Do you know the correct way to play cricket?

Varuna RATNAWEERA

If you think you know a lot about cricket just because you can handle a bat with elegance or bowl some good yorkers or googlies that will put the opposing batsmen in a fix - you are certainly missing some very important things that this noble game can teach you.

The Joint Committee set up to organize the 'Battle of the Maroons 2012' - the traditional Big Match between Ananda and Nalanda which will take its 83rd step on March 3 and 4 next year, last week organized what one could call a unique programme, at Nalanda College.

This was a personality development programme for about 70 young cricketers in all, 35 from each school, that included the entire squads of both the first XI and second XI teams for a knowledge enhancement exercise with a view of making them better citizens of future Sri Lanka.

After a few formalities words of advice to the youngsters by Nalanda principal Ranjith Jayasundera and some encouraging remarks by the two Co-Chairmen of the Joint Organising Committee, Nishantha Ranatunga and Sidath Waidyasekera, the programme started with a two hour session by a Level 1 Umpire of Sri Lanka Cricket Gamini Dissanayake.

Dissanayake described in detail the ICC Rules and the Code of Conduct and also the 8 new rules that came into effect recently with regard to the Power play overs in limited overs cricket for the benefit of these young cricketers.

The session that followed thereafter was very appropriately named 'beyond the bat and the ball" and was presented by personal trainer Jayampathi Jagodaarachchi.

This presentation became very interesting to all the young stars as he explicitly described what one could expect to learn and should actually be striving to learn from this most popular game in Sri Lanka.

The courage, determination and patience that Cricket instils in a young cricketer and more importantly fair play, respect and the honour for one's opponent - among many other qualities that this noble game can teach, were elaborated upon by Jagodaarachchi during his presentation.

The Technical Sub Committee for Cricket led by Kamal Dharmasiri and Gihan Weerasinghe from Ananda and Nalanda respectively were instrumental in organizing this important event on the initiative of the Joint Organizing Committee of the Maroons' Battle.

They were of the view that these important points should be embedded in the minds of the youngsters right from the start of the cricket season and not just before the big match in March next year, hence the need to have this programme at this early stage.

Let's hope that Sri Lanka will have an abundance of great cricketers and more importantly good citizens in the future as a result of these efforts, emerging not only from Ananda and Nalanda but from many other schools as well.