A long term plan to develop cricket at St. Anthony’s College Kandy , by the Old Antonians Cricket wing has been launched. This school founded in 1854, is a Roman Catholic school which has excelled at cricket. Once the school was a major force to be reckoned with in school cricket which has produced champion outfits and had some of the finest cricketers the country has seen. Cricket fans will recall the year 1991 when St. Anthony’s emerged as league champions and finished as runners-up in the 50 over cricket tournament. . Cricket was introduced to SACK by Rev Fr. Andrew Van Langenberg in 1903, and first played as ‘St. Anthony’s College Cricket Club’ comprising staff members and schoolboys under the captaincy of Fr. Andrew himself.
The inaugural match was played against Colombo Carlton Cricket Club and the first school match was played against Dharmaraja college in 1904. Again the side was led by Fr. Andrew and the match ended in favour of the Anthonians.
The first schoolboy team was presented in the year 1906 captained by Benny Lawrence.
The Old Antonians’ Cricket Wing’s vision is to give the best possible support and produce talented players.
They have already produced some fine cricketers. One invariably comes in to mind in the early days of St. Anthony’s was Jack Anderson who held the record for the highest individual score in school cricket (291) against S. Thomas’ College Mt. Lavinia in 1917. ACM Lafir was another fine product of the Katugasthota school who played several graceful innings for the school, Nomads CC and Sri Lanka. The other outstanding cricketers produced were Wijepala Premaratne and Charlie Joseph who became the best schoolboy cricketer of the year in 1959.
In recent times there were outstanding players like world famous and all time bowling record holder off spinner Muttiah Muralidaran. Some of the others were C.P.P. Raj, Marlon Van Haught, Damian Nadarajah, Ruwan Kalpage, Piyal Wijetunge, Suresh de Alwis, Umesh de Alwis and Sajith Fernado.
At present due to poor performances the Anthonians were demoted to the SLCA Division II tournament. But this year they are hoping to reach new horizons fielding a good side with their new coach Sampath Perera and the Cricket Wing supporting them to the hilt.. The main Focus is on areas like development of Grounds, Equipment for players & Coaching staff (Bowling Machines, Video Cameras, Data Analyzing Software), Development of the Indoor Cricket facilities etc. They have launched on a short term, medium term & long term plans to be executed under four areas discipline, values & traditions,administration, technical development, Infrastructure development and for better playing equipment, getting coaches for junior and the 1st XI and to give them the best of benefits what they need in coaching . They are also keen in setting proper practice programs
Rugby workshop in Japan
Two top rugby personalities from Kandy Anil Jayasinghe (MO/CMO Strand) and Nihal Viper Gunaratne (Coaching Strand) are invited to attend the World Rugby Educators workshop to be held in Japan from Feb 26 to 28 , 2017 involving representatives from New Zealand, Australia and Ireland
This may be the first time two products from Kandy have been invited to a programme of this nature. Their hotel accommodation will be provided by the Asian Rugby Union while the SLRFU will bear the cost of air fare.
Anil Jayasinghe is a product of Vidyartha College and first played for Kandy SC, and later became a top rugby referee and coach. Nihal ‘Viper’ Gunarathne, is a product of St. Anthony’s College, Katugasthota and also began his club rugby career with Kandy S.C. He is a qualified rugby coach.