Dharmaraja a force to be reckoned with

by Hafiz Marikar

With the schools rugby season over, the focus will be back on the coming inter school cricket season which has already begun in Kandy . One of the top teams from the hills this year should be Dharmaraja College, one of the oldest cricket playing schools.

Dharmaraja a school with a lot of potential, opens their school cricket season on Friday and Saturday. The Rajans should emerge as one of the best teams in the school cricket arena this season.

Cricket was played at Dharmaraja College from its inception The annual cricket match against their traditional rivals, Kingswood College, is the longest surviving cricket match series in the hills.

Dharmaraja has produced some well known cricketers who have represented the country and clubs with distinction too numerous to mention. However, two names invariably come into one's mind Sonny Yatawara and T.B.Kehelgamuwa.

Both 'Kehel' who was known as the Kandyan express at that time and Sonny Yatawara were two prominent fast bowlers during the pre-Test era. While Kehelgamuwa was an automatic choice as an opening bowler in the Sri Lanka side during his prime, Yatawara had the honour of clean bowling Garfield Sobers when a cricket team which had six West Indian cricketers played a whistle stop game in Colombo in the 1960s. The team was called the Mirror XI which had five Ceylon players to complete the XI pitted against a Ceylon team captained by late C.I.Gunasekera.

The 'Battle of the Maroons' against Kingswood College is fixed for March 18th and 19, 2017. The first match between the two schools was played in 1893, Sir Don Baron Jayathilake, was the principal of Dharmaraja at that time.

The Kingswood team was captained by A.E. Spencer, which match was played at the Bogambara Stadium, no longer a cricket playing venue.

The first Big Match between the two schools was played in 1899 with J.C. de Mel captaining Dharmaraja and T.B. Marshall leading Kingswood. This year's game will be the 111th out of the 110 matches. Rajans are well ahead in the tally winning 35 while Kingswood has pocketed only 19 victories.

This year the Rajans are led by a fine one down bat, Deshan Gunasinghe, who is a technically correct stroke maker. Last season he did well with the bat and is an attacking player. and a fine fielder. Much is expected from him as he is a knowledgeable leader who should get the best from his team in the coming season. His deputy is Nivantha Herath a fine cricketer capable of giving his best with the rest of the players like Gehan Vitharana, Chathuranga Aludeniya, Bowantha Udangamuwa, Rukmal Disanayake, Kasun Gunawardene, Udantha Amarakoon, Dulanga Guruge, Ashmitha Rajapakse, Lakshitha Weerasuriya, Sachintha Seanayake and Dulaj Bandara. This year too, one of the best coaches in the hill Capital with loads of experience in Sri Lanka and Australia Senaka Dissanayke the first double centurion in their 'big match' will coach the Rajans who has a done a remarkable job.

Dharmaraja open their season against St Thomas' College Matale at Lake View in a traditional game this Friday and Saturday.

Olcott memorial tourney

They will also meet in the 17th Olcott Memorial six a side tournament at Bloomfield Grounds Colombo. Teams taking part are Dharmaraja College, Ananda College, Mahinda College, Maliyadeva College, Dharmasoka College, Rahula College Matara,Nalanda College and Dharmapala College.

Dharmaraja cricket fixures 2016/ 2017

14th - 15th Vs Dharmasoka, Ambalangoda at Lake View. (Traditional), 23rd - 24th Vs Dharmapala College, at Pannipitiya. (Tournament), 30th and 1st October

Vs St Sebastian's at Moratuwa. (Tournament) October 7th - 8th Vs Trinity at Asgiriya (Tournament), 14th -15th Vs St Sylvester's at Lake View.(Traditional), 21st - 22nd Vs St Anthony's Wattala, at Wattala (Tournament), 28th - 29th Vs Zahira College at Maradana (Traditional). November 8th - 9th Vs Maliyadeva at Kurunegala (Traditional), 18th - 19th Vs Royal at Reid Avenue. (Traditional). January 2nd - 3rd St. Mary's in Kegalle (Tournament), 9th-10th St. Peters College (Tournament) Lake View, 13th-14th St. Anthony's Lake View (Traditional), 20th - 21st Mahinda College at Lake View (Traditional), 27th-28th Richmond College (Tournament), February 3rd-4th Nalanda College Lake View (Tournament), 10th-11th Ananda College Away (Traditional), 2th-25th D.S. Senanayake (Traditional) Lake View, March 18th -19th Big match vs Kingswood, and 26th One Day both at Pallekelle Stadium.