Leos celebrate first title win

Chris DHAMBARAGE

Leos Cricket Club Negombo produced a sterling performance to overcome heavy odds and clinch the Sri Lanka Cricket organized inter club Under 23 Division Two title for the first time.

Their success had a great amount of significance as almost the entire team was studded with some promising schoolboys. They had the better of some top teams from Colombo during the preliminary round and then went on to beat Sebastianites CC on the first innings in the final encounter.

Leos Cricket Club was inaugurated on July 30th, 1972 by the late Leo E. Fernando who was in fact the first President of the club and the club house was situated at one of his business premises. The membership at the inception was around 15.

Thereafter the former Mayor of Negombo Sarathchandra Gunaratne took the over the reign followed by T. M. M. Dole, Asoka Mirando, Earl Suraweera, Pradeep Peiris and Hiran Fernando who is the current President of the club.

Leos Cricket Club started their journey by playing in the SLC Division Three cricket tournament and moved into the Division Two tournament in 1985. They later went on to clinch the Division Two title in the year 2000.

During this period Leos Cricket Club has produced some outstanding club cricketers in the form of all rounder Melwin Mallawarachchi, opening batsman Lionel Fernando and wicket keeper batsman Xavier Fernando.

At presently they have a membership of just over 30 but unfortunately they do not have a club house or a playground of their own to host even their home matches.

As a result they were forced to make all the preparations and training in Colombo at the Thurstan College grounds at least two days per week. In addition the presence of two top coaches Mahesh Weerasinghe and Dinesh Weerasinghe also helped them to complete their task in a more spectacular manner.

Last year too Leos Cricket Club reached the semifinals of the Under 23 Division Two tournament before going down to CCC on the first innings. They have been competing in this tournament since 1995 and their senior team had the honour of winning the SLC Division Two tournament in 2000.

But this year Leos Cricket Club were more determined to perform well and they could look back with a great amount of satisfaction as all their hard work have produced the desired results at the end.

Leos Cricket Club had their early preparations at the Kadolkelle ground in Negombo but without a turf wicket they found it really difficult to match some of the top teams competing in this tournament.

This time they got their act together well with a new look side under the guidance of skipper Indika Massalage who had the services of some up and coming schoolboy cricketers currently representing Maris Stella College Negombo, Raddoluwa Maha Vidyalaya, Thurstan College, Lumbini MV and D. S. Senanayake College.

Dashing opener Massalage a former Thurstan College cricketer led from the front while scoring over 550 runs and also captured over 17 wickets. His former schoolmate Jehan Javed also made his presence felt while scoring over 350 runs in the tournament.

The rest of the players are all current schoolboys who are hoping to make their presence felt in the upcoming inter school cricket season. Vice captain Banuka Devasurendra is a promising player from Raddoluwa MV and he made a good contribution with both bat and ball.

The best individual performance of course came from Lumbini MV schoolboy and left arm spinner Prabath Jayasuriya who was responsible for 39 wickets in this tournament.

Another player from Lumbini MV Vikum Sanjaya also excelled with the ball and was one of the key players in the final where he captured a five wicket haul along with Dushmantha Chameera of Maris Stella College Negombo.

Dasun Chanaka, Vishwa Kanchuka and Shanuka Silva are the three other schoolboys from Maris Stella College who represented Leos Cricket Club. Opener Ravindu Sandaruwan of Lumbini MV also had a good tournament where he scored over 250 runs including one half century.

Left hander Damith Priyadarshana is another promising player from Lumbini MV who made a significant contribution for Leos Cricket Club. In addition seventeen year old Lasith Madushan from D. S. Senanayake College also played a leading role with his smart fielding behind the stumps.

The Leos Cricket Club Under 23 squad: Indika Massalage (captain), Banuka Devasurendra, Sithija Madushan, Osman Zaman, Rajiva Sandaruwan, Dasun Shanaka, Dushmantha Chameera, Maduka Harshana, Prabath Jayasuriya, Vikum Sanjaya, Ashan Rusiru, Damith Priyadarshana, Lahiru Chaturanga, Jehan Javed, Lasith Madushan.