The traditional cricket match between Ananda College,Colombo and Dharmaraja College,Kandy for the P.W.Perera Memorial Trophy will be played on the 3rd & 4th of May,2021 at Ananda Mawatha, Colombo.
Saviru Bandara leads Ananda College while Dharmaraja College is led by Upendra Warnakulasuriya.
Ananda and Dharmaraja , two leading Buddhist Schools established by the Buddhist Theosophical Society in 1886 and 1887 respectively have been playing cricket with each other since 1893 when Dharmaraja team was led by their Principal at that time, Sir D.B. Jayatilleke, the national hero.
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 PW Perera’s great service to uplift cricket in both Dharmaraja and Ananda as the cricket coach of both schools at different times.
PW Perera, the former Ananda College Cricket Captain was appointed to the Staff of Dharmaraja in 1941 by L.H.Mettananda the Principal of the school. mainly to coach the cricketers.
He coached from 1941 to 1943 at Dharmaraja and the teams produced by PW Perera were undefeated Cricket Teams. Under his guidance five players of the School scored centuries and they were T.B.Talwatte,P.L.Arthur Alwis, Rajah Mettananda, S.G.Munasinghe, and M.R. Gunawardena. The 1942/43 cricket team was considered unofficial Champions having won all the matches played by Dharmaraja during that season.
P.W.Perera left Dharmaraja accepting an appointment in the Prisons Department and he retired from the Public Service as the Superintendent of Prisons.
From 1960 he guided Ananda, his Alma mater producing many Sri Lankan cricketers and he passed away in 2006 on the eve of the Ananda/Dharmaraja cricket match at the Peradeniya Campus Grounds and the players observed two minutes silence at the commencement of the game and continued playing the match wearing black arm bands as a mark of respect.
The first year the Trophy was won by Ananda in the year 1999 with an outright victory under the captaincy of Jithendra Perera and Dharmaraja was led by Asanga Marapana.
The Trophy was retained by Ananda and since then it was awarded only for an outright victory.
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