By Dhammika Ratnaweera
The’ Battle of the Blues’ between Royal College Colombo and S. Thomas College Mt Lavinia will be held for the 141st year on 12th, 13th and 14th March at the SSC grounds Colombo. The two teams will battle for the Rt. Hon D.S.Senanayake Memorial Shield once again. It is also distinguished for holding the honour of being the second-longest uninterrupted cricket series played in the world, second only to the annual encounter played between St. Peter’s College, Adelaide and Prince Alfred College, Adelaide, Australia, which began just a year earlier.
B. A. Abeyrathne, Principal Royal College and Acting Warden of S. Thomas’ College, Asanka Perera, Group Chief Marketing Officer, Dialog Axiata PLC, Mrs Amali Nanayakkara were present at the press briefing held last week to announce the sponsorship. Dialog Axiata PLC the main sponsor for this big match since 2015 has come forward to give their big hands for e fifth consecutive year.
As a promoter of schools’ sports, Dialog will continue its pledge to ‘Play for a Cause’ by contributing 1,000 rupees for every run scored and 10,000 rupees for every wicket that falls at the match. Last year’s exciting encounter contributed 1,166,000 rupees to ‘Play for a Cause’.The proceedings were directed in consultation with the Principal of Royal College and the Warden of S. Thomas’ College, to support the development of cricket to a school in need of cricketing resources. Since the inception of ‘Play for a Cause’, 5,143,000 rupees worth of cricket gear has been donated to ten deserving schools.
The winning shield returned to S. Thomas College with recording memorable win after 12 years under the leadership of Sithara Hapuhinna. Both teams so far won this big match 35 times each and two teams are expected to take the lead this time.
This school season fast-bowling all-rounder Thevin Eriyagama will lead the S. Thomas College College while the boys from Reid Avenue, who are hoping to win back the shield, will be captained by hard-hitting middle-order batsman Thevindu Senarathne
CAPTION
From left: Royal College Captain Thevindu Senaratne, Royal-Thomian Match Committee Co-Chairman Prasanna Fernando, Royal College Principal B.A. Abeyratne, Dialog Axiata Group Chief Marketing Officer Amali Nanayakkara, S. Thomas’ College Acting Warden Asanga Perera, Dialog Axiata Enterprise Business and Large Enterprise Sales Vice President Navin Pieris, Royal-Thomian Match Committee Co-Chairman Mahesh Nanayakkara and S. Thomas’ College Captain Thevin Eriyagama
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