Facilities at Poramadulla Central grounds to be upgraded

by S.M. Jiffrey Abdeen - Kandy Sports Cor

Sports facilities: The Ministry of Sports under its programme of “Gamata Kreedawa’ (Sports to the village) envisaged in President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s Mahinda Chinthanaya will spend a sum of Rs.300 lakhs for developing and upgrading the existing facilities at the Poramadulla Central College grounds in Hanguranketha.

The foundation stone for the upgrading of facilities and the inauguration of the work in the playgrounds will be laid by the Minister of Sports C.B. Ratnayake on Monday October 18th at 10.00 a.m.

Former Minister of Sports S.B. Dissanayake is an old boy of Poramadulla Central College and he did a tremendous amount of work to improve sports in this school which has resident facilities.

It was Minister S.B. Dissanayake’s objective to construct an international grounds at this venue when he visited this venue along with former Cricket Board President Thilanga Sumathipala in 1998. The idea was to acquire a section of the adjoining estate and extend the grounds, so that all sports could be played. Bandula Gunawardena was the Principal of this school.

On that occasion Thilanga Sumathipala as the President of Sri Lanka Cricket donated two practice wickets and also donated cricket equipment to the school at a well attended ceremony which was also attended by a few then national players including Suresh Perera and Russel Arnold.

Poramadulla Central College grounds is located in a beautiful setting flanked by the Diyatalawa mount on one side and the Kandapola area on the other and far beyond the Hewahata hills could be seen. It has all the nature’s charm and beauty and the weather too is not very cold though in the Nuwara Eliya district.

Poramadulla Central College is also a sports school in the Nuwara Eliya district takes on roll children talented in sports and improves and harness their skills. Some of the sports available in this school are volleyball (girls and boys), cricket, football (girls and boys) table tennis, badminton, netball, basketball, athletics and many others.

Thus upgrading of facilities will help to raise the standard of sports in this school. Minister of Sports C. B. Ratnayake is from the adjoining electorate of Walapane and is keen to develop sports in this school. Among the work which has been earmarked is to improve the playing field and also to upgrade the structural facilities available including a pavilion.