the third successive year.

Another notable feature was that three big matches were taken out from the traditional venue of Asgiriya Stadium to the Pallekelle International Cricket Stadium which is 14 kilometres away from the city of Kandy.