Battle of the Maroons to take special prominence this year
Ananda College and Nalanda College, two of the leading Buddhist schools in Sri Lanka, are finalising plans to conduct their annual Battle of the Maroons big match which was launched amidst distinguished guests at the SSC auditorium. The match, which is the 94th in the series, is scheduled to be played on March 2 and 3 at the SSC ground.
The joint committee spearheaded by the co-chairmen Upali Dharmadasa from Ananda, a former SLC chairman, and former Air Force Commander Gagan Bulathsinhala are leaving no stone unturned to make this a successful event. The two schools in the past have had the honour of producing star studded players, to be precise the most number of local and international players.
Prominent names in the likes of Bandula Warnaputa the first Test captain, Arjuna Ranatunga, the 1996 World Cup winning captain, Roshan Mahanama, Asanka Gurusinha, Mavran Atapattu, Kumar Dharmasena, Mahela Jayawardena, Avishka Gunawardena, Sidath Wettimuny, Lalith Kaluperuma, Dinesh Chandimal, Brendon Kuruppu, Anura Ranasinghe, Chamara Dunusinghe, Thilan
Samaraweera, Nishantha Ranatunga, Charith Senanayake and Sanjeewa Ranatunga to name a few.
Most of these players was in attendance with the aim of giving support to their alma mater. The inaugural Test match played saw five players from the two schools, namely Sidath Wettimuny, Arjuna
Ranatunga and Brendon Kuruppu of Ananda and Bandula Warnapura and Lalith Kaluperuma from Nalanda.
Ananda has a history of 137 years of existence, having begun in 1886 while Nalanda was established in 1925. The significance of this year’s encounter is the re-launch of the official Battle of the Maroons logo after a lapse of 15 years. The encounter between the two schools was a friendly affair which was played in 1924 and the inaugural match was officially played in the year 1926.
From the 93 matches that have been played so far Ananda leads the tally with 12 wins while Nalanda has been successful on seven occasions. Iruth Gimshan will lead Ananda while Sajitha Vithanage will spearhead Nalanda.