Santhush Nikila Stephan Gunatilaka who Captained St. Peters’39 College, Colombo - 4 in the last first eleven cricket season will be in action for his alma-mater next year too. His presence in the Peterite team will be an asset not only to the captain but to the whole team in general. Santhush who had a very fine season last year joined St. Peter’s College in 2005 when Rev. Fr. Felician Perera was at the helm of the school. Since then he came under Rev. Fr. Trevis Gabrial and presently Rev. Fr. Trevor Martyn.
He commenced his cricket career at the age of seven under former Sebastianite Sarath Perera at the Mercantile Cricket Association cricket school. At the age of nine in 2010 he attended Practices at College under. L.H. Sunil and his Master in Charge was Vasantha Hettirachchi, He is a right hand bat and bowled right arm leg spin at the beginning and later became a right arm opening bowler. Firstly he was selected to the under 13 division three team as an all rounder. In 2011 and 2012 he played for the under 13 division one team.
Playing in the under 15 team in 2013 Peterites emerged as all island champions by beating Richmond College and he claimed 23 wickets. In the following year he captained the team and passed the 200 mark and captured 28 scalps. Same year he played for the Colombo South District Team and he was the Vice Captain and played for the Provincial team under Sajith Sameera of Dehiwala Central.
He got the opportunity of representing in the under 15 Sri Lanka schools team which toured Malaysia and played for the second eleven team and in the Mini Battle.
In 2015 playing under Manelka de Silva he passed the 350 mark and in the next year he captained the under 17 team and as an opening bowler he bagged 28 wickets and scored 497 runs but lost at the semi finals. He was adjudged as the under 17 Schoolboy Cricketer and Best All rounder at the Singer Awards Ceremony in 2015.
His first year in first eleven team was in 2015/2016 under Vinu Mohotii and the coach was Malinda Warnapura. In the following season he scored 1100 runs which consisted of two centuries and ten half centuries. He claimed 40 wickets and took 33 catches and earned the All Island Best Fielder runner Up award at the Dialog awards. His first big match was in the year 2017. In the next season he captained the College team and scored 706 runs in ten matches.
He missed six school matches as he was selected for the under 19 World Cup held in New Zealand. He played for the Western Province Central team and was the Vice Captain and got two fifties.
Also he captained the under 19 Western Province team this year which became champions by defeating Western Province North team and played in the Big Match and scored 39 runs and collected 49 runs at the limited over game.
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