Moors SC to celebrate centenary

Chris Dhambarage

CRICKET: Moors Sports Club under the leadership of its president Shafeek Rajabdeen, Member Western Province Provincial Council, have planned a series of sporting events to mark their Centenary year celebrations next year.

A six a side golden oldies tournament to be conducted in the name of Rahaman Hathy, a Centenary cricket match and a Twenty20 inter club limited overs cricket tournament for all top clubs are some of the events that have been lined up.

Rajabdeen who is also the Patron of the Colombo Hockey Federation and chairman Sports and Recreation Colombo Municipal Council said that the ground work has been already completed to mark their centenary year on a grand scale.

Rajabdeen who was earlier the treasurer of the club for fourteen years said that he gathered around with his committee members and was successful in collecting something around 14 million by the way of membership, by the way of ground income, donors and well-wishers for the reconstruction of their club which will be reopened for the members shortly.

Rajabdeen said that they had a new plan and a new vision to put up a stadium at the club house. The cost for the construction of the clubhouse at that time was approximately five million. We started the clubhouse in the 1980s and we were not able to finish it due to lack of money. But we did one part of the clubhouse and we were able to accommodate few areas like the billiards saloon and the cricketers rest rooms.

Rajabdeen said that they embarked on a project of this magnitude now which has included a gymnasium, two cricketers' restrooms, canteen, restaurant, office complex, for the office staff and a viewing gallery on the third floor. Rajabdeen said that he had a five-year plan for this club and ever since he took over the club has spent a large content of money for the improvement of cricket.

Rajabdeen said that they are totally focusing their vision towards school cricket. Moors Sports Club has always looked to the nursery of cricket. In the last few years Zahira College Colombo has been the main feeder for the club. In the last ten years or 15 years Zahira College did not produce good cricketers and therefore that deprived Moors SC from producing good players.

The Moors Sports Club which started in 1908 has been the pioneers in the game of billiards and snooker and some of the national players they have produced are Sharwadi, M. A. Rajin and Chuty Mansoor.

We have four tables and we are able to produce national class players into the Sri Lankan team. We also have produced a number of top cricketers in the past namely Rangana Herath, Dilhara Lokuhettige, Bathiya Perera, Nandika Ranjith. Rajabdeen was of the opinion that Moors SC is a club which does not have competitive cricket like some of the other top clubs in Colombo. We play as the underdogs against the top teams. We have been also supportive to Sri Lanka Cricket and most of the practice matches of the touring teams have been played at Moors SC.

Rajabdeen said that they also want to embark on a swimming pool project, restaurant and a viewing gallery.