Eighty two year old Madawala Madina Central College is a school from Kandy District and is housed at Bambarella Road, Madawala. It is a mixed school that gives it’s fullest support for sports, especially cricket.
The school plays its big match against Al Azhar College Akurana. This encounter is named as the
‘Battle of The Double Maroons’. This is the only big match in the country between two Muslim schools which commenced in the year 2008.
This season Madina College cricketers are hoping to do well in the school cricket scene. In an under 2e inter provincial tournament, their captain M.Thareef was the fastest bowler putting fear into all the best school batsmen, and had two five wicket hauls and ended as the joint leading wicket taker in that tournament with 26 wickets in five games for Central Province XI and helped the side to win U23 Champions Trophy.
The coaching department is handled by former Trinity College cricketer E. Mohammed Najime who is a qualified level I coach.
He has improved the skills of the young cricketers who are keen to improve their abilities. The school authorities, old boys of the school and parents of the cricketers believe that the coach is able to deliver a season with best results. The MIC is Pasupathy Ganeshkumar who counts years of experience.
They are playing in the lower division and are set to give a good performance, both with the bat and the ball. This season promises to be an action packed season. However, it’s sad that they played only few games last season. Young cricketers after months of training had to be
satisfied with few games. This time they are pooled in the Division III. They are still to get the match schedule. This is how cricket is treated at the lower division.
Who is to be blamed? Cricket is a popular sport here in Kandy, especially at school level. It is a great team sport and players too reach higher levels. This season the side is led by M.R.M. Thareef a Left arm pace bowler and a right handed batsman. He played for central province team for two seasons and was considered as the best bowler of the Prima Cup Championship two years back.
He says, the boys are really working hard for the coming season, there are four pace bowlers and same number of spinners, the top order batting too is in good shape. All players are in good from our coach is giving his best said the captain. His deputy is M.I.M Munshif a right arm off spinner and left handed batsman.
The rest of the players in the squad are M.F.M. Fazal, M.F.I. Inshaf, N.M.Yazer, Z.M. Zaharan, I.M. Shafir, M.F.M. Munshif, M.F.M. Sahl, M.K. Haridh, I.M. Imas, F.M. Musharaf, A.J.M. Ajmal, N.M. Munzir, J.M. Abdul Rahman,R.M. Yasir, M.f.M. Mushraf, R.A. Razim, M.F. Lafrin, S. Prithvirajan, M.Fayas, V. Vidarshan, M. Fawmy Khan, M. Ashik, M. Hussain, M.L.M. Usama and M. Shan