Under 15 cricket for Yasaratne Tennakoon Memorial Trophy

S M Jiffrey Abdeen - Kandy Sports Corr

The concept of this tournament is unique in many ways as the combined team is not confined to one district or school as it would make it lopsided and unbalanced the very purpose will be lost said the Honorary Secretary of the Central Province Cricket Association Janaka Pathirana.

He made these observations at a media briefing on the ongoing Yasaratne Tennakoon Memorial Trophy under 15 limited over cricket tournament for the Central Region held at the Central Province Regional Office at the Asgiriya Stadium, Kandy.

He said that the main objective is to look for talent and harness them into a combination and each team comprises of cricketers from many schools from different districts. The captains are not confined to the elite schools who have all the amenities. A careful survey was carried and the teams selected so that they could interest and put to test whether they could extract the best from cricketers playing under them.

Janaka Pathirana paid a glowing tribute to Sri Lanka Cricket’s Central Provincial Cricket Coach Sunil Fernando and District coaches Suresh Peiris, Amila Pinnaduwa, S Karthigesan and Migara Ekanayake for doing fine job in their talent search quest. They had covered a very extensive area in the districts of Kandy, Nuwara Eliya and Kegalle and unearthed talent and some of the schools are not known to have played cricket but still they have been given an opportunity to play in this tournament.

The eight teams have been given names with a local touch more so with a Central Region touch, away from the traditionally English names which we are so familiar and our idea is to bring about a change. The eight teams which will be in the fray are Senkadagala. Mahanuwara Madhyama, Uda Dumbara, Patha Dumbara, Kande Udarata, Gampola, Nawalapitiya and Sabaragamuwa. We must not ape others but should be innovative in our ideas.

Janaka Pathirana explaining about the composition of the teams said that the Mahanuwara Madhyama team is captained by Anuradha Bandara of Anuruddha Kumara Vidyalaya, Nawalapitiya – a school hardly known in the cricket circles. Playing under him are cricketers from top schools like Trinity College, Dharmaraja College, St Sylvesters College, St Anthony’s College, There are no less than four Antonians in the side. The Uda Dumbara team is captained by D Hitihamu of Poramadulla Central College, Hanguranketha. Playing under him are cricketers from Trinity, Kingswood, Vidyartha, St Mary’s and Chandananda Buddhist College just to name a few.

But this does not mean that the bigger schools had been discriminated and side lined. The captains of the other teams are: Sabaragamuwa Deshan Gunasinghe (Dharmaraja College), Patha Dumbara L I Watawala (St Sylvesters College), Senkadagala; Viraj Gunatillake (Kegalu Vidyalaya), Nawalapitiya Shavinda Amerasinghe (Trinity College), Gampola Lakjeewa Wijebandara (St Anthony’s College), Kanda Udarata Tharindu Liyanage (Kingswood College).