Thomians a force to be reckoned with

Thushan Jayasuriya

S.Thomas' College, Mount Lavinia which was off to a disasterous start this season by losing their very first match to Richmond College Galle have bounced back to emerge as a force to be reckoned with.

The Thomians who field a well balanced team showed their batting strength a few days ago by piling up a mammoth 412 for 5 against Ananda College.

The Thomians who have a proud cricketing history spanning over 130 years has produced seven Sri Lanka captains - A.C.Amath, D.L.de Saram, Vernon Prins, Buddy Reid, Michael Tissera, Anura Tennekoon and Duleep Mendis. They have also produced several national players who have turned out for Sri Lanka with distinction - Donald Fairweather, M.o.Goonaratne, Bertie Wijesinha, K.M.T.Perera, Chandra Schafter, Ronnie Weerakoon, P.I.Peiris, Dan Piachaud, Ronnie Reid, B.W.R.Thomas, Neil Chanmugam, T.C.T.Edwards, Mano Ponniah, Lareef Idroos, Dennis Chanmugam, Mevan Peiris and Ranil Abeynaike are some of them.

In addition to Duleep Mendis, they have also produced test cricketers - Guy de Alwis, Saliya Ahangama, Kaushik Amalean, Kapila Wijegunawardena and Kaushal Silva while Aruna Gunawardena, Nisal Fernando and Jeevan Mendis have played for Sri Lanka in One Day Internationals.

However, the Thomians will be competing in the few traditional matches this season as they have withdrawn from the under 19 tournament organized by Sri Lanka Schools Cricket Association.

This year the Thomians are being led by all rounder Madushan Ravichandrakumar , a fine right hand batsman and leg spinner, who has scored 250 runs this season and captured 33 wickets.Madushan had a match bag of 8 for 74 against Wesley.

His deputy will be left hander Javed Bongso who has scored over 500 runs this season. He scored a match saving unbeaten century against Prince of Wales Moratuwa and made a mammoth 184against Ananda College a few days ago.

The batting sparkle will be provided by solid batsmen Thilaksha Sumanasiri , Devin Jayasinghe and Ramith Gunaratne . Thilaksha made a fine century (119) against Ananda College while being involved in a massive 232 run partnership for the third wicket with Javed Bongso recently. Devin scored a fine century in the Mustangs Trophy limited over match against their traditional rival Royal College Colombo last year and he looks to be a promising all rounder.Last week Devin scored another fine century against Wesley.

Dhanush Peiris will share the new ball with Ishan Kularatne, Usman Ishaq, Sahan Wijesinghe and Akthab Abdul Cader. The spin attack will include Madushan Ravichandrakumar, Devin Jayasinghe, Thilaksha Sumanasiri and fresher Ravindu Tillekeratne.

They are being coached by former Dharmasoka coach and Singha SC Ambalangoda player P.Milton who is taking great pains to mould the Thomians into a formidable outfit.He is confident that the Thomians will do more better this season.He will be assisted by Dharantha Menerigama and Dillon Ramanayake.

The Thomians get the fullest support from Warden Indra de Soysa , Prefect of Games Vijitha de Silva and Master-In-Charge Lakmaal De Zoysa (who represented the Mount Lavinia School from 1975 to 1979).