Sri Lanka’s blue-ribbon schools’ cricket encounter, the ‘Battle of the Blues’, between Royal College and S. Thomas’ College will take center stage for the 139th consecutive year when the teams battle it out for the Rt. Hon. D.S. Senanayake Memorial Shield on the 8th, 9th and 10th of March at the SSC grounds.
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The ‘Royal-Thomian’ has a rich and colourful history spanning 139 years and is also the second longest uninterrupted cricket series played in the world, second only to the annual encounter played between St. Peter’s College Adelaide and Prince Alfred College, Adelaide that began just a year earlier.
The official press conference to announce the 139th edition of the encounter was held on Tuesday (20th February) at the BMICH in the presence of the two heads of schools, B.A Abeyrathne, Principal Royal College, Warden of S. Thomas’ College, Rev. Marc Billimoria, Group Chief Marketing Officer Dialog Axiata PLC Mrs Amali Nanayakkara and other sponsors, players, prefects, teachers and members of the media.
The overall tally between the two schools at present stands at 35 wins for Royal and 34 wins for S. Thomas’; the highly debated match in 1885 where Royal College was all out for 09 runs, with no play on the second day, is considered a win by S. Thomas’ and a draw by Royal.
Photo Album – Royal College vs S. Thomas’ College | 139th Battle of the Blues – Press Conference
The playing fields of the ‘Royal–Thomian’ have the distinction of producing cricketers who later became eminent heads of state, with S. Thomas’ producing the father of the nation, Rt. Hon. D. S. Senanayake MP and his son, Hon. Dudley Senanayake MP as Prime Ministers of Ceylon, while Royal produced Hon. General Sir John Kotelawala MP as Prime Minister and the first Executive President of Sri Lanka, H.E. J. R. Jayawardene.
The shield at present sits as the crown jewel in the Principal’s trophy cabinet at Royal College. The Thomian outfit, led by left-arm spinning all-rounder Dellon Peiris, will look to wrest the trophy away from the lads from Reid Avenue, who will be captained by top-order batsman Pasindu Sooriyabandara.
In 2015, Dialog Axiata PLC rekindled a long and successful partnership as the official sponsors of the ‘Battle of the Blues’, extending its commitment to the oldest and grandest schools’ big match in the country.
Dialog Axiata has come forward again to donate 1000 rupees for every run and 10,000 for every wicket. Last year, Rs. 1,036,000 was contributed to the ‘Play for a Cause’ pledge.
“Over the past 138 years, our schools have shared an extraordinary camaraderie built on the friendliest rivalries that is prevalent. This is one event, all Royalists and Thomians would not want to miss.” Ashan De Silva, Co-Chairman, Royal-Thomian Match Organizing Committee said.
The Mustangs tent, which celebrates its centenary year, has minted the match-coin to commemorate its long history and tradition.
Once again, the TV umpire technology will also be in place in order to assist the on-field umpires on all line-calls (Stumpings, Run-Outs) throughout the course of the match.
Both the 139th Battle of the Blues encounter and 43rd one-day encounter will be telecast live on Dialog TV Channel No.1, live-streamed on www.ThePapare.com and on the Mobile TV streaming platform My TV.
