ANANDA-NALANDA BIG MATCH POWERED BY DIALOG AXIATA
The 91st Battle of the Maroons Annual Inter-school Big Match between traditional rivals Ananda College and Nalanda College played for the Dr N. M. Perera Memorial Challenge Trophy and sponsored by Dialog Axiata PLC for the third successive year will be held on March 7 and 8 at the SSC Grounds in Maitland Place.
Meanwhile, the One-day encounter between the two schools, played for the Kularatne Trophy, will be worked off at the same venue on March 15.
This year, the Anandians will be led by elegant batsman Kanishka Ranthilakage while the Nalandians will be led by wicket-keeper batsman, Avishka Perera.
These details were revealed during a media conference held at the Nalanda College, Malalasekera Hall in Colombo yesterday.
The two schools have the distinction of having produced several players to the National Team.
In fact, Sri Lanka’s first Test Cricket Captain - Bandula Warnapura donned the cricket cap for Nalanda in 1968 while Arjuna Ranatunga, who led the Sri Lankan World Cup winning Team in 1996, hails from Ananda.
Ananda and Nalanda have also produced over 55 National cricketers who have represented Sri Lanka in international cricket.
Roshan Mahanama, Marvan Atapattu, Mahela Jayawardene and Dinesh Chandimal also have the honour and distinction of leading the Sri Lankan Team.
In addition, the first half century, the first century and also the first double century for Sri Lanka in Test Cricket were scored by three Anandians - Arjuna Ranatunga (1982), Sidath Wettimuni (1982) and Brendon Kuruppu (1986) respectively.
Kuruppu incidentally, is the only wicket-keeper in the history of Test cricket to score a double hundred on debut.
Other notable Anandians and Nalandians to represent Sri Lanka at the highest level include Ajith de Silva, Chandika Hathurusingha, Avishka Gunawardane, Thilan Samaraweera, Thilan Wijesinghe, Lalith Kaluperuma, Anura Ranasinghe, Yohan Gunasekera, Kumar Dharmasena and Asanka Gurusinha.
Meanwhile, Mahela Jayawardene the former Sri Lanka Skipper - hailing from Nalanda holds the unique honour of becoming the first Sri Lankan to complete 10,000 runs in Tests and One Day International Cricket.