FT
Wednesday Nov 06, 2024
Friday, 1 April 2016 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
Trinity College, Kandy better known for its rugby football, stamped their class in cricket as well this year. Led by Lion Raveen Sayer they won 10 matches in their school encounters. The wins were against Royal, Ananda, D.S. Senanayake, Dharmaraja, St. Aloysius, Wattala Antonians, De Mezenod, St. Servatius, Bandaranayaka MV and Dharmapala Pannipitiya.
Three of their batsmen reached the magical 1000 run mark this season. The stars in their batting line-up were Dilan Jayalath, Nushan Weerasinghe and one drop bat Shanogeeth Shanmuganathan all reaching the magical figure. They were well supported by two outstanding spin bowlers in their rank. They were none other than skipper Raveen Sayer and Duvindu Thilakarante (son of former national cricketer Hashan Thilakaratne). Raveen Sayer and Duvindu Thilakaratne both passed 100 wicket mark this season at their big match against Katugastota Antonians two weeks ago, while Shanogeeth too scored his 1,000 runs in the same match.
Trinity cricket revamp took place in 2007 when the Trinity Cricket Foundation was set up to look after the good will of cricket at Trinity. Former Sri Lankan star, Kumara Sangakkara along with Tikiri Ellepola, Channa Fernando and Shamzeer Jaleel were the founder members of the foundation. They brought in former D.S. Senanayake and Bloomfield cricketer, Sampath Perera to coach Trinity. Sampath from that moment onwards took Trinity cricket to a different level.
After Sampath leaving earlier this year to Dubai all tasks were handed over to former Trinity cricketer Kavinda Jayasuriya for the coaching job. Kavinda too did remarkably well taking through a tough season. Trinity almost pulled the big match off against Katugastota Atnonians and then a few days later demolished them within two hours in the one day encounter. In the league encounter they came up to the semi-final stage before having an off day against the Peterites and losing out. But they are on the hunt in Singe Cup one day tournament.
At present Trinity cricket is sponsored by one of their old boys and former 1988/89 cricketer, Bilal Fassy who is the Chairman of Ratemax. He is well supported by some former cricketers such as Nilanatha Ratnayake, Dyan Dunuwile and Amil Ramanathan along with the Principal, Andrew Fowler-Watt and Prefect of Games Shane Seneviratne. As a result Trinity cricket is assured to fly high in the coming years as well. A few old boys and supporters of Trinity sports compare this side with the 1987 Trinity rugby outfit led by Tyrelle Rajapakse.