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by Chris Dhambarage

It was in the backdrop of some uncertainty that they launched their campaign for the Premier Super League title. Moors Sports Club began the season as the underdogs with only a couple of senior players in their ranks. They were anticipating a first round exit after losing the very first game of the tournament.

However March 8, 2003 turned out to be a memorable day for the Braybrooke Place Club as they cleared all barriers and odds to emerge as the Premier Division One League champions for the first time in their history. Their success in this tournament is mainly due to their sheer commitment and hard work backed-up by a couple of brilliant individual contributions.

But their happy coach Chandika Hathurusinghe summed up everything by describing his team's success as to real teamwork and their ability to handle the pressure situation quite successfully. The final match itself against Bloomfield was all about pressure and this young Moors outfit did exceptionally well to overcome it and came out with flying colours at the end.

Moors SC may have not won the final by a convincing margin and the game would have swung either way with run-making been really difficult at the R. Premadasa Stadium. They eventually scraped home through their last pair reaching their victory target in an absolute thriller. The most satisfying person in the Moors camp was their player cum coach Chandika Hathurusinghe who had really worked hard in the past to make this side a champion outfit.

The former test player said that his team's success in the Premier Super League brought him more pleasure and joy than the day he made his test debut for Sri Lanka against New Zealand at Hamilton in 1991. That shows how close Hathurusinghe has been associated with Moors Sports Club since joining the club five years ago as a player. He was appointed as the coach for the 2000/2001 season after Moors SC were relegated to the Plate championship during the previous season.

Under his guidance the club emerged as the runners-up in the Plate championship and qualified to play in the Super League in the following year. Hathurusinghe said that he had a five-year plan to bring this club into recognition and their target was to reach the semifinals at least in this year's tournament. But the boys have done even better and have brought down a couple of top teams on their way towards the final.

The Moors SC team is a young outfit with the average age around 23 years. Only three players namely skipper Rangana Herath, Nandika Ranjith and Bathiya Perera had played first class cricket earlier. But the rest of the players were willing to learn and try out several new things which certainly brought great results at the end. Hathurusinghe said that the talent was always there with the boys and all they needed was proper guidance and encouragement to perform well on the field.

Hathurusinghe said that the players needed to believe in themselves that they could play well and that is what made them different from the other teams competing in the tournament. The first turning point for Moors SC was the game against Galle CC where they won outright by 184 runs to qualify for the Super League as the third team in the points table.

The entire team rose to the occasion when they badly needed a win after having figured in a no-decision in the previous outing against Moratuwa SC. Before that they had the better of Chilaw Marians SC on the first innings and lost to Air Force SC on the first innings. But the side got their act together well during the final round and went about their task in the most spectacular manner.

Even then their entry into the semifinals was in the balance after going down to NCC and SSC on the first innings in the first two matches of the final round. But according to Hathurusinghe the game that really changed their fortunes was the one against the star- studded Colts CC where they conceded first innings points and then came back magnificently to win outright by two wickets.

Moors SC never looked back from there onwards and then went on to beat BRC outright by 91 runs, beat Tamil Union on the first innings, and beat Panadura SC outright by six wickets. Moors SC also had the satisfaction of defeating the formidable CCC outfit twice in successive outings.

They beat the Maitland Crescent Club on the first innings in their last group match of the Super League and beat the same opposition outright by four wickets in the semifinals. Hathurusinghe said that he motivated the team before the tough final against Bloomfield which they eventually won by the narrowest margin of one wicket.

Hathurusinghe himself won the player of the tournament award for the second successive year for his excellent all round performances. But it was their left arm paceman Nandika Ranjith who won the man of the match award for his matchbag of ten wickets in the final. He was a consistent performer throughout the season and finished with a tally of 52 wickets.

Bathiya Perera was also consistent with the bat and accumulated 858 runs including one double century against CCC. Former Richmond College captain Mohamed Faizer collected 444 runs and skipper Rangana Herath captured 40 wickets. Another left arm paceman Chanaka Welagedera took 36 wickets playing in a lesser number of matches.

Newcomer Amila Wettasinghe and Thamara Abeyratne who played a big hand in the final against Bloomfield also contributed well towards the success of the team.

But Hathurusinghe lamented that none of the players of Moors Sports Club were selected to represent the Sri Lanka 'A' side or the Development Squad against the ECB Academy XI. Hathurusinghe said that he received all the support from the President of the Moors Sports Club Shaffik Rajabdeen and from all the members of the cricket committee. He also thanked the assistant coach M. R. D. Hameen, cricket secretary A. K. M. Rizvie, ground secretary A.R. M. Arooz and their sponsors The Phone Company.

Hathurusinghe said that all the cash awards they received in this tournament have been shared among the players and they have also decided to tour Sharjah at the end of the season. Hathurusinghe said that he intend starting his own coaching clinic at the club for both young and old and he has already received the green light from the management of the club to carry out his duties.

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Copyright 2001 The Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Ltd.
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