Raninda does Wesley proud

Sanjaya Ariyaratne

CRICKET: A cricketer who is going great guns this season is Wesley College's Raninda Sooriyakumara who has already amassed 225 runs in just three matches in the Astra trophy under 15 division one tournament.

He scored a mammoth 204 not out against Lumbini College including 23 fours and seven towering sixes which is a rare achievement in under 15 cricket which is also the first double century scored by a Wesleyite in junior cricket. Sooriyakumara is also a fine off spinner who captured 3 for 50 against Dharmapala Vidyalaya, Pannipitiya.

He also scored heavily in the under 15 tournament last year scoring over 500 runs. He was also adjudged the

 best batsman of the Nelson Mendis trophy cricket tournament held last year.

Speaking to the Daily News he paid a glowing tribute to his coaches Nuwan Fernando and Neil Rajapakse for teaching him the basics from the under 11 age group in which he started his career.

He also thanked his present coach Shafraz Farook who had worked hard to improve his batting and bowling skills and always encoursged him to give off his best.

He is also grateful to his principal M.A.P. Fernando and Prefect of Games H.M.C. Silva for all the support extended to him.

He said Wesley's cricket is on a sound footing with six under 13 cricketers being picked to play for the Colombo district team, while two top players- Denuwan Dissanayake (skipper) and Ashail Kariyawasam represented the Sri Lanka under 15 team which toured Malaysia in April 2007.

He hopes to bring honour and fame to his alma-mater by representing Sri Lanka in the future. Incidentally Wesley has produced several top national players Mahadevan Sathasivam, Abu Fuard, Segu. Nagendra, Lucky Goonetilaka, Sritharan Jeganathan, Russel Hamer and present Sri Lanka test player Farveez Maharoof.