Dialog powers 93rd Battle of the Maroons

From left: Ananda College Captain Nethma Samaraweera, “Battle of the Maroons” Ananda College Joint Committee Chairman Bimal Wijayasinghe, Ananda College Principal Lal Dissanayake, Dialog Axiata Group Program Management and Tele-Infrastructure Chief Officer Upali Gajanaike, Risk and Compliance Group Chief Officer Asanga Priyadarshana, Nalanda College Principal Thilak Waththuhewa, “Battle of the Maroons” Nalanda College Joint Committee Chairman Varuna Ratnaweera and Nalanda College Captain Chanul Athukorala

The 93rd edition of the annual cricket match between Sri Lanka’s premier Buddhist schools, Ananda College and Nalanda College, called “The Battle of the Maroons”, will take place on 4 and 5 March 2023 at Sinhalese Sports Club Colombo.

After a hiatus of two years, due to COVID restrictions and other factors that disrupted school cricket encounters, the Battle of Maroons will be played with no crowd restrictions for the first time since 2020 and will be organised in its full glory at the traditional venue with the participation of present and old boys of both schools.

After a wait of 69 years, Nalanda College Colombo beat their brother school in last year’s encounter and Anandians will be prowling this year to bring back the Dr. N.M. Perera trophy to their fold from the Nalanda principal’s silverware cabinet.

The limited overs match between the two schools for the late P.de S. Kularatne trophy will be contested at the same venue on Sunday 12 March 2023 for the 46th time in the Battle of the Maroons history. Ananda College led this series with 26 wins while Nalanda College has 15 wins to their credit.

The 93rd Battle of the Maroons cricket encounter will be broadcast LIVE on Dialog Television channel number 140, and will also be available via LIVE stream on ThePapare.com and the Dialog ViU app.

In this year’s Battle of the Maroons, the Anandians will be led by Right Arm Fast bowler Nethma Samaraweera, who is a third-year player while the boys from Nalanda will be skippered by right-handed batsman Chanul Atukorala who is a fourth year coloursman.

Ananda College and Nalanda College, the two premier Buddhist schools in Sri Lanka, have so far produced the highest number (more than 55) of national cricketers to have represented Sri Lanka in international cricket – including six of them – the late Bandula Warnapura, Arjuna Ranatunga, Roshan Mahanama, Marvan Atapattu, Mahela Jayawardena and Dinesh Chandimal – who have had the honour of leading the country.

The first test cricket captain of the country, the late Bandula Warnapura, was a proud product of Nalanda College, while Arjuna Ranatunga, who led the Sri Lankans in the famous World Cup victory in 1996, hails from Ananda.

At present Ananda leads the Big Match series with 12 wins, while Nalanda has seven matches under its belt while 73 matches have ended in a draw.