Mahanama cricketers hoping for a better season

Thushan Jayasuriya

Mahanama College Colombo team, with a fine set of cricketers, strives to see their rays of hope this season.

The combination of well experienced players coupled up with promising youngsters make the Mahanama cricket team a well balanced one.

The School has had a fair amount of luck, registering one outright win and four first innings wins this season.

The match against St.Anthony's College Katugastota ended in a draw while the matches against De Mazanod, Maliyadeva, Gurukula and Trinity also drawn due to bad weather conditions.

This season the 1st XI cricket team of the Mahanama will be captained Pavan Devinda. Being a right hand batsman, has scored over 745 runs for this season with 4 half centuries.

The left arm batsman Naveen Silva will be the Vice captain. He has scored 153 runs so far. His best score was 49 not out against D.S. Senanayake College. Last year he cracked 300 runs.

Fresher Dulanjana Seneviratne has also made his presence felt in the team with the ball while claiming 22 wickets with his off-spinners including a six wicket haul (6 for 54) against Gurukula Maha vidyalaya Kelaniya.

The new ball will be shared between Nayana Prabath, Subuddhi Kaushalya either Chamara Silva or Umesh Wijesinghe. The spin attack will comprise of some promising bowlers including Kalana Ashan, Dulanjana Seneviratne, Gihan Sanjeewa and Naveen Silva.

Pavan Devinda the captian leads from the front followed by Vice captain Naveen Silva, Senura Welagedara, Sahan Peiris, Thanula Wickramasinghe and Tharanga Mathangadeera making up a formidable batting line up.

Shiraz Samsudeen will be the head coach of the Mahanama 1st XI cricket team this season. His prior experience as a cricketer will be a great advantage for the Mahanama. Being a product of Isipathana College, he played club cricket for 10 years on the Malay Sports Club.

Over 19 years he was the cricket coach for the Royal, Isipathana, and Thomas. In 2012 Shriram took over Mahanama and continues to deliver. His prime intention is to build up a strong side for the forthcoming "Battle of the Golds" against D.S.Senanayake College.

The Master-In-Charge Leslie Harischandra said that they are getting the fullest support from school support to develop the standard of their cricket.

Mahanama has set up an entity called the Mahanama College Development Committee and which gives maximum support to the school cricket.

The Mahanama College under 19 first XI squad

Pawan Devinda (Captain), Naveen Silva(Vice Captain), Senura Welagedara, Gihan Sanjeewa, Dulanja Siriwardena, Subuddhi Kaushalya, Nayana Prabhath, Tharanga Madushanka, Dulanjana Seneviratne, Kalana Ashan, Chamara Silva, Umesh Wijesinghe, Kalindu Lakshan, Sahan Peiris, Thanula Sandesh Wickremasinghe, Praneeth Satharasinghe and Kavinga Dharshana.

Coach- Shiraz Samsudeen, Asst.Coach- Manjula Perera
Master-In-Charge : Leslie Harischandra.