Ananda cricketers enjoy an excellent season

CRICKET: Ananda led by wicket keeper/batsman Chathura Herath and ably guided by their new coach Udayananda Perera (Former Ananda, SSC, Police and BRC cricketer) completed an outstanding season.

Ananda put the icing on the cake by winning the Lemonade Trophy by beating St. Peter's very comfortably by a margin of 52 runs. St. Peter's could not match the all round strength of Ananda who are masters in defending even moderate totals. This speaks volumes of the highly skilled Ananda team.

This is Ananda's 14th championship victory, having won on 13 previous occasions, a record no other school has matched. The Ananda coach attributes the success enjoyed by his cricketers this season to the team fielding a number of talented allrounders.

Skipper Chathura Herath led from the front despite being unable to represent the team in around 10 important matches. Due to his national duties with the Under 19 World Cup Team.

Amal Athulathmudali (Vice captain) is the toast of the Ananda team this year with a splendid run with the bat and a good performance as the opening bowler. He scored a classic century in the big match against Nalanda and was also declared as the man of the series in the limited overs tournament and also became the man of the match.

One wonders why he was not selected to represent the country at the under 19 world cup. He is easily the best allrounder in school today, and is a towering figure standing over 6 feet which makes him deliver unplayable deliveries at the opponents.

Gayan Rupasinghe, the other opening bowler is also a six footer and proved menacing always. He used the long handle very effectively to score heavily this season.

The five pronged spin attack consisted of Malith Gunatileke (left arm leg spin), Udara Pieris (right arm off spin), Ruchira Herath younger brother of skipper (right arm off spin), Vishwa Wijesuriya (right arm off spin) and find of the season 14 year old Mateesha Perera. The above named players are also talented batsmen.

There were three other medium pacemen namely, Ranganath Wijestunge, who also scored heavily with bat, Ishara wickramasinghe and Bishan Dabare.

Other players who represented Ananda senior team were Prabhoda Seneviratne, Udara Jayasundara, Sachithra Madapatha, Rajika Seneviratne, Sameera Wijesuriya, Mahee Wathuregama. Thushara Aravinda & Sameera Nanayakkara. The team spirit and the enthusiasm of the old boys and parents also contributed to Ananda's success.

Ananda scored outright victories over Trinity College (Kandy), Dharamapala (Pannipitiya) & Tissa MMV (Kalutara) and were deprived of at least three certain victories due to rain.

Ananda crossed the 350 run mark on four occasions and crossed the 300 mark on a number of occasions. They bowled out their opponents under 150 runs on 10 occasions.

The Ananda team also took part in the division two tournament of Sri Lanaka cricket under Old Anandians Sports Club and fared exceptionally well.

The Ananda second eleven team also took part in division three tournament and lost to the mighty SSC team in the final round.

Coach Udayananda Perera instilled discipline among the players to mould them into a high performing squad. Master in Charge Priyankara Nandasena and Kumar Rodrigo (prefect of games) provided solid support to the coach.

Cricket promoter and Ananda old boy Chandrajith Samaranayake mapped out well planned strategies, especially in the limited overs tournament to enable Ananda to become champions in the Lemonade Trophy, where 84 schools from all over the Island took part. He motivated the players by briefing the team from match to match, of Ananda's past record in this tournament.

Ananda have entered finals on 19 occasions including this year in this 35 year old tournament. Rain and tosses deprived them from entering the finals on three other occasions. He was with the players, coach and master in charge during the matches and practice sessions despite his professional commitments. At the beginning of the season itself he stressed on winning this tournament where ladyluck deprived them for the last five years.

Principal B.A. Abeyratne was a source of inspiration and a tower of strength to the team.

Past cricket captains Sanjeewa and Saliya Senanayake, Jithendra Perera, Thilina Kandambi & many others were physically present at most matches boosting the morale of the players.

Finally, the man who piloted Ananda to 13 previous championship titles, former coach Anuruddha Polonnowita was all smiles at the SSC after Ananda clinched the lemonade trophy.

Ananda produced these results without the services of three senior players, namely Mahela Udawatta and Charith Jayaweera (represent Sri Lanka A team) and prolific run getter of last year Pradeep Boteju who is sitting for CIMA examinations. All other schools took full advantage of the ruling of the education Ministry and fielded all their under 20 players.

A special word of thanks should also go out to dedicated Old Boys, Pandu Liyanage, Parakrama Molligoda & Ranjith Pandithage as well due to their continuous efforts to promote Ananda cricket.

Skipper Chathura Herath, Amal Athulatmudali & Gayan Ruapsinghe are all future National prospects and Sri Lanka cricket should look after these players on a continuous basis by arranging sponsorships and specialised training. Well done Ananda