By Richard Dwight
It will be a keenly contested under-15 division I cricket final, when St. Peter's College confront Maliyadeva, Kurunegala at Ibbagamuwa this weekend (Friday and Saturday) for the Horlicks Challenge trophy.
St. Peter's has had the distinction of entering the final for the past five consecutive years. In their preliminary first and second round matches they got the better of De Mazenod, Sri Sumangala, D. S. Senanayake, Joseph Vaz, and Royal and moved into the finals beating Dharmaraja, Kandy in the semi-finals.
Ruchira Fernando, Shamendra Gunesekere, Jehan Jayasuriya and Indika de Silva performed well right through the season.
St. Peter's had as its coach L. H. Sunil with Hiran Perera as master-in-charge.
Maliyadeva did well in their run up by beating St. Sylvester's Kandy Kingswood, Ananda, Nalanda, Richmond and Dharmapala, to also defeat Isipatana in the semi-final.
Those doing well for Maliyadeva during the season were Dhamith Gunetilleke, Gayan Konara, Dulanga Wanniyanayake and Gayan Gunetilleke the team was coached by T. N. K. Silva with L. S. Silva as master-in-charge.
20 concrete side wickets for Badulla region
Badulla Sports Correspondent
The Board of Control for Cricket in Sri Lanka has launched a massive development program to uplift the standard of outstation cricket.
Under this program the BCCSL has approved the construction of twenty side concrete wickets in the Badulla Region, which comprises of Ampara, Moneragala and Badulla Districts. The Regional Secretary, R. M. Ratnayake, states that by the end of July, eleven side concrete wickets were completed and the balance will be completed by end of August.
Mr. Ratnayake also states that all credit for this development development work should go to the President of the BCCSL, Tilanga Sumathipala, and has also praised the able handling of the work by the Director Development, Malcolm Perera.
The cricket fans in the area are of the opinion that the standard of cricket will certainly improve in the near future once this work is completed and the new turf wicket comes up at the Badulla Esplanade.