Ananda-Dharmaraja P.W. Perera Memorial Trophy match Feb 24 and 25 at Lake View

by Upananda Jayasundera, Kandy Sports Spl. Cor.

Big cricket encounter .... Ananda VS Dharmaraja for the P.W. Perera Memorial Trophy will be played on Monday 24th and Tuesday 25th at Lake View Kandy.

Ananada and Dharmaraja commenced playing with each other in 1893 when the Ananda Principal was late A.E. Bultjens and the Dharmaraja Principal was late Sir D.B. Jayatilake.

P.W. Perera Trophy was introduced in 1999 by the Old Anandianas led by Sanjiva Senanayake in appreciation of the services rendered by P.W. Perera to raise the standard of cricket, both at Dharmaraja and Ananda.

P.W. Perera who played for Ananda from 1938 to 1941 captained Ananda in 1940 and the Combined Colleges team in 1941.

His first cricket coaching assignment was at Dharmaraja as a member of the tutorial staff under the Principal L.H. Mettananda. P.W. Perera coached the 1941-42 and 1942-43 teams at Dharmaraja and joined the Department of Prisons in 1942 where he rose to the position of Superintendent of Prison before his retirement.

The 1942 and 43 cricket teams of Dharmaraja captained by T.B.Talwatta were outstanding with five centurians, T.B. Talwatta, P.L. Arthur Alwis, Raja Mettababda, S.G. Munasinghe and M.R. Gunawardana in the team.

Rajans were considered unofficial cricket champions along with St. Joseph's the only other undefeated team amongst the schools. Dharmaraja came to be recognized as a leading cricket playing school after the success gained when P.W. Perera coached the team.

While serving in the Department of Prisons, stationed in Colombo, P.W. Perera took over coaching at Ananda in 1953 and continued till Anuruddha Polonowita was given the task in 1973.

Thereafter P.W. Perera was coaching the Ananda juniors till his death in 2006.

During P.W. Perera's period of coaching, Ananda cricket blossomed and a galaxy of outstanding cricketers were produced.

Dhanasiri Weerasinghe, Sarath Wimalaratne, Sonny Yatawara, Sunil Wettimuny and Anuruddha Polonowita are some of them.

Junior cricket group under P.W. Perera after 1973 was the nursery that produced a large number of Test cricketers from Ananda, including the World Cup winning Sri Lanka captain Arjuna Ranatunga.

P.W. Perera Memorial Trophy is awarded only when the result is an outright victory and Ananda, having won the Trophy in the inaugural year 1999, retains it.

The match played last year at Ananda Mawatna ended in a draw with Ananda scoring 263 all out and Dharmaraja replying with 217 all out. In the second innings, Ananda were 87 for 2 at close of play.