The 81st Joe-Pete Battle of the Saints cricket encounter will be worked out on 6th and 7th of March at P. Sara Oval stadium and the match was officially announced to the media at a press conference held at St. Peter’s College this Monday evening.
One of the major big matches in the island, Battle of the Saints is renowned to be one of the best encounters cricket-wise for its competitive and exciting brand of cricket played out by both premier catholic schools in Sri Lanka. The battle between the saints will be played for the Rev. Fr. Maurice Le Goc Challenge Trophy. The chief guest for the match will be Mr. Tony Opatha who is the Peterite captain way back in 1967 who went on to represent the national side.
The Peterites will be hosting the two-day encounter on 6th and 7th while the Josephians will host the one-day encounter on 14th March at R. Premadasa Stadium. The specialty of this year will be the joint organizing committee from both colleges to work hard for the success of both matches.
St. Joseph’s College leads the series tally with 12 wins and their last win came under Ruwantha Fernandopulle’s leadership way back in 2008 while St. Peter’s College last registered a win under Shehan Fernando’s captaincy in 2012 and they have won the battle of the saints on 9 occasions. This time the boys from Maradana will be led by batsman, Pathum Madusanka while the boys from Bambalapitiya will be captained by Chandula Jayamanne.
Speaking to the media, Rector of St. Peter’s College stated the rules and regulations of the big match, “ As per the special conditions since 2000, the 1st innings of both teams will be limited to 60 overs. Each team will bowl 60 overs irrespective of interruption of unless all out. However the team has the options of declaring within the 60 overs and the team batting second could be enforced to follow-on at the end of the 60 overs even if they are 100 runs behind though they are not all out. “
“ For the first time, there will be a Joe-Pete joint organizing committee and the main objective behind this is to attract a bigger crowd to the two-day match. When we looked back at the past few years, the numbers have been very low and we discussed that if we worked together, we can bring more people to the grounds to watch the two-day match than the one-day match.“ Rev. Fr Trevor Marin further stated to the media.
Rector of St. Joseph’s College, Rev. Fr Travis Gabriel shared his views on the organization of the big match and the vehicle parades of both schools to be held on 14th March, “ The vehicle parade is for the old boys and we have advised the schoolboys not to attend it. We have joined hands to organize this together in order to put up a better and bigger carnival-like atmosphere at the grounds on 6th and 7th of March.“
www.thepapare.com – Sri Lanka’s number one sports hub has partnered up with the saints to be the official online partner to live stream the 81st Joe-Pete cricket encounter.
