Kandy’s centenary cricket encounter between the Catholic and the Christian schools, St.Anthonys College and Trinity College will be held at the Pallekele International Cricket Stadium for the John Halangoda Trophy on the 11th and 12th March 2017.
St.Anthony’s College was founded in 1854 and it is one of the most prestigious Catholic schools in the country. St.Anthony’s has a proud cricketing history and is one of the oldest cricket playing schools in Sri Lanka. Antonians started their school cricket games way back in 1899 and yet they formed a proper cricket team only in 1903.
The team was put into shape by the late Rev.Fr. Dom Andrew Vanlangenberg OSB who was an old Royalist who captained the Royal team in 1896.
St.Anthonys College and Trinity College are the two oldest cricket playing schools in the Central Province. Their encounter happens to be the sixth oldest inter school big match in Sri Lanka.
In the first game of the Battle Of The Blues which was played at the Bogambara grounds C.E.de Silva, a prominent school cricketer of the time captained Trinity while all rounder C.C. Senarathne led the Antonian team which the Antonians won.
This match first in the series was contested for the first time in March 1914 but upto this year 3 games were played. Hence the hundredth encounter in 2017.
The teams of 1907 and 1910 consisted of a mix of teachers and school boys. In their 2nd big match Trinity won the game and thereafter has had a well contested series but for in 1956, 1957 and 2001 the match was not played.
Both Trinity and St.Anthonys College are planning to invite to this historic occasion some of their top cricketing alumni who had done excellent services to their past teams and for the country later to witness this encounter.
Former Antonian cricket stars of the 1970s and Sri Lanka’s First Test Wicket-Keeper – Mahesh Goonatilake and world famous spin bowling record holder Muttiah Muralitharan prominent around the world as one of the greatest bowlers of all time and Trinity’s former Sri Lanka fast bowler exceptional Ravi Rathnayake and former Sri Lanka Cricket captain Kumar Sangakkara will grace this centenary cricket occasion. The limited over encounter between these two schools will be played the following week for the Sir Richard Aluwihare Trophy.
Trinity College who dominated these matches in the early cricket scene leads the series with 22 wins against 12 wins by St.Anthonys College who have come with some impressive wins in the post war era. The game of school cricket is enjoyed by many people all over the island. There are many schools playing the game and with the growing numbers there are many school cricketing stories that emerge to keep school cricket happy.
Cricket has endured many changes and it has stood the time well. Both Trinity and St.Anthonys have a proud history of producing some exceptional cricketers who have gone on to shine in both local and international arenas. Among them are Jack Anderson, ACM Lafir, Mahes Goonatilleke, Bernard Perera, Marlon Von Hagt, Ruwan Kalpage, Piyal Wijetunge, Muttiah Muralitharan and Sajith Fernando from St.Anthonys and Ravi Rathnayake, Nilantha Rathnayake, Kaushalya Weerarathna Kumar Sangakkara, Sachith Pathirana, Niroshan Dickwella and Lahiru Kumara from Trinity.
Both these schools have produced the most number of international cricketers and also the most number of school boy cricketers of the year from the Central Province.
The best bowling effort in the big match series is by Sudanga Fernando of Trinity who took 10 wickets for 38 in 1997. Perhaps this is the only occasion in which that a bowler had captured all ten wickets in an innings.
The highest individual score in this big match series is by A.C.M. Lafir of St.Anthonys College who made 176 and was associated with Ronnie Stephens in a record opening stand of 266 with Ronnie making 106.
Ronnie Stevens is the only Anthonian on record to have scored two separate hundreds in the big match series.
Antonian Charlie Joseph came close to it when he made 95 not out in 1959 when he ran short of partners. But in 1960 he made 127 runs. The highest individual score for Trinity is by Kaushalya Weeraratne who made 148 runs in 1999.
The highest total by Trinity is 426 for 8 wickets declared in 1942 and the record for the Anthonians is 399 for 7 in 1954.
The lowest total in the series is by St.Anthonys College who were dismissed for 27 in 1928 and the wrecker being C. Thalgodapitiya who took 6 for 10. The lowest total by the Trinitians is 54 in 1990.
The first cricket match for St.Anthony’s College was played with the Colombo Carlton cricket club on 13th of April 1903 at the Barracks Square in Kandy now Police Grounds.
This was won by the Antonians by an innings and 129 runs. The first school game for St.Anthonys was against Dharmaraja College which the Antonians won by 109 runs in 1904.
Jack Anderson was a great cricketer produced by St.Anthony’s College in the bygone era and can be rated as the finest cricketer to be produced by the Antonians in 1916-1920 when it was known as the golden years of Antonian cricket.
In recent times Trinity came up with their own in Kumar Sangakkara who captained the Sri Lanka team, and became an instant success with the bat.
Many great batsmen and bowlers who played in these big matches are no more but their achievements are still spoken of.
The greatest and the spirits of this great hearted cricketers should inspire all Trinitians and Antonians of today for generations to come. It is great of these great cricketers to have achieved these records during an era when cricket did not have facilities like today.