The 142nd Battle of the Blues launch between Royal College and S. Thomas’ College took place with none of their captains or coaches present at the BMICH this week which made it an absurd affair.
It marked the first time in the history of the 142-year-old series that the big match between the two schools had none of the team’s officials or at least important figures of the team.
When the Sunday Observer raised the question the organisers said players, coaches and team officials were already in different bio-secure bubbles in Colombo and that it was decided against having their presence.
An official from Royal College went on to say that coaches were irrelevant in the context of today’s affairs.
The absence of captains and coaches, the most important representatives, made the media launch an incomplete procedure and instead, only the head prefects of both the schools posed with the DS Senanayake Shield that they play for.
However, the cream-of-the-crop encounter is all set for the show to be played behind closed doors at the Mahinda Rajapaksa International Cricket Stadium in Hambantota on May 6,7 and 8 marking the first-time in the century-old tradition that the match will be outside Colombo.
As an exception solely for this year, the T20 returns replacing the 50-over Mustangs match as the situation has failed to facilitate the latter. Accordingly, the three-hour quick-burst entertainer will be on May 10, at the same venue.
For the Thomians, the current Shield holders, it would be their opening batsman Shalin de Mel and for the Royalists their explosive batter Ahan Wickramasinghe leading the sides.