Principal, staff and Old Boys a great strength ...
Sri Jayawardenapura M.V., Kotte which is 190 years old was known as Christian College in the early days. The school stands high in education as well as sports activities. A school which had been playing cricket for over 130 years it has produced a lot of cricketers who were well recognised in school and club cricket arena.
Though this Kotte School has been involved in cricket for a long time they had made a little contribution to Sri Lanka cricket. Only on the recent past Hemantha Devapriya donned the national blazer in the early 80s. Hemantha learnt his ‘A’s and ‘B’s in cricket in this prestigious institution and finished his schooling at Nalanda College, Colombo. In the early days this school could boast of a host of cricketers who stole the limelight such as D. J. Narangoda, a most feared cricketer among schools at that time and Parakrama Kulatileke, another high riding cricketer. Both of them were selected to tour Australia with the national schools team in 1963.
D. N. Jayawardena was another cricketer who kept the school flag flying as an all- rounder was crowned the Schoolboy Cricketer of the Month in 1959. Incidentally Jayawardena was the uncle of the legendary Sri Lankan cricketer Mahela Jayawardena. In 1985 Ravi Sanjeewa toured England with the Sri Lanka under 19 team. Last year another cricketer with a lot of promise produced by this school was Navod Illukwatte. He scored over 1500 runs in one season which included a double hundred, eight centuries and eight scores over fifty and was the leading run-getter in the schools Div. IV tournament. Two other past students Heshan De Silva toured England with the Sri Lanka under 19 team and performed well as an all-rounder while Chaturanga De Silva was a member of the national squad who was knocking at the door to gain national recognition.
Sri Jayawardenapura M. V. has not only produced cricketers. B.C. Cooray, an old pupil of the school, was selected to the elite panel of umpiring the officiated at several international encounters. He was a respected umpire.
Nalanda Pushpakumara Weerasinghe, the Head Coach speaking to The Sunday Times paid a high tribute to the Principal and the staff of the school along with the old boys. They have been a tower of strength in providing all facilities enabling him to perform the job comfortably. He revealed that in the past two months, after assuming the task of the coach, the school has shown a lot of promise and is shaping up well. He is sure that the boys will come out with flying colours this season.
Elegant left-hander, a 4th year coloursman Nemesh Kavishanka who leads the side this season had a very successful season scoring over 600 runs including a century and claimed 21 wickets with his medium pacers. This year too a lot of responsibility rests on the lanky cricketer’s shoulders to see that his side does well. Wicket-keeper batsman Dinuka Deminda is Nimesha’s deputy. He too had a rich season last year scoring over 450 runs and claimed 25 victims behind the stumps. This season too he is in good form having scored over 300 runs so far. The skipper is confident that with the services of the five coloursmen and the promising freshers Sri Jayawardenapura M. V. will come out with remarkable performances to end the season on a high note.