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by Ranjan Anandappa

The centenary 'Battle of the Maroons' cricket encounter in the hill capital between Kingswood and Dharmaraja will take place on March 24 and 25 at the Asgiriya International Cricket Stadium.

This much looked forward to cricket encounter between these two prestigious institutions in the hill capital, is rated as second to none. One coming from Colombo should see to believe it. The only aspect that lacked in this encounter is publicity this was the view of the Principal of Dharmaraja College S. M. Keerthieratne who addressed a press briefing in connection with the centenary Criucket match between the two schhols at the Gymkhana Club Auditorium on Wednesday.

He further said that the contest began between the two schools in 1893 with the staff members and the students of either school partiticipating in the inaugural match at the Bogambara Stadium. Don Baron Jayatileka, the principal of Dharmaraja and a staff member E. H. Spencer led Kingswood. From 1893 to 1898 the matches between the two schools were played with a student _ staff combination. In 1899, the first match exclusively between the students of the schools was played.

The Principal of Kingswood Ranjith Chandrasekera said that there are very few schools who have reached the milestone of meeting each other in a game of cricket on one hundred occasions and the first one that comes to mind is the Royal - Thomian encounter from which many of us have obtained valuable lessons. However, the Kingswood -Dharmaraja encounter had to be interrupted for about 12 years due to the war and several other reasons, but the brotherliness between the two schools has always remained at a high level, he said.

He also reminded the role the media has played to recognise the players at school level. If not for them obtaining all the statistics would not have been possible, he said. Even the paper clippings preserved by the boys as a testimony have opened the door for their future edeavours.

The two principals thanked Sri Lanka Cricket for making the Asgiriya Cricket Stadium available for their all important centenary cricket match. The Pakistan-Sri Lanka first Test was to be played at this venue on the same day.

Now, the first cricket Test between Sri Lanka and Pakistan will be played at the SSC grounds and the Second Test will be played at Kandy from April 1st.

In the 99 matches played so far between the two schools, Dharmaraja has won 31 matches to Kingswood's 19, while 49 matches have been drawn.

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