Sylvestrians battle the drawbacks to stay afloat

by Hafiz Marikar

St. Sylvester's College who are celebrating their 75th anniversary are brimming with confidence despite many drawbacks.

They have played against Anuradhapura Central, Kingswood, D.S. Senanayake, Dharmaraja, Nalanda and Holy Cross and drawn all the matches.They will take on St. Peter's College on November 12 and 13 at Pallekele followed by a match against S.Thomas' College on December 29 and 30.

They also have matches against President's College, Dharmapala, Joseph Vaz, Mahanama, St. Sebastian's and the big match versus Vidyartha College.

They will play their home games at the Pallekele Stadium thanks to their dynamic coach Roland Perera who is in the Committee of the KDCA. Their very first game in the history of the school was against Vidyartha and the pioneers who introduced cricket were POG Rev. Fr. Dom George, J. Denlow (coach), rector Rev. Fr. D.P.Vedakapattany while Ronnie Stephens was also coach.

The idea of introducing cricket was in the mind of their founder Rev.Fr. Robert M.Perera, but lack of facilities prevented him.Their first team in 1955 team was made out of Tony Direckze (Capt), T. Sathiyamurthi, H. Dias, T.G.M. Peiris, N.Ratnayake, Vernon Nanayakkara, V. Croos, U. Ariyachandra, I Hepanstoll, M. Direckze, Y.W.Wanigasekara, R. T. Tilly and U de Silva.

Before they started cricket, two of their products M.E. Marikar became the first Sylvestrian to play representative cricket at a time when St. Sylvester's College had not taken to cricket in a big way. He played for Moors SC, Sinha Regiment, Kandy Sports Club, Central Province and later for Kandy Lake Club. The other was Abdul Razak who played for the Prisons team.

Nihal Samarasekara became the first to play for the country in the pre-Test era. Ishak Sahabdeen was the first player.

The other cricketers who did well for the school and clubs were Nimal Lewke, a fine spinner in 1967 who was placed second in the Schools' Best Bowling list. Malcolm Perera another product was Sri Lanka Cricket's coaching head at one time.

Undoubtedly 1994 was the greatest year for St. Sylvester's cricket when under present coach Roland Perera they won the all Island League Championship but were deprived of the 'double,' when they were knocked out in the semi final by Ananda College.

This time the Sylvestrians are led by KBM Bhagya Prematilleke, who is a dashing wicket-keeper batsman expected to perform better this season.His deputy is S. Tiron,a right hand batsman and a good bowler with 70 wickets last season. The other batsmen in the side are Manjula Perera, a right hand bat and stroke-maker, Pabasara Perera, Avindy Herath and Viraj Reman.

In the bowling they have S. Tiron a right arm leg spinner, Heshan Attaragalla a right arm paceman, Lashan Buwaneka a right arm paceman, Manoharan Pavitharan a right arm leg-spinner and Vinod Yasintha a right arm off spinner.

Vidyartha Squad: Bhagya Prematilleke (Capt), S.Tiron, Kavinda Perera, Pabasara Perera, Avindy Herath, VirajReman, Lasantha de Soysa, Heshan Attaragalla, Lasham Buwaneka, Nirmal Wickremasinghe, Nuwantha Munaweera, Manoharan Pavithran, Vinod Yasintha, Laknath Jayakody, Gayashan Nishanka, Amman Ahamed, Madushanka Hettiarachchi, Chandrabahu Hiroshan, K Yatawahura, Janakantha Rajapaske, Thenuka Liyanage, I Watagoda, Sidath Nugegoda, Lahiru Bandara, Muditha, Hashan,Thareesha Dilsha, Wickremaratne and K.C.B. Jayasekara. The two MICs are Palinda de Silva and Hemantha Ranasinghe with Thusitha Pallekumbura as the POG..