In a bid to restore their past glory, St. Anthony’s College, Katugasthota has drafted Sampath Perera the former Trinity College coach who moulded the Asgiriya school into a champion outfit for sevceral years. Perera was appointed as the head coach of the senior Anthonian cricket team for the 2016-17 school season recently.
The former D.S.Senanayake College captain and wicket keeper Sampath Perera with all the requirements seemed to be the most suitable candidate who has proven his capabilities beyond doubt while at Trinity.
For seven years he guided Trinity College and helped them win many tournaments. Under his coaching Trinity had 59 outright wins as against six losses in 137 games over a seven and half year period an achievement that any coach could be proud of.
During the last few months he was with the Future Legends Cricket Academy in Dubai, in the company of Aravinda de Silva and Rameez Raja . Sampath skippered D.S. Senanayake College in the 1993/94 and scored 1,200 runs.
As a school boy he played in the Premier Division for the BRC and later for Bloomfield A & CC in 1994 to 1999 and some of his team mates were Sanath Jayasuriya, Roshan Mahanama, Kumar Dharmasena, Ruwan Kalpage and Naveed Nawaz.
He began his coaching career in 2002 and coached SSC from 2002 to 2005. From there he took over the head coach job of NCC till 2005 to 2008.
He said that the present day coaching methods are all outdated and believed that Kandy schools have an abundence of talent. Perera also has the knack of spotting talented players and moulding them for the future.
St. Anthony’s College was founded in 1854, and is one of the most prestigious Roman Catholic Schools. They have a proud cricketing history, but in the recent past has failed to live up to expectations. They are one of the oldest cricket playing schools in the country.
They started playing cricket from 1899., and only in 1903 the formation of the team done. The first Antonian cricket team was formed in 1903 by late Fr. Dom Andrew VanLangenberg OSB, he captained the Royal College team in 1896.
In the early years, there was a mutual understanding among the Head of the schools in Kandy, not like today, that few members of the staff were permitted to take part in the cricket matches of their respective schools.
The inaugural cricket match of St. Anthony’s College was played with the Colombo Carlton Cricket Club on 13th of April, 1903 at the Barracks Square in Kandy now Police Grounds.
This was won by the Antonians by an innings and 129 runs. The first school game for St Anthony’s was against Dharmaraja College, which the Antonians won by 109 runs in 1904.
Jack Anderson was a great batsman with the world famous Muttiah Muralitharan both past Anthonians. The first Test wicket keeper Mahes Gunatilake, Piyal Wijetunge, Ruwan Kalpage, Marlon Vonhagt, A.C.M. Lafir, Ronni Stephens, T.M.A Cooray , Brian Rambukpotha, Jayampathi Weragama, K.Thirunawakarasu, Charlie Joseph,Ranjith Samarasekara, Upali Seneviratne, S.W Seneviratne, Adrian Berenger, Wijayapala Premaratne Ranjith Doranegama, Heenbanda, Jayantha Udukumbura, , Pat Taylor, Sunil Fernando, Premalal De Silva, Russell De La Motte, Sajith Fernado are some of the stalwarts which invariably comes into mind.