A school which has reached great heights in the field of cricket is St. Sylvester’s College, Kandy. The school is celebrating its 75th year this year and during this period it has had a proud cricketing history.
History
Over the years the school has produced some fine cricketers who have gone on to represent top clubs, the district, and the country with distinction.
In 1955 St. Sylvester’s College made a modest beginning by playing a few inter school matches. Their first inter school match was against Vidyartha College, which is today their big match. Toady St. Sylvester’s college equally has played outstanding cricket and hold the position of Division 01 along with Trinity and Dharmaraja College for more than 10 years with many victories and has proved them as one of the best cricket unit in central province.
2014-15 team
The St. Sylvester’s Cricket team is a difficult unit to beat, not least for their fighting qualities. It’s not one man effort for this team. This year has they have shown great team spirit and has uplifted great standard of cricket beating many teams with outright wins and unfortunately some wins were restricted due to rain .They have raised up to the 13th position in the points table with 4 outright wins and five 1st innings victories .They also lost 3 matches due to poor batting of top order batsmen. Comparatively 2014 /15 season is a huge success as they beat some good cricket teams such as St.Sebestian College at their grounds at Moratuwa.
Tall and elegant Hansamal perera –captain
Much talked about school cricketer in Kandy is Hansamal Perera, the tall, upright, stylish batsman from St. Sylvester’s College. He enjoyed his most successful season in 2013/14 when he accumulated nearly 800 runs, which included two big hundreds and five fifties. This was an improvement over last year when he scored around 700 runs. As the captain this year he managed to reach 500 runs but not as an opener .he had to take more responsibility and bat at NO: 4 Position. He is the most experienced cricketer in the team playing his 5th year and leading the team.
Captaincy has come naturally to him and it has in no way affected his batting. Having led the Under-13, 15 and 17 teams at school, Hansamal had the honor of captaining the Central Province team to win the Under-15 Prima Cup.
Hansamal hopes to bring a great victory at the big match against vidyartha to end his the season with a great success.
Mendis and Tiron –left arm spin combination
Nimesh Mendis playing his 5th year and as the vice-captain plays major role in the team .His bowling has been a key highlight and a great threat too many teams. He has taken more than 50 wickets shared with his youngster Siva Kumar Tiron who also took more than 50 wickets with the best figures of 12/54, which is one of the best bowling figures of 2014/15 season. Tiron also represented srilanka under 15 and under 17 team’s .he is a key figure of sylvestrian cricket team in the future .These both can make a huge impact against vidyartha this year at the big match.
Key players
Harsha Madushan and Indunil samaranda are another two key players who are great all-rounders of the team .Harsha scored a match winning century against st.sebestian this season which was one of his best innings and indunil is the opener who has given good starts to his team.
Malith premathilaka is the 3rd year players who does his duty behind the stumps as the wicket keeper and he also scored 4 half centuries showing his great skill of batting. Parakrama Tennakoon is also a key batsmen with 2 centuries in the season.
Coaching Contingent
Former Sylvestrian cricketer and Kandy Youth Captain Roland Perera continues as coach the 4th consecutive year and he is assisted by another old sylvestrian Jaliya Weersinghe.
Being one of the cricket playing schools that does not enjoy the luxury some schools enjoy, St. Sylvester’s College are determined to display great cricket in the future , they are hoping to play the big match against vidyartha on 13th and 14th of March and we wish them a great historical win.
