St. Aloysius’ College will be looking to carry forward the positives of a very successful 2015/16 spell into the 2016/17 season.
A Bit of History
Having begun as an educational institute in 1895, St. Aloysius College now provides education to more than 4000 students. Even though Cricket was played from the inception of the school, St. Aloysius’ College has fallen short on many occasions to the big name schools in Colombo.
St. Aloysius turned the tables around in the last season (2015/16) playing exceptionally well to defeat Isipathana College, S. Thomas’ College and Trinity College in the T20 tournament and ended the 2015/16 under 19 schools’ league as pre-quarter finalists. Incidentally they were also declared the ‘Best Disciplined Team’ in 2015/16.
2016/17 season
Having been drawn in Group C alongside the likes of St. Thomas’ College, Gurukula College, D.S Senanayake College, Dharmasoka College, Zahira College, Anuradhapura Central College, Moratu Vidyalaya and St. Sylvester’s College, and with only two teams progressing through to the next round, St. Aloysius’ would be looking to make an impact and repeat or even better their performances from the 2015/16 season.
Having begun the season with two traditional matches, winning the first against Holy Cross by 8 wickets and crashing to a first innings loss against St. Peter’s, the team from Galle would look to learn from their defeat and bounce back in their next few games as they attempt to make it to the next round.
Key Players
Captain and 6th year player Navindu Nirmal will be a pivotal player this season as he would look to add his Sri Lanka and Club cricket experience and be the driving force behind the school’s cricket.
5th Year and yet another Sri Lankan player Ashen Bandara would look to add to his 3 centuries from last season as he goes for the big runs this season. With 936 runs under his belt from last year, Ashen will look to steady the batting coming in in the middle order.
Ravindu Sanjana, 4th year player and also the opening batsman with 678 run under his belt last season would look to add a major input with the bat. Ravindu shone with the ball picking 12 wickets in the concluded 2015/16 season and would look to repeat the feat this season as well.
Left arm spinner Hareen Buddila a third year player with 65 wickets last season would look to be the spear head with the ball for Aloysius. Furthermore being adjudged as best bowler in the SLC U19 inter-provincial tournament will be a big boost as he gears up for this season.
Photo Album: St.Aloysius’ College Cricket Team Preview 2016/17
Coaching Staff
Former Aloysius old boy Malaka De Silva is continuing as Coach of the 1st XI team and would look to take the team forward and better last season’s performance. With many years of coaching experience and being around the same set of lads, Malaka would look to fine tune the little aspects of the team and move forward.
Jagath Semasinghe will continue as MIC of cricket at St. Aloysius College.
Final Say
St. Aloysius College would look to make maximum use of their star players such as Captain Navindu Nirmal and Ashen Bandara as they would look to make the most of their Sri Lanka U19 experience while Ravindu Sanjana and Hareen Buddila would look to be influential with bat and ball and take college forward and better last season’s performances.
