Matale Thomians field a formidable team

S M Jiffrey Abdeen - Kandy Sports Correspondent

St Thomas’ College, Matale the first school to play cricket from the Matale District will be fielding a formidable side this year and could well end up on top of their group this season and probably gain promotion to the next division.

Amoditha Wijewansa (vice captain)

Shehan Wijetunga (skipper)

It must be said to the credit of the Matale Thomians that they have been playing school cricket for nearly seventy years and they are going strong and every year they have been producing good sides despite many handicaps in their way.

They have produced test cricketer Chanaka Welagedera and junior national cricketer Lahiru Madusanka and their coach Saman Senanayake was in the national pool and played for Sri Lanka ‘A’ in one match. Then there are many others who have excelled in the local club cricket scene not only in Matale but also in Kandy and Colombo. Then there are many others who had their beginnings at Matale and later shifted to other leading schools.

The Matale Thomians will be led this season by fourth year player Shehan Wijetunga, a top allrounder who has scored over 700 runs and is also a good medium pacer. His best score was against Kegalu Vidyalaya when he smashed a century in 60 balls.

The vice captain of the side is Amoditha Wijewansa a fourth year player and a steady bat with an aggregate of 800 runs including a top score of 211 against Ananda Sastralaya Vidyalaya, Kotte. His left arm spinners have brought him a haul of 45 wickets.

But the most accomplished cricketer in the side is third year player Lahiru Madusanka who virtually came from obscurity and walked into the junior national side last year for their tour of India and performed well with the bat. A good right hand bat and has scored over 750 runs though he missed 6 matches due to the Indian tour and has captured 55 wickets with his medium pacers.

The other good batsmen in the side are opener Nelson Kennedy, Thameera Adikarinayake, Ishara Kumarasiri, Shashika Tillakaratne and Duminda Kumarasinghe.

Lahiru Madusanka will open the attack with Ishara Kumarasiri and for extra pace there will be skipper Shehan Wijetunga, Akila Jayadewa and Kasun Rajapakse. Amoditha Wijewansa is their most successful spinner with 45 wickets bowling his left arm spinners. The other spinners are leg spinner Nelson Kennedy, left arm spinner Thameera Adikarinayake, off spinner Duminda Ranasinghe, left arm spinner Dilshan Heendeniya and leg spinner Pandula Udupihilla. Shashika Tillakaratne who has 35 victims so far is the stumper of the side.

The others attending practices are: Kasun Rajapakse, Nushan Senaviratne, Buddhika Amerasinghe K D Aravinda and Bandula Wijeratne.

The team is coached by former Ceylon Tobacco Company cricketer Saman Senanayake who has also played club cricket for Matale CC and Kurunegala SC and also made one appearance for Sri Lanka ‘A’ against Pakistan ‘A’ in 1996 and scored 32 runs.

The Master-In-Charge is Charaka Udupihilla who has done a lot for cricket in the Matale District. The Principal of the School Danpitiya Wanasinghe gives the boys all the encouragement and guidance.

St Thomas’ College will not be playing their big match this year as their rivals Government Science College will not be fielding a cricket team this season.