Antonians field a fresher laden side

St. Anthony's College, Kandy will be fielding a fresher laden side with as many as six players from the under 16 side doing service for them this season but yet they are capable of providing the upsets this season.

St Anthony's College cricket squad for 2013.
Seated (from left) Susantha Basnayake (Assistant Coach), Buwaneka Wijetunga, Sachin Bulathsinhala (Captain), Rev Fr Henry Wijeratne (Deputy Principal), Rev Fr Titus Rodrigo (Principal), Rev Fr Araliya Jayasundera (Prefect of Games), Nimesha Gunasinghe (Vice Captain), Viraj Deepal, Champika Siriwardena (Head Coach) Standing (from left) Sri Kannan, Pulnidu Wijewardena, Lakjeewa Wijebandara, Prabodha Bandara, Pavithra Nanayakkara, Harsha Ebert, Gihan Fernando, Charles
Praveen, Damithra Panditharatne, Duhan Fernando, Dilksh Witharne, Dilan Bandara.

The Antonians in the past had produced a number of outstanding cricketers such as A.C.M. Lafir, Ruwan Kalpage, Piyal Wijetunga, Charlie Joseph, Ranjith Doranegama, Wijepala Premaratne, Ronnie Stevens and last but not least the legendary cricketer and the best spinner the world has seen in Muttiah Muralitharan whose record haul of 800 Test wickets still stands as the highest in the history of Test cricket which has put Sri Lanka as one of the front runners in both versions of cricket.

It must be said cricket at St. Anthony's College has slid during the past two years and action has been taken to arrest this slide and Muttiah Muralitharan himself is fully immersed in it to help his old school.

Leading the Antonians will be third year coloursman and all-rounder Sachin Bulathsinghala. A left hand bat who scored over 250 runs last season and also captured 48 wickets with his right off spinners.

This year he performed the hat-trick for the season which was the first one for the current season. Third year coloursman Nimesha Gunasinghe is the vice captain of the side.

This season he has already struck form scoring a century against S. Thomas' College, Mount Lavinia.

The Antonians will depend largely on these two players to deliver both in batting and bowling, together with Viraj Deepal who scored 350 runs and also had 25 victims from behind the stumps.

The others who could swell the total are Damithra Panditharatne, Pavithra Nanayakkara, Harsha Ebert and Kavinda Pullukuttiarachchi.

The bowling attack too will rely heavily on skipper Sachin Bulathsinhala, Nimesha Gunasinghe, leg spinner Buwaneka Wijetunga, leg spinner Damithra Panditharatne, off spinner and Dilan Bandara and medium pacer Charles Praveen.

The others in the pool are Kavinda Udapola, Lakjeewa Wijebandara, Pramod Premaratne, Kanishka Uggalpaya and Sri Kannan.

The team is coached by former Antonian and Kandy CC cricketer Champika Siriwardena who has come back to coach the side after a lapse of one year.

He said the side is very young and there are no big names and cannot expect results over night as they should be moulded and their skills exploited but this could be done only over a period of time and with exposure.

Rev. Fr. Araliya Jayasundera is the Prefect of Games and with T. Wickremanayake as the Master-In-Charge.