St. Anthony’s College, Kandy founded in 1854, is one of the leading Roman Catholic Schools in Sri Lanka.
The Antonian cricket teams of subsequent years, produced some of the most exciting school boy cricketers with young Wijepala Premaratne being adjudged the very first ‘All Ceylon School Boy Cricketer’ in the year 1956.
History
Cricket was introduced to St. Anthony’s by Fr. Andrew Vanlangenberg O.S.B. in 1903, and a team known as ‘St. Anthony’s College Cricket Club’ consisting of staff and schoolboys was formed under the captaincy of Fr. Andrew himself. The inaugural match was played in Colombo against Colombo Carlton Cricket Club. The completion of the first fifty years of this prestigious institution was marked by the first ever school’s cricket match involving St. Anthony’s, which was played in 1904, against Dharmaraja College, and the Antonians had a 109-run victory.
Antonian cricket has produced outstanding sportsmen to this nation including the world class, legendary spinner with his awkward action and doosra -Muttaih Muralitharan. Having such pride, they show a great potential in cricket in Sri Lanka.Along with Murali the old boys of the college have been discussing about the development of cricket at St Anthony’s in last couple of months, so involvement of those parties will give a big boost to the Antonian cricketers
Last Season
Antonians had a good season last year under the captaincy of K.B Ranaraja who lead his team with much skill and courage, where they achieved two outright victories against Dharmaraja College and D.S Senanayaka College Colombo, and also had 8 1st innings victories, but they could not reach to the heights expected that season. The biggest loss in the season was against the Trinitians at their battle of blues 2012, where they had a poor performance. However, they showed strength and resilience to put up an outstanding performance in their one day encounter to defeat Trinity College by a 14 run victory which brought rapturous delight to the Antonian camp.
One of the biggest milestone Antonians achieved was the two individuals who reached the highest level in school cricket in Sri Lanka, representing the Sri Lanka under 19 cricket team. Saranga Rajaguru and Manoj Sarthchandra are those two players who brought honor to their alma mater.
Tall and elegant Sachin to the lead
Sachin Bulathsinghala, a 3rd year player will lead the Antonian squad this season with spirit and with his awkward off spin bowling and strong middle order batting. Being one of the finest all-rounder of the team, and also being the only coloursman of the team, a great deal will be expected from him in the upcoming matches. In ThePapare.com conversation with him he stated that he had a great team with him, and was confident they could tackle all the matches well and that all his team mates are fit enough to reach many milestones in this season. He said his focus would be to end up with a good overall all-round performance this season.
Sachin has represented the Kandy district team continually and with all his experience he also aims to be a part of the Sri Lanka junior squad at the end of the season. But he also made mention that the more important objective is to play good cricket and keep the spirit of cricket within the Antonians.
Nimesha will be the key batsmen of the team
Nimesha Gunasinghe 4th year player will be the vice captain this year, who is known as the best batsmen of the side. He will be batting at no3 position where he has already scored two centuries against Thurstan College and S Thomas College Mt.Lavinia in this season giving a great start to the season and he will be hoping to continue this potential which is the expectation of his team as well. He also will be bowling his off breaks.
Wicket keeper /batsmen Viraj Deepal and the leg spinner Buwanka Wijethunga will be the other seniors in the team. Buwanka already had a fine spell against Thurstan College where he had a 10 wicket match bag.
Champika in- charge of the team for the 9th year
Mr. Champika Siriwardana will be the coach for this season too. He has taken upon duties for the 9th consecutive year to coach the Antonian under 19 squad. Champika Siriwaradna is and old boy of St.Anthony’s College who represented college during the era in 1991 where they became all island champions. He will be assisted by Mr.Basnayaka this season and as the coaching staff they also hope to give their maximum support to the captain and his team mates for a successful season.
2012/2013 Season and upcoming matches
Rain has interfered with their plans and up to now they have played 6 matches. They had a great start with four 1st inning victories against some of the leading cricket playing schools- Wesley College.,Thurstan College, S.Thomas and Mahanama College, and the other days two games were drawn against St.Sylvester’s and Holy cross College .
They will have much focus on their upcoming tournament matches against Royal college, Moratu Vidyalaya, St.Sebsetians College, St.Benedicts college, St.Joesphs College, along with this their biggest hope is to regain the victory against their traditional rivals Trinity college at the battle of blues 2013.
Spin is their strength
Spin bowling will be their weapon throughout the season against every team, because sachin himself lead the team with his off breaks and they consist of another 3 off break bowlers and 2 leg spinners and additionally a left arm spinner who will be a big threat to the batsmen.
Weakness
Most the teams in Kandy are lacking pace bowling which will be the biggest disappointment for the Antonians too, but yet they believe that they can take the fight to the opposition with the two pace bowlers. So it will be the only advantage for other teams when they play against this strong side.
The Antonians are resolute to put up their best season in the upcoming matches and they are confident that they could reach the expected victories.
Squad :
Sachin Bulathsinghala (Captain),Nimesha Gunsinghe (VC), Viraj Deepal, Buwanaka Wijethunga, Damithra Panditharathne, Dilan Bandara,Kavindu Uudapola, Chrales Parveen, Pubudu Wijewardana, Hema Srikanthan, Diluk Vithrarana, Rusdi Hanan, Harsha Ebert, Pavithra Nanayakkara. Kanishka Uggalapaya, Praboda Bandara, Dihan Fernando, Hasinthaka Gamage, Hasitha Chandrarathne
