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The Moratuwa Sports Club held their "Awards Nite" at the Ranmal Holiday Resorts, Moratuwa.

The Guests of Honour were Minister of Plantation Industries Laxman Kiriella and his wife and Minister of Rural Economy and Deputy Minister of Finance Bandula Gunawardena. The Mayor elect for Moratuwa Ravinath Gunasekera, Western Provincial Councillor Thompson Mendis, BCCSL interim Committee member Sidath Wettimuny, former Interim committee member Asantha De Mel, Chairman Tournament Committee Sriyan Samararatna, Deputy Chairman of Nawaloka Group Jayantha Dharmadasa, Personal assistant to G.L. Pieris Dayasiri Jayasekera were among the distinguished guests.

Whilst welcoming the distinguished gathering the President Vernon De Mel explained the efforts made to bring the standard of Cricket at Moratuwa Sports Club to the present high standard and this "Awards Nite" was made possible in a very short time due to the untiring effort of Vere Fernando, the General Secretary and the Committee. Vere Fernando in his Vote of Thanks thanked all the distinguished guests who accepted the invitation and were present at the function and all the members and their guests for participating at this memorable occasion.

Moratuwa S.C. completed a rare double this season when they won the coveted Sara Trophy which eluded them since 1957. Earlier in the season they won the Division 1 - One Day Tournament - 'The Champions Trophy". Further they have achieved their main aim of getting promoted to the Premier League by being placed 4th in the Plate Championship. They lost to Air Force by 11 runs after winning on the 1st innings. Had they won this match they would have been placed much higher in the Plate Division.

Moratuwa Sports Club was captained this season by Lucky Rogers Fernando a former best Outstation School Boy Cricketer from Moratu Vidyalaya. He had Mangala Jayasena from St. Johns College Panadura as his deputy. The other players in the team included former Sri Lanka, SSC and Thomian Cricketer Nisal Fernando, Dhammmika Rajapakse, Chamath Perera, Ashan Ranaweera, Amal Wanigasekera, Chinthaka Fernando, Chaminda Hathurusinghe to name a few. Dhammika Rajapakse was selected the Best Batsman with 964 runs to his credit which included 3 centuries and had a haul of 46 wickets for the season. The Best Bowler was Mangala Jayasena with 71 wickets. The Man of the Season Trophy was won by Lucky Rogers Fernando with 778 runs and 43 victims behind the wickets.

The trophies for Outstanding Performance were won by Chinthaka Fernando with 599 runs Chamath Perera being a good team man who missed several matches due to injury, Amal Wanigasekera for a scintillating 152 not out and 496 for the season, Chaminda Hathurusinghe for taking 54 wickets, Ashan Ranaweera for 711 runs with 4 half centuries and Nisal Fernando for 801 runs with one century and a brilliant 99 against Police S. C at the Champions Trophy finals.

Moratuwa Sports Club had several good Cricketers in the past like the great H.I. Fernando, Nisal Senarathna, Stanley Fonseka, D.D. Jayasinghe, Sylvester Dias, Tudor Meegoda, and Hyasti Aponsu amongst others. The Moratuwa Sports Club came into existence with the advent of De Soysa Park in 1941. The Founder members of Moratuwa Sports Club Messrs D.H.L. De Silva and Terrence Peiris were the chief negotiators in obtaining the land from A.H.T. De Soysa. The deed of gift to the Moratuwa U.C. was made on 27th March 1941 and the Moratuwa Sports Club was formed at the former Town Hall premises now the ASP office in Moratuwa in May 1941.

According to the first constitution the Chairman of Moratuwa U.C. was to be the President of the Moratuwa Sports Club. Dr. H.I. Fernando the then Chairman of Mortuwa U.C. - the first signatory to the deed when the land was handed over was appointed the first President of Moratuwa Sports Club. The second President of the Club was Hubert De Mel who was the next Chairman of the Moratuwa U.C. Later the constitution was changed and the Founder of Moratuwa Sports Club D.H.L. De Silva was appointed President.

The club led by late A.J.T. Peiris became joint champions with NCC in the Daily News Trophy in 1957, and was promoted to Sara League. The first Sara Team of Moratuwa Sports Club was captained by the late A.J.T. Peiris who was a stalwart for the improvement of cricket in the club. The Club took part in the Sara Trophy since 1958 while playing for Division 3 and later in Division 2. Twice the Club came close to the Sara Trophy being runners up in the Tournament.

In 1996 due to administrative faults the standard of cricket suffered and was demoted from Division 1 to Division 2. While performing very badly in division 2, the Sara qualifying league was started in 1999 by BCCSL and Moratuwa Sports Club was also included in the Sara qualifying Tournament. First 8 teams out of 16 teams in this league were to be promoted to Sara Trophy and Moratuwa S.C was among the first 8 and played in Sara Trophy from 2000/01.

In that season the management of the Club changed hands and with determined efforts by the then Sports Secretary Vernon De Mel and the Executive Committee members of the Club managed to enter the final round of Sara Trophy but had to be content with the third place, thereby failing to get promoted to the Premier League.

With the appointment of Vernon De Mel as President in the year 2001 and Prasanna Fernando as Sports Secretary aided by the General Secretary Vere Fernando, Coach Jayalath Aponso and Cricket Manager Sarath Vaas, the club reached new heights in Cricket, thereby achieving all these glorious victories possible.

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Copyright 2001 The Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Ltd.
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