The traditional Ananda-Dharmaraja schools cricket match for the P.W. Perera Trophy will be played at Lake View today and tomorrow.
The two leading Buddhist schools established by the Buddhist Theosophical Society in 1886 and 1887 respectively have been playing cricket with each other since 1893.
The P.W. Perera trophy was introduced in 1999 by the cricket wing of Ananda Old Boys led by the former captain of Ananda Charith Senanayake, in appreciation of the great services rendered to both Dharmaraja and Ananda to upgrade their cricket to high standards, officiating as the cricket coach of both schools at different times.
P.W. Perera, the former Ananda College cricket captain was appointed to the staff of Dharmaraja in 1941 by L.H. Mettananda, the Principal, mainly to coach the cricketers. He coached from 1941 to 1943 with tremendous success at Dharmaraja.
P.W Perera left Dharmaraja accepting an appointment in the Prisons Department. He retired from Public Service as the Superintendent of Prisons. From 1960 onwards he guided Ananda his alma mater to blossom to great heights producing many Sri Lanka cricketers. He died in 2006 on the eve of the Ananda-Dharmaraja match at the Peradeniya Campus grounds.
The first year the Trophy was awarded (1999), it was won by Ananda with an outright victory under the captaincy of Jithendra Perera. The trophy is retained by Ananda since then as it is awarded only for an outright victory.
Last year the match was drawn at Ananda Mawatha.
0 comments:
Post a Comment