The very reserved and understated Shameera Weerasinghe has a distinguished record to his name. He is only the second person in the history of school cricket to have completed the 1000 runs/100 wickets, achieving a season double whist representing St. Joseph’s College in the 2008/09 season.
Among his many achievements, there were two that stand out – being a member of the band of young men who won the Rev Father Maurice Legoc Trophy playing against the Peterites and captaining the Joes at the 75th Battle of the Saints.
Shameera, working as a cricket journalist is ThePapare’s very own. Being a quiet one, it was a herculean task dragging all this information out of him.
When the 74th Battle of the Saints came around in 2008, the encounter had gone without an outright result for nearly 30 years, with the Joes’ last win coming 36 years before.
St. Joseph’s came into the game as favourites to take away the Rector’s trophy as their line-up included some players who have gone on to become household names in Sri Lanka. Although the Joes did not go into the game with many outright wins under their belts, four of their seniors in Thisara Perera, Dimuth Karunaratne, Roshane Silva and Shameera himself, had already made their debuts in national colours for the Sri Lanka Under 19 team and so the confidence was high in the Darley Road dressing room.
Another one of their greatest strengths, according to Shameera, was that although there were super star players in their line-up, the others did not take a back seat but contributed to their success on a regular basis.
The Peterites were not without a set of big names themselves, with Andri Berenger, Akshu Fernando, Chathura Pieris, Angelo Perera and Anuk De Silva among the coloursmen in the playing XI.
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The Joes got the game off to the best possible start, bowling out the Peterites for just 137 in the 1st innings. Thisara Perera was the hero for the Joes as he continued his golden form in the ‘Big Match’ encounters to pick up 5 wickets. “The best part was, everything we did worked for us. We won the toss and put them into bat and we knocked them over for 137 runs and Thisara Perera took 5 wickets. The others contributed with everything, with a run-out or a good catch.”
The Josephians were in a bit of trouble early in their innings at 100-odd for 5 but Roshane Silva and Shameera, coming in at number 7, stroked half centuries to carry them through to 255 at the end of the 1st day. As many sports fans would know, fate certainly does play a part and Shameera echoed this thought saying, “Luckily we got all out on day 1. That meant that the Peterites had to come out to bat on the 2nd morning of the game and face the new ball. We were confident that we had the bowling to get them out for a low score”
With a lead of 118 in their hands, Joes certainly had their eyes on the prize as they turned up at the P Sara Oval for Day 2. They had even already been asked by Rev. Fr. Sylvester Ranasinghe as to what they would like as a reward for claiming a rare outright win at the big match but no one would have expected the ease in which they finished off the Peterites on day 2.
The game was over even before lunch on day 2 with the Petes capitulating to 76 all out inside the 1st session. “Everything went our way that morning. Everyone who bowled was able to get a wicket, run-outs, catches, it all turned in our favour that day. I took two wickets, then Chathuranga Kumara, who was making his big match debut, took 4 wickets. It was a great feeling, it was a feeling like the Joes had the Petes for lunch. So that was a great experience, a historical day.”
“That was the best big match memory ever. Because in the previous years, we had chances to win but there was always some kind of exceptional performance from their end to get them out of trouble, even though we had the upper hand”.
Fast forward to a year later and this time around it was the Peterites who came in with the favourites tag. Shameera Weerasinghe was the opposing skipper.
“I’ll admit we were a little nervous coming into that game because we knew they would come out wanting revenge for the previous year.”
With 10 outright wins that season, St. Peter’s led by Angelo Perera were well equipped to avenge their loss at the 74th encounter.
“At the team dinner and even during the warm-ups, the atmosphere was very tense. It was like both teams were out to get the other.”
An outright win in a 2 day encounter was rare and Shameera and his team knew that if they were able to put up some kind of fight, they would be able to save themselves from losing to the in-form Peterite lineup. This time around the hero came in the form of Vice-captain Hareen Silva, who stroked a masterful century to ensure that the trophy remained at Darley Road for another year.
At the end of his prolific school career, Shameera moved to the club arena and has subsequently gone on to play in English and Australian leagues but he counts those two games among his fondest memories.
Many of those who featured in those teams of 2008 and 2009 both Josephians and Peterites have gone on to represent Sri Lanka but there is no doubt that the memories of The Battle of the Saints will stay with them forever.
