Ananda-Rajans clash today and tomorrow

Upananda Jayasundera, Kandy sports special corr.

CRICKET: Ananda College, Colombo and Dharmaraja, Kandy, the two leading Buddhist Schools established by the BTS over 120 years ago will clash for the P. W. Perera Trophy in their annual cricket encounter at Ananda Mawatha, Maradana on February 16 (Friday) and February 17 (Saturday).

This encounter which has a history of over 100 years is played for the P. W. Perera Trophy since 1999. The trophy was presented by the Old Anandians led by former Ananda captain Charith Senanayake in appreciation of the contributions made by P. W. Perera as a cricket coach to upgrade the standard of cricket both at Dharmaraja and Ananda.

The first coaching assignment of P. W. Perera a former Ananda captain was at Dharmaraja from 1941 to 1943. He had tremendous success as the cricket coach at Dharmaraja for he produced two outstanding teams at Dharmaraja in 1942-43 and 1943-44. For the first time in the history of Dharmaraja cricket, Rajans had 5 centurians T. B. Talwatte, P. L. Arthur alias Raja Mettananda, M. R. Gunawardena and S. G. Munasinghe. From 1960 onwards he guided his alma mater with great success. The 1st year the trophy was awarded (1999) it was won by Ananda under the captaincy of Jithendra Perera.

Dharmaraja captain, Pubudu Seneviratne was not available for this match as he was representing the Sri Lanka under-19 team in their tour of India.

Since 1999 the trophy is retained by Ananda as it is awarded only at an outright victory as all the games after 1999 have ended in draws.

A proposal by the Old Rajans to award this trophy on the result of the first innings has not found favour with the Old Anandians.

Rajans will go all out for an outright victory this year and a team tussle is on the cards.

Dharmaraja this year is a formidable side with two innings victories against Zahira and Dharmapala and an outright victory against St. Anthony’s in their last outing.

In the drawn games Rajans had clear first innings leads against St. Thomas’, Royal, Trinity, Mahinda and Vidyartha. Rajans have a dependable batting side with Rukshan Sooriyaratchchi, Upesh Wijesiri, Buwaneka Ekanayake, R. M. J. C. Ratnayake and D. S. B. Ranatunge all of whom have scored heavily this season.

P. W. Perera passed away last year on the eve of the Dharmaraja/Ananda match and the players of both schools paid their respects observing two minutes silence.