by S. M. Jiffrey Abdeen, Kandy south group correspondent
Nine cricket coaches from the island have passed the Level 4 Cricket Coaches Diploma with distinction at the examination conducted by Les Lenham from England on behalf of the Board of Control for Cricket in Sri Lanka.
Among the nine candidates who had passed the Diploma with distinction are present Sri Lanka cricket captain Arjuna Ranatunga, former captain Bandula Warnapura, Roy Dias and Brendon Kuruppu. Director of coaching of the Board of Control for Sri Lanka Mr. Malcolm Perera assisted Les Lenham as the Co-ordinator.
Others who passed the Level 4 Diploma with distinction are Rumesh Ratnayake, Jayantha Senaviratne, Carlton Bernadus, Malcolm Perera and Sunil Fernando. Malcolm Perera holds the record of having passed with distinction from Level 1 to Level 4. Other candidates who obtained a pass at the Level 4 Diploma are former Sri Lanka captain Anura Tennakoon, Lalith Jayasundera and Nelson Mendis.
The following cricket coaches were successful with distinction passes at the level 3 of the Cricket Coach's Senior Diploma: R. Dheerasuriya, L. H. Sunil, Richard Lewis and Senerth Alwis. Messrs Sunil Fernando and Brendon Kuruppu assisted Les Lenham in conducting this diploma.
The cricket coaches who obtained this Diploma were tested in batting, bowling, fielding, batting skills, group coaching, net coaching, speech, lecture, skilled analysis, error detection and rectification etc.
Mini big match drawn
The Thurstan-Isipatana mini-big match played at the Thurstan College grounds last week for the fifth consecutive year ended in a draw.
Isipatana 200 for 8 wkts. decl. (N. Sampath 65, N. Atapattu 41, M. Priyankara 20, S. de Silva 3 for 49, C. Aravinda 2 for 20) and 162 for 4 dec. (P. Niroshan 92, M. Abayaratne 28 n.o., M. Kakulahandi 2 for 48).
Thurstan 229 for 9 wkts. dec,. (D. Wickramaratne 93, M. Nifaz Deen 68, C. Aravinda 15, N. Atapattu 4 for 54, M. Priyankara 2 for 47, M. Hareesh 2 for 34) and 48 for 1 at close (K. Silva 21 n.o., I. Jayaratne 19).
Drawn match at Moratuwa
by Dilwin Mendis, our Moratuwa sports corr.
The inter-school cricket match between Joseph Vaz College, Wennappua and Moratu Vidyalaya ended in a draw at Prince of Wales grounds, Moratuwa yesterday.
The highlights of the match were a fine knock of 112 by T. Suwasath and a match-bag of 9 wickets for 75 runs by K. Ranjan.
Chief scores:
Joseph Vaz 230 (T. Suwasath 112, B. Perera 27, M. Deshapriya 3 for 39, A. B. Peiris 2 for 16, S. K. Dissanayake 2 for 16) and 152 (P. Anton 43, K. Ranjan 31, T. Suwasath 23, Prasanna Fernando 5 for 20, A. P. Peiris 2 for 16).
Moratu Vidyalaya 177 (Asitha Perera 44 n.o., O. Warnapura 36, C. L. Fernando 28, K. Ranjan 6 for 40, T. Suwasath 2 for 17) and 139 for 6 (M. Deshapriya 43, A. P. Perera 41, K. Ranjan 3 for 35).
Easy for Ragama
Reigning Division III champions Ragama CC made their division II debut in fine style by beating Badureliya CC 'B' on the first innings at Wattala on Sunday.
Chief scores:
Baduraeliya CC 238 all out (S. Pathirana 35, C. K. Yapa 35, C. Jayanetti 46, Lucien Wijesinghe 4 for 60, Namal Sudharshana 2 for 40, Sampath Thembuwanage 2 for 24) and 33 for 5 (Namal Sudharshana 2 for 10, Chintana Jayawardena 3 for 7).
Ragama 388 all out (Chaminda Hettiarachchi 74, Dilruksha Jayasuriya 51, Emil Dias 58, Chamika Manchanayake 63, Dhammika Chandraratne 43, Lucien Wijesinghe 23 n.o., S. Pathirana 4 for 88, J. Weerasinghe 3 for 99).