Royal Thomian inaugural Mustangs Trophy Teams to meet again

Encapsulating a bygone era of cricket, the 1975 teams of Royal and S. Thomas’ will play a repeat of the inaugural Mustangs Trophy encounter. The match will be played in memory of former Thomian cricketer, Late Lalith Ratnayaka, who played during the years 1975 to 1977. Lalith was the vice captain in 1977 and incidentally shares a 33- year old unbroken record for the highest 9th wicket partnership at the Mustangs Trophy encounter.   

Although the Royal team, captained by Prasanna Kariyawasam is confident of repeating the result of 1975 which they won on a faster run rate after rain interrupted play, the Thomians led by the burly Mohan de Silva are determined to reverse the result. The Thomians remain convinced that, if the weather had stayed clear, they would have won that match as they were cruising towards a win, with many wickets in hand.

Of the original teams, two prominent cricketers who also represented the National side, Saliya Ahangama and Ranjan Madugalle (Chief Match Referee – ICC) will be unavailable. However, Royalists Prasanna Kariyawasam and Lasantha Subasinghe and Mahesa (Tarzan) Abeynayake of S.Thomas’ have flown in from overseas to take part in this memorable occasion.   

The match will be played on Sunday 20th March at the Royal College grounds at Reid Avenue starting at 11 am.

The two teams will be made up from the following:

Royal – Prasanna Kariyawasam, T.M.S. Saldin, Ashok Jayawickreme, Dai Pathmanathan, Kevin Balthazar, Lionel Gunasekera, Eran Wickremeratne, Lasantha Subasinghe, Ravi Canagasabai, Palitha Amarasinghe, S.S.G Lawton, Janaka Edirisinghe and Capt. Ajith Peiris.

S. Thomas’ – Mohan de Silva, Sasi Ganeshan, Sabu Weerasuriya, Dayal de Silva, Dayalan Supramaniam, Lakmaal de Zoysa, Mahesa (Tarzan) Abeynayake, Pelham Juriansz, Suraj Dandeniya, Arittha Wikramanayake, Githanjal Rajapakse, Eric Wikramanayake, Dr. Manjula Karunaratne, Sunil Peiris and Kapila Waidyaratne.