Royal College, Colombo commenced their campaign to regain the Division I spot of the Inter School Under-19 cricket tournament, which they lost under controversial circumstances two years back, on a positive note when they took day one honours against St. Anne’s College, Kurunegala in the Division II encounter at Reid Avenue on Sunday.
Captained by spinner Harith Samarasinghe, who led the bowling department with a five wicket haul, Royal restricted St. Anne’s to 76 runs to take a first innings lead of 92 runs. Royal were three runs for no loss at stumps in the second innings with a lead of 95 runs.
Unlike many other Division II teams who have to play against at least seven other Division II teams to earn promotion, Royal will have to play only against two Division II teams, namely St. Anne’s and St. Anthony’s, Katugastota (newly relegated team) according to Sri Lanka Schools Cricket Association stats. Royal’s matches against their traditional rivals playing in Division I will be considered as inter Division matches with the Division II team (Royal) at an advantagous position to earn more points than other teams in Division II (since they are playing mostly against Division II teams).
Although the officials of the SLSCA put the blame of the anomaly on the complicated nature of the tournament structure for the advantageous position Royal are in, some consider it as a result of a closed door agreement between the SLSCA and Royal to compensate for the controversial demotion handed to Royal couple of years ago.
Royal were demoted to Division II of the Under-19 tournament for not honouring the SLSCA introduced new tournament format and pulling out of the tournament without notifying the authorities couple of years ago. Although Royal officials then argued that they had informed in writing about their unavailability for that year’s tournament their claims were not entertained by the SLSCA. An alleged rift between former SLSCA secretary MTA Rauf (who was the Games Master at Royal then) and the incumbent secretary Dilshan de Silva too went against Royal. Though Royal were willing to join the tournament last season their officials were not willing to accept the conditions laid out by SLSCA.
When contacted for his comments, Dilshan de Silva said that any team in Division II could play against Division I teams and earn more points like Royal do. He said St. Anthony’s College too were in the same position.
However, many Division I teams who have commitments to play against traditional rivals, are not willing to offer matches to Division II teams as it would increase the number of matches per season.
Scores:
Royal 168 all out in 53.4 overs (Naveen Vidanapathirana 30, Tiran Danapala 24, Harith Samarasinghe 20, Lasith Embuldeniya 19n.o; Wanitha Wanninayake 4/22, Buddhika Bandara 2/19) and 3 for no loss in 2 overs
St. Anne’s 76 all out in 34.4 overs (Wanitha Wanninayake 17; Harith Samarasinghe 5/15, Lasith Embuldeniya 3/24, Chandula Welivita 2/11)
